Bahrain Crackdown: Rights Groups Call For Cancelling F1 Race
Local Editor
Human rights campaigners urged Formula One management to cancel next week's Bahrain Grand Prix, accusing the country's rulers of using the race to whitewash abuses and improve their image abroad.
Bahrain's biggest sporting event is watched by a worldwide audience of millions and has been held since 2004, with the exception of 2011 when violent civil unrest forced its cancellation.
"Concerted and visible action is now required from Formula One, consistent with its commitment to human rights," the groups said in a letter to Formula One chairman Chase Carey and the two managing directors Sean Bratches and Ross Brawn.
"We call on you to suspend this year's race in view of the alarming situation in the country."
The letter, also addressed to the chief executive of F1 sponsor Heineken, was sent by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, Article 19 and Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain.
Activists recognized privately, after a media briefing, that they did not expect the call to be heeded.
Bahrain, a former British protectorate and the US Navy's main outpost in the Gulf region, has stepped up a crackdown on the opposition, banning the al-Wefaq party and arresting several prominent activists.
Formula One published a commitment in 2015 to respect "internationally recognized human rights in its operations globally".
The campaigners' letter said Formula One would "become complicit" in human rights violations in Bahrain if the race was not canceled.
Activist Zainab al-Khawaja, who lives in Denmark after being arrested and released several times in Bahrain, told reporters that the race raised the question, "Does the world care about what's happening in Bahrain?
"It [Formula One] is a message sent to the people of Bahrain that the world does not care," she said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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