(NEW YORK) MintPress – After Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was pronounced the winner of Egypt’s historic presidential elections, he received a call from U.S. President Barack Obama offering help. The Obama administration tacitly supported the opposition protesters who brought down strongman Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring.
Over the weekend, the White House said in a statement, “The president underscored that the United States will continue to support Egypt’s transition to democracy and stand by the Egyptian people as they fulfill the promise of their revolution.”
Elsewhere in the region, though, protesters are condemning the U.S. for standing by the regime; this is increasingly evident in the Gulf nation of Bahrain, where thousands of people rose up 16 months ago demanding political liberties, social equality and an end to corruption.
More than a thousand troops from Saudi Arabia helped put down the Bahraini uprising, while Washington did little more than call for political reform. Both countries view Bahrain as a strategic ally in the region, especially against Iran.
Today, dialogue between the Kingdom’s Shiite Muslim majority and the ruling Sunni monarchy has stopped, scores of prominent opposition leaders remain in prison and activists are regularly detained or interrogated.
Last month, after a seven-month suspension, the Obama administration resumed arms sales to Manama, and in a recent march on the American naval base, the headquarters of the Fifth Fleet, young activists held placards with demands written in English: “U.S.A. Stop arming the killers.”
Anti-US sentiment on the rise
It was one of several protests over the past month that have targeted Bahrain’s long-standing alliance with the U.S., including both military cooperation and a free trade agreement.
In one village, demonstrators burned American flag, while in another, a man held up a sign saying, “The American administration supports the dictatorship in Bahrain.”
The Obama administration maintains that the weapons sales would not include arms used for crowd control, such as tear gas. An official claimed that the sale was needed to meet security challenges, saying, “Maintaining our and our partners’ ability to respond to those challenges is an important component of our commitment to gulf security.”
Activists, though, compare U.S. statements condemning violence by both sides to Russia’s stance on Syria.
According to one young member of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), the U.S., despite its claims, is no longer pressuring the government on reform. “I don’t want to say Hillary Clinton is lying,” he said. “I want to say this government doesn’t care.”
Escalating violence
That approach may be paving the way for increasing bloodshed in the coming months. There are nightly clashes between protesters and police, and on Friday, riot police officers forcibly dispersed a rally by Bahrain’s biggest opposition party, wounding its leader.
The BCHR last week published its second edition of a report on human rights violations in Bahrain, which shows that the situation has become even more serious since March.
“Mass arrests and detention in a violent fashion, namely beating and insulting detainees at time of arrest and beating detainees to the degree of bleeding in public, are still ongoing,” said the report.
“Also, recent arrests included human rights defenders, activists and journalists with the latest cases recorded May 2012. There is a clear escalation in the arrests of persons the government did not arrest even within the height of the crackdown last year.”
Among its recommendations, “The Bahraini government needs to be held accountable in a way that would put on trial all those accused of wounding, torturing and killing civilians as well as those who have authorized such crimes.”