BAHRAIN: A DIRTY JOB UNDER A SAUDI UMBRELLA

On March 14, under a controversial interpreting of the "Peninsula Shield" treaty between the six gulf countries, Saudi troops entered Bahrain to help the Royal family in quelling a month-long popular uprising demanding a constitutional monarchy. The uprising was crushed, hundreds between dead or injured, opposition leaders along with more than 300 activists were detained or declared missing, and a campaign of systemic suppression against the Shiite community was unleashed. Many in Bahrain, the Arab world, and globally, argued that the Saudi intervention is more of a political nature than security, given in hand that Bahrain's security apparatus and army are up to the task. It is international condemnation what the royal family worried about, and as they are still going on in their dirty job, real condemnation never really heard, with the suspicion of a Saudi "Shuush" preventing it.

Ban Ki Moon decided to wake up two weeks later, and hinted that he might send an envoy to Bahrain. But he heard another Saudi "Shuush".      

Matthew Russell Lee, from the UN's Inner City Press, wrote the following under the tag "Exclusive".

Taranco in Council, but not in Bahrain: Saudi protest not shown
UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon proposed sending his Middle East coordinator Oscar Fernandez-Taranco to Bahrain, he was told not -- not by Bahrain but by Saudi Arabia, Inner City Press has learned from well placed sources.

After Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain as support against the largely Shi'a protests, the UN issued a cryptic statement in which Ban Ki-moon “noted” their entry. Ban's spokesmen refused repeated requests to elaborate on the statement.

Inner City Press has asked if the UN acknowledges that Bahrain's used of non-national Sunni forces as security -- from Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere -- might constitute a use of mercenaries, Ban's spokesmen have refused to answer.

Now, when Ban's Secretariat told Bahrain they would be sending Tarranco, his Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, it was not Bahrain which said no. Rather, Bahrain told Saudi Arabia, which put on the kibosh.

Saudi Arabia give money and even planes to the UN, and for Ban Ki-moon to fly on. And so unlike Libya and even now Yemen, this is one crackdown on which the UN is doing absolutely nothing.

Courtesy to The Angry Arab News Service.