Two US lawmakers have introduced resolutions into both houses of Congress preventing the sale of weapons to Bahrain, "until meaningful steps are taken to improve human rights".
US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and US Representative James McGovern of Massachusetts, both Democrats, both urged the US to halt any sale of weapons to Bahrain, stating that it was “antiethical”.
On a statement posted on his website, Wyden said,
"Selling weapons to a regime that is violently suppressing peaceful civil dissent and violating human rights is antithetical to our foreign policy goals and the principle of basic rights for all that the US has worked hard to promote."
"The US should not reward a regime that actively suppresses its people. This resolution will withhold the sale of arms to Bahrain until the ruling family shows a real commitment to human rights."
This follows from the Pentagon’s notification to Congress on September 14th that it had approved the potential sale of $53m worth of weapons to Bahrain, which included more than 44 armoured Humvees and 300 missiles, 50 of which have bunker busting capability. Congress has had a 30-day period since the notification to pass a resolution objecting to the sale.
McGovern stated that,
"Human rights ought to matter in our foreign and military policy. Now is not the time to sell weapons to Bahrain."
The resolution itself affirmed that the sale to Bahrain is “at odds with United States foreign policy goals of promoting democracy, human rights, accountability, and stability.”
Bahrain has been a long-time ally of the US which has its Fifth Fleet based there. In 2010, around $200m worth of weapons were sold to the state, which has been brutally cracking down on anti-government protests.
The resolution comes as human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Human Rights First and Freedom House all condemned the regimes suppression of protests and slammed the Bahraini courts continuing prosecution of protestors.
See our earlier post: ‘Retrial for Bahraini doctors as they speak out against torture’ (Oct 2011)
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