David Cameron offers Britain's help in implementing changes recommended in scathing report on abuses of freedoms
Britain has offered to help Bahrain implement reforms that were recommended in a scathing official report into human rights abuses committed during the uprising in the Gulf state in spring.
David Cameron told King Hamad Al Khalifa in talks in Downing Street on Monday that the UK wanted to see reform rather than repression in response to the unprecedented unrest, which exploded in the Pearl revolution in February and March at the height of the Arab spring.
The king's visit to London was seen by Bahraini sources as rehabilitation following embarrassment over the crackdown by a key western ally and trading partner. Crown Prince Salman, his son, was forced to decline an invitation to the royal wedding this year after an outcry in the UK.
Hamad announced last month he would take up recommendations made by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, which he appointed. It found that the death toll from violence had reached 35, and that police had used "excessive force" and tortured detainees. But the report established neither a timetable nor mechanisms for implementation.
Downing Street said that Cameron "urged the king to deliver swiftly on the commitments he has made to implement the recommendations from the inquiry and to drive forward reform and reconciliation in the country, engaging with the opposition as part of that process". Britain is offering help with judicial reforms.
The opposition's key demand is for the release of prisoners and the reinstatement of people who were sacked after joining anti-government protests.
Sheikh Ali Salman, the leader of Bahrain's main Shia opposition movement, al-Wefaq, is expected to meet government supporters at a conference at London's Chatham House on Tuesday.
Amnesty International warned that Bahrain's human rights record is still heavily tarnished. Radical opposition group Justice for Bahrain said: "It is a shocking misjudgment to fete the king of Bahrain at a time when his regime is arresting, jailing, torturing and killing peaceful democracy protesters." But William Hague, the foreign secretary, defended the government's policy. "Engagement is best way to encourage reform," he tweeted.
The initially peaceful Bahraini protests were rooted in local issues around the rule of a Sunni minority over a restive Shia majority and inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. But as protests grew they were crushed with the help of a Gulf military force led by Saudi Arabia, which feared the effect of instability on its own Shia population in the kingdom's eastern province.
Since last month's report, Bahrain has hired John Yates, a former assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan police, and the former head of Miami police, John Timoney, to advise its police force. Later this week a UN human rights team will be allowed into the country for the first time. PR advisers are working hard to promote the Manama government's view.
"Nothing has happened yet inside Bahrain," said Mansour al-Jamri, editor of al-Wasat newspaper. "No prisoners have been released and the majority of those who were dismissed have not yet been reinstated – and those who have been could be sacked at any time. Bahrain has been rigidly separated on a sectarian basis. Nearly all the Shia have been purged. OK, western governments will stop torture, but not the apartheid that is being practiced by the government."
Britain's exports to Bahrain have increased by 30% in the past year, though export licences for some security equipment were revoked after pressure from human rights groups. Bahrain also enjoys long-standing ties to the US, which uses it as the base for its 5th Fleet.