Bahrain regime tries Christmas bribe of British MP

This video is called Torturing detainees in Bahrain.

The absolute monarchy in Bahrain has, it seems, successfully bribed US American TV star Kim Kardashian, US media corporation CNN, and the British armed forces.

However, sometimes something seems to go wrong with Bahraini royal corruption.

From daily The Guardian in Britain:

MP refuses to accept hamper from Bahrain’s ambassador

Ann Clwyd, a member of inquiry into human rights abuses by Bahraini regime, returns package to Fortnum & Mason

Rajeev Syal

Thursday 20 December 2012 18.47 GMT

Bahrain‘s ambassador to London has been snubbed after sending a Christmas hamper to an MP who sits on a committee conducting an inquiry into human rights abuses in the country.

Ann Clwyd, who has criticised the regime for torturing and imprisoning pro-democracy campaigners, was surprised to find a festive Fortnum & Mason wicker basket in her office on Wednesday.

After inquiries with the royal grocers, she discovered the hamper was a gift from Alice Thomas Samaan, Bahrain’s ambassador. Clwyd returned the hamper to the store and sent a letter to the embassy explaining that she could not accept it.

Clwyd sits on the foreign affairs select committee that is conducting an inquiry into the Foreign Office’s response to Bahrain’s human rights abuses and she chairs the all-party parliamentary human rights group. She was surprised to be confronted with such a large basket in her office – it was, her staff estimate, nearly a metre long, 60cm wide and 60cm high.

“I asked my researcher where it came from, but inside there was just a note saying that it was a Christmas hamper but no explanation of who had sent it,” she said.

Inside, staff could see chocolates and champagne, but did not explore further because Clywd was already concerned about who had sent it.

A member of her staff called Fortnum & Mason, which confirmed it had come from Samaan.

Because they did not open it, staff are unsure whether it was a “jubilee” hamper, worth about £200, which contains champagne, truffles and a jubilee tea towel, or a “Christmas feast” hamper, worth £500, which includes smoked salmon, stilton, cranberry sauce, Christmas pudding, coffee, chocolate biscuits and gin.

“I just could not accept it given what has happened to the citizens of Bahrain. I said, ‘Lets get it out of my office and send it back’,” she said.

Further inquiries from the Guardian established that Samaan sent similar packages from the store in London’s Piccadilly to about 10 other MPs.

Conor Burns, the Conservative MP for Bournemouth West, who is chairman of the all-party group on Bahrain, said he was one of the recipients.

Burns, a former public relations executive who went on a £3,279 trip funded by the Bahraini foreign ministry in October 2010 to observe elections in the country, said he had not yet opened it.

“What I sometimes do is distribute foodstuffs to charities. But given that the hamper is in London and I am on my way to Bournemouth, it isn’t a big deal,” he said.

It is understood that five other members of the foreign affairs select committee were contacted on Thursday by parliamentary officials but none of them had received similar packages.

Samaan was appointed head of Bahrain’s diplomatic mission to London last year. No one from the Bahraini embassy was available for comment.

Rallies and gatherings are banned in Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s fifth fleet and has been in turmoil since pro-democracy protests led by its Shi’ite Muslim majority erupted last year.

Bahrain’s ruling Al-Khalifa family, who are Sunni Muslims, used martial law and help from Gulf neighbours to put down last year’s uprising, but unrest has resumed. The opposition says little progress has been made towards its demands for reforms including a parliament with full powers to legislate and form governments. Many Shi’ites complain of political and economic marginalisation, a charge that Bahrain denies.

New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof used Twitter on Monday night to outfox a Middle Eastern government [of Bahrain] he suspects of human-rights abuses: here.

From Associated Press:

December 20

WASHINGTON — The government of Bahrain has fallen short of commitments to recognize labor rights and prevent employment discrimination under a free trade agreement with the United States, the Labor Department said Thursday.

But the agency declined to suspend the trade pact, despite a request from the AFL-CIO. Instead, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis urged more diplomatic talks with Bahrain to resolve complaints about the Persian Gulf nation’s crackdown on unions and labor reform protesters.

See also here.

Related articles

• Bahrain regime detains United States journalist (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship jails another human rights activist (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain regime torture evidence (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain regime keeps violating human rights (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship twists even British accomplices’ words (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship paying Kim Kardashian? (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahraini torture prince now Syrian ‘humanitarian’ (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Free Bahraini human rights activist now (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship arrests another human rights activist (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain dictatorship’s European allies (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)