Bahraini anti-government protesters, protecting their faces from tear gas, carry national flags and a picture of jailed human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja at a protest on ApPril 4. (Credit: AP/Hasan Jamali) Behind the walls of a prison compound, the man who helped lead last year’s pro-democracy protests in Bahrain is continuing a lonely, painful battle for freedom away from the media spotlight. Abdulhadi AlKhawaja has endured beatings, torture and a life sentence handed down from a military court, all for the “crime” of advocating human rights and democracy in his country. In response to these injustices, on February 8th 2012 he initiated a hunger strike which he promised to continue until either his release or his death, and which he has now led into its 61st day. After refusing to eat for two full months in protest of his imprisonment and torture he remains defiant, but the limits of what his body can take are being reached. After literally fighting prison officials to visit him, an act for which she was also detained for several days, his daughter reported that Khawaja is experiencing difficulty breathing and appears to be near death. As she described her brief visit with her father, “His tone and the way he was speaking were like he was saying goodbye….we’re not sure if we’ll ever see him again.” On the eve of his sentencing last year to life imprisonment, in a trial described by Amnesty to be unfair and politically motivated, Khawaja had raised his fist and proclaimed his intention to “continue on the path of peaceful resistance”, a promise which he has steadfastly kept and which has today brought him to this breaking point.

While Khawaja continues to peacefully resist by whatever means in his power, the Bahraini regime continues to suppress with brute force the pro-democracy movement he helped spearhead. Despite its criminal abuse of a prominent human rights champion in the Arab world, and despite the documented instances of killings, torture, and indefinite imprisonment of countless other Bahraini citizens, the U.S. government continues to support the Al-Khalifa regime in the face of its democratic uprising and refuses to publicly call for the release of Alkhawaja and other pro-democracy activists. While the U.S. has consistently proclaimed its intention to champion the cause of democratic uprisings in the Middle East and around the world, there continues to be a policy of “business as usual” in its dealings with a Bahraini government which has moved aggressively to crush a peaceful citizens movement calling for democracy and respect for human rights. Indeed, while the regime was wrapping up a campaign of torture and murder directed at democracy activists, the U.S. lawmakers pursued a decision to resume arms sales to Bahrain, pushing forward a $53 million dollar sale of weaponry and other equipment to the country. In the midst of loud denunciations of the atrocities of Bashar Assad in Syria and coming on the heels of a military campaign ostensibly fought to protect the democratic uprising in Libya, the decision to not just support but to continue arming the Bahraini regime is one that flies in the face of stated U.S. priorities in the region. While several American officials are reported to have promised Bahraini activists that they would privately lobby for the rights of Khawaja and others who are suffering the abuses of the regime, the U.S. government has steadfastly declined to offer a public condemnation of the documented crimes of its Gulf ally, nor will it openly call on them to release Alkhawaja or any of the other detainees whom Amnesty International has designated to be prisoners of conscience.

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Murtaza Hussain is a Toronto-based writer and commentator on issues related to politics and foreign policy. His work has previously been featured in Salon, Al Jazeera English, Bikya Masr (Egypt) and other outlets. He blogs at mazhussain.wordpress.com and is on Twitter at @mazmhussain.

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