Bahrain Mirror: A group of 64 researchers and academics from 20 different countries sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, expressing their concern regarding the recent repressive measures taken against the spiritual leader of the Shiite majority in Bahrain, Sheikh Isa Qassim.

"As you know the Bahraini people struggle peacefully to attain their own sovereignty for years and are expecting the organizations linked to Human Rights to help them. During these years they have been permanently oppressed as they were and still are demanding to have access to their basic citizenship rights," read the statement.

Moreover, the letter also indicated that "the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the people's will as the basis and source of governing power" and that "the demand of Bahraini citizens to have a democratically elected government in which the majority rules the country is a very elementary request."

The group of academics further wondered why the said demand "for achieving the minimum social rights should face the government's atrocities including imprisonment, torture, and assassination?"

The signatories of the letter called on the UN Secretary General to launch "urgent measures in order to stop the actions which contradict with the international standards and violate the UDHR's article 15 regarding the suspension of citizenship and deportation of Bahraini religious leaders and figures particularly his eminence Sheikh Isa Qassim"

They also called for "providing necessary and ensuring arrangements to establish democracy and implement the UDHR's article 21 by making possible a referendum through which every single Bahraini citizen has a vote."

The signatories further demanded Ban Ki-moon to adopt quick measures to put an end to the government's oppression against Bahrainis, immediately release political prisoners, and refer the cases of crimes committed by state and regime personnel to court.

Tags: Human Rights, Oppression, Sheikh Isa Qassim, Sectarian Discrimination, Shiite persecution in Bahrain, Ban Ki-moon, Revocation of Sheikh Isa Qassim's Citizenship, Sectarian Targeting, Anti Shiism, Anti-Shia

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