State Dept. Concerned over Bahrain Violence, BICI Progress

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After an explosion claimed two lives in Bahrain, the U.S. State Department condemned the violence, saying, “we remain deeply concerned about the rise of tensions in Bahrain. Recent violence in Bahrain has claimed the lives of protesters, of security forces, of innocent bystanders, and all of this just undercuts the process of national reconciliation that we have strongly been urging on Bahrainis of all stripes for many, many months.”

The State Department spokesperson added, “we’re concerned that a year has gone – almost a year has gone by [since the BICI report was released] and we’ve only seen about half of the recommendations go forward and that dialogue is not going forward between the government and the opposition.” While commenting on the presence of American John Timoney in Bahrain’s police reform efforts, the spokesperson said, “We’ve been concerned that these recommendations of the BICI, particularly in the area of police reform, have not been strongly enough implemented. It is one of the issues that we are continuing to urge on the Bahrainis, in terms of needing to really work on how the police respond to unrest, building a police force that’s representative of all Bahrainis, and taking some of these other steps.”