British Sandhurst academy trains Saudi, Bahraini, UAE dictatorships’ officers

This video says about itself:

25 November 2015

A new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report says that security forces in Bahrain are still torturing detainees.

From the Daily Mirror in Britain:

Sandhurst academy is training officers from brutal Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE regimes

22 Jan 2016

By Jason Beattie

Since 2006, Sandhurst has offered taxpayer-subsidised training to 843 officers from other countries including some of the worst for human rights abuse

The British military is training hundreds of officers from regimes with appalling human rights records, figures reveal.

Recruits from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE have received officer training at the elite Sandhurst military school.

All these countries have been criticised for their human rights records with some using the military to suppress opposition and dissent.

Read more: Britain training Saudi Police

Parliamentary figures released to the Lib Dems show that since 2006, Sandhurst has offered taxpayer-subsidised training to 843 officers from other countries.

These include 66 recruits from Bahrain which is accused of engaging in systematic torture, extra-judicial killing and enforced disappearances.

Read more: Britain’s sellout to Saudi Arabia is shameful

Saudi [Arabia] has sent 22 to Sandhurst. The country is ranked as one of the 12 worst in the world for human rights abuses and has executed 47 people already this year.

Its military are involved in the civil war in Yemen where thousands of innocent civilians have been killed by the Saudi air force.

The UAE has sent 82 officers at the Sandhurst military academy. Amnesty International says the country is accused of torture and has illegally detained scores of people, including foreign nationals.

And more than 100 officers from Oman and Qatar have been trained by the British military.

In Oman the military and security services are used to clamp down on dissent, while the Qatari government is accused of silencing opponents and allowing the abuse of migrant workers.

Although the countries contribute towards the cost of the training, the Ministry of Defence admits they are also supported through UK funding.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron MP said: “These Sandhurst sheikhs are sitting in our military academics, learning from our best and then taking these things back to regimes that repress their population and trample all over human rights.

“People will look at this and think why are we selling weapons to Saudi, training Bahrainis and then sitting there while they oppress their population.

“Shared military training with our allies is a fantastic resource, but it is time to stand up for the values we talk about so much – democracy and human rights. British forces provide some of the best military training in the world, but the privilege to train with our top class troops should be reserved to those foreign armed forces who share our values and our strict adherence to humanitarian law in combat.”

That ‘adherence’ is not always ‘strict’. Eg, look at the British torture scandals in Iraq.

“I believe we need to end to the training of overseas royals from regimes with terrible human rights records at Sandhurst.”

Britain’s Royal Military Academy is paid millions to train officers for repressive Gulf dictatorships. Sandhurst trains hundreds of cadets who violently crack down on dissent in Saudi, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait: here.

‘Sandhurst sheikhs’: calls to stop training cadets from Gulf states with bad rights records. Lib Dems urge action after MoD figures show rise in revenues from Gulf states that imposed repressive measures after Arab spring: here.

The Bahrain government is hosting a human rights conference tomorrow. Yes, really. It’s a bit like Lance Armstrong holding a summit on ethics in sports, but Bahrain’s PR strategy is so poorly advised that the kingdom is busily promoting and publicizing the conference, apparently oblivious to the reputational damage to its international image every time someone hears “Bahrain” and “human rights” in the same sentence: here.

Football: Letter to Fifa sponsors expresses concerns over [Bahraini royal] Sheikh Salman’s human rights record: here.

Bahrain campaigners warn Fifa sponsors of concerns over Sheikh Salman: here.

January 27, 2016. Bahrain: Torture Allegations Expose Sham Reforms. Prosecutions, Unfair Trials for Exercising Free Speech: here.

Where doctors were arrested, tortured: ‘Witness Bahrain’ screening in Ridgefield Feb. 6 shows life after Arab Spring: here.

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Armenian government has refused to extradite a Bahraini activist who was arrested in Armenia last month after fleeing Bahrain to avoid imprisonment on what human rights groups consider politically motivated charges, RFE/RL Armenian Service reports: here.

European Parliament condemns death penalty, torture in Bahrain. Body called for pardon for a man sentenced to death after allegedly confessing under torture: here.

Saudi Arabia is setting a dangerous precedent to the Government of Bahrain. Bahrain is suppressing dissent by rendering citizens stateless and condemning them to death; all under the watchful eye of its neighbour: here.