'Children exploited in illegal rallies'

Manama: Bahraini families have highlighted their concern that their children can be exploited in illegal and violent rallies and sit-ins, a human rights activist said.

The president of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, Faisal Fulad, told Gulf News yesterday the society's Youth Centre had been receiving calls from families complaining that their children were being "brainwashed" by illegal rally organisers.

"The Public Prosecution has been releasing with charges protesters who were caught in illegal and violent rallies only because they are minors and could not be incriminated by Bahraini laws," Fulad said.

He said that those motivating children to participate in illegal activities and jeopardise their future should get severe punishment.

"We started a study two years ago and at the beginning we noticed a decline in the number of rallies but recently such activities increased but without the participation of leading political figures," Fulad said. "Most of the current rallies weren't approved by the concerned bodies and held at night by masked children who are under 18."

Fulad blamed the dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and the unregistered Haq Movement and Bahrain Youth Society for associating children in dangerous rallies.

"The children are misguided by the three organisations that envy Al Wefaq Shia opposition society for winning majority seats in the parliament and Municipal Councils in the last election to become the most powerful political group in Bahrain."

Denial

To stop the exploitation of children, the society has referred a letter about the findings of the study and parents' complaints to the UN Human Rights Missions to work towards finding mechanism to eliminate the problem, he said.

The vice-president of BCHR, Nabeel Rajab, dismissed the allegations and said that families who were taking part in unemployment or housing protests couldn't be stopped from bringing their children along and the accused organisations weren't the only ones organising rallies in Bahrain.

Rajab also denied conflicts between his centre and Al Wefaq as he said that Al Wefaq MPs were supporting BCHR activities and had participated in many of them.

"I doubt Fulad's complaints to the UN Human Rights Commission would make any difference as in many occasions he was asked to leave UN's human rights activities because his society isn't reliable for many reasons, including not being neutral and supporting government," Rajab said.

Suad Hamada is a journalist based in Manama.