Bahrain: Stop the Killings

Bahrain: Stop the Killings

Brussels, 18 February 2011 (ITUC OnLine): As tens of thousands were participating in the funerals of victims of the crackdown which left four people dead yesterday, the ICFTU has just been informed that the Bahraini army opened fire this afternoon against peaceful people, including a doctor who was shot dead when transporting injured people.

“We are horrified by this escalation of repression and are asking ITUC affiliates around the world to put pressure urgently, via their governments, on Bahraini authorities for an immediate stop of this dramatic escalation in violence by the security forces”, said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

In response to the appalling repression in recent days in the country, civil society organisations and opposition political parties have called for a further demonstration tomorrow afternoon. They are demanding constitutional reform as well as for immediate respect of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. The international trade union movement supports the ITUC-affiliated General Federation of Bahraini Trade Unions which is denouncing the repression and has associated itself with the call for the demonstration tomorrow. The ITUC reiterates the call it made on the Bahraini authorities yesterday to start talks with the trade union movement and other civil society groups on the concrete demands which they and the demonstrators have expressed.

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