By John Ballard
A few days ago Zainab Alkhawaja and several other brave activists in Bahrain confronted the UN protesting the treatment of her family members and others working for democracy and human rights in that country. I have organized her Twitter messages with Chirpstory here.
Urgent: I am in the UN. Staging a sit-in. Handed a letter to Banki Moon abt prisoners in Bahrain I am here with Asma Darwish and Sawsan Jawad. We met with a deputy manager, and expressed our concerns, and urged that the UN must take immediate action
He told us the UN is doing what it can, publicly and privately. We said we expect more, we expect the UN to offer protection for prisoners The UN deputy said the state of emergency is over, and I told him nothing has changed for us. Arrests, detentions, torture, unfair trials.. we said we have taken a big risk to come here, we will not just hand the letter and leave. We will stay to see what the UN can do for bh ppl
He seemed very irritated, said "you cannot stay. If u do ull make problems for u, for us and maybe even ur families"
I replied "what do u mean something might happen to our families, its strange that u work for UN and say that to us"
He kept sayin "u cannot stay"
I said we've already made this decision and we won't leave, our relatives have already been in jail for 2 long They are innocent and shudnt be detained and being tortured. I said "wen it comes to bh, there is a void. We hope and believe that the UN can fill it, by taking action against injustice"
The deputy said "wat do u expect: Ban Ki-Moon won't give u an answer" I said "its ok, we'll wait and see what happens" He said "if u don't leave we might have to make u leave."
I said "u do what u have to do, but we're not leaving voluntarily" We are now sitting in the reception area, in the UN headquarters in Bahrain... Getting comfortable cuz we plan to stay We are now sitting in the reception area, in the UN headquarters in Bahrain... Getting comfortable cuz we plan to stay Note: we will be using hashtag #bhun for coming tweets
Read our letter to Ban Ki-Moon here http://t.co/257Qpzn #feb14
Me at the UN, holding up a pic of my detained family members http://yfrog.com/kh12458703j
Asma and Sawsan with me at UN. http://yfrog.com/kglu6mj
Today is the 12th day since Asma Darwish started her hungerstrike, and yet she is sitting here next to me in the UN. She's awesome!
So we're "visitor number 8" at the UN.... http://yfrog.com/klegooej
A man named Mohd Ahmed representing UNDP just spoke to us for half an hour, here's a summary of wat he said
He said "ur voice has been heard. Uv done wat u came to do. There's no point to stay longer" He said "by staying here ur putting us in a very difficult situation, in the end we'll have to call the police" He continued "and u know what will happen? Every1 will say u came here with guns and took over the building" Then he said "I'm also upset with u becuz there's no point in u writing on twitter n facebook. Look we can take ur phones but we didn't" He said "I want ur best interest. U know how happy they'll be if we call them say Zainab n the others r here"
I said "thank u 4 the advice, we know the risk we're taking, but we have decided to stay" "u might be in an bad position but I'm more worried abt the ppl being tortured in jail then abt u being in an akward position with bh gov" I cntnd "there r some things that shudnt be said by UN personnel. The 1st person telling us our families might get hurt....." "....And u saying u can take our phones away. What we are doing is freedom of speech, I'm sure the UN believes in freedom of speech"
He repeated three times that there might be the issue of ppl saying we violently have seized the UN building...
I said "they already said that about Salmaniya and no1 believed it. We are peaceful, our only weapons r our voices n going on hungerstrikes" Mohd Ahmed just came down saying "so ur complaining about me on twitter" I said "I'm just quoting you" I shud say that mohd ahmed was very calm & he offered us drinks and food. He also said that he is compassionate with our cause. Now he also said "ur welcome here, and if u want we will escort u when u leave for ur safety.
A man walkin out just asked "are u the 1z staging sit-in"
we said yes
he said "bravo! But I'm not from UN so don't tweet they said that."
We're still ok, they want us to sign a statement saying that we insist on staying even tho we are aware that working hours end at 3:30 I wonder if signing this statement will make it ok for bahraini forces to come into UN building to arrest us
We refused to sign, Mohd Ahmed seems very upset and says we're gonna put him in a lot of trouble I've been getting many supportive calls. Thank u all for ur support.
Police are in They're taking us, by force they say Wow how great are the UN, they let police in to take us We're at the public prosecution, mum I'm ok, don't worry we were carried out of the UN, they say apparently Firas alghuraibi is the one who called police to arrest us. He's the 1st guy we talked 2 We're in waitin room @ public prosecution, but we don't kno wats next I think they havnt realized we have our phones yet Or they're real nice and don't mind us tweeting :p Or they're real nice and don't mind us tweeting :p
They tried to ask us questions at police station, we refused to answer without lawyers Love to u all, and plz remember the issue here is protection for political prisoners. The UN should be very ashamed today... I think the UN might have misunderstood, we wanted the release of political prisoners, not to join them ;)
So glad I'm with these great girls... http://yfrog.com/gzks1pij
After interrogations they will decide whether we'll be released or not. I'm done, its Sawsans turn To fill u in, wen police came in2 UN they said they only want to talk to us outside. We asked if they have an arrest warrant...
They said they dint wana arrest us, I said we're willing to come speak to u at another time. Or u can speak to us in here The policewoman said "listen ull leave here, either way ull leave"
One sweet looking policewoman said "plz get up with us now so we don't have to do it by force" I said whatever u do ur already forgiven, I know its not upto u (quoting my dad ofcourse) ;)
They pushed us of the chairs so me and Asma ended up sitting on the ground, I said "I will not take one step out of this building" That's when 4 police carried me outside and put me on a bus. All the while two men were filming everything When we got on the bus there were 4 or 5 people taking pics of us.
I heard Asma shouting "ur hurting me!" I turned to policewoman who was holding Asma, I said "take care of her, she hasn't eaten in 12 days" We expect this and worst from our gov, but not from the UN Some1 calling us from Kuwait and swearing at us. Guess
I need to get a new number, or maybe @NABEELRAJAB shud get me 1 :p a I wonder where I'll sleep tonight. So far its a 50-50 chance. Home, or in a prison cell (hopefully with Ayat Alqurmuzi) I'm so happy I'll get 2 see my daughter, wat wud complete my happiness is if Asma @Eagertobefree wud break her hungerstrike. Pretty plzz Just to clarify the case hasn't been dropped yet, and that we will be released with personal guarantee of stayin in the country
I hope todays drama will help the prisoners. Our goal was never to get home safe, but to get protection for all poitical prisoners in bh We still expect action from the UN, but this time action that supports human rights and justice. What we dream of is the day all our brothers in jail are all released and return home to their families safely. Wud I sound greedy if I said I wished my dad and husband were home. That I wud be going bak to celebrate my freedom with them. Incase ur wondering: we're bak at Hoora police station, waiting to get our identification cards bak.
Its a new day, happy to be home with my daughter, and hoping the risk we took will benefit the detainees somehow. ALHAMDULILA I prayed be4 going 2 UN & told God, the hardest thing wud be to sleep without my daughter. Alhamdulila it hasn't happened yet.
I'd like to thank every1 who was helping us and working to get the word out. We cudv been behind bars if it wasn't for u all.
THANK U to policewomen who showed us compassion in a place where compassion is punished. They took a risk with every smile & every nice word THANK U to policewomen who showed us compassion in a place where compassion is punished. They took a risk with every smile & every nice word Some policewomen were so nice that I was sad to say goodbye. I wish them well & feel bad for them that they r in an awful position. and I wud def. like to thank my brave frnds who joined me on this journey, We have the same pain, but also the same hope for a better future
Read the CNN narrative with this video.
No comments:
Post a Comment