Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa will travel to the United States next week for an official visit, leaving behind a host of deepening crises, mainly an open-ended hunger strike that more than 800 prisoners of conscience have launched over a month ago.

Prisoners are demanding basic human rights, such as health care and freedom of movement in cell blocks rather than doubling their confinement by closing cell doors for 23 hours a day, as well as the right to practice religious rituals freely.

The prime minister will not be able to claim much about the human rights situation in Bahrain, as there are many intractable human rights issues, from arrests and restrictions on religious freedoms and freedom of expression to security restrictions on citizens amobg other issues, which he hasn't succeeded so far in resolving any.

On the contrary, his government's apathy has intensified and escalated the crises, bringing prison conditions to the brink of disaster, with hundreds of political prisoners at risk.

More than a month has passed since the prisoners' hunger strike, and the crown prince is still absent, not finding himself interested in asking about the status of their situation, nor paying attention to their calls and cries. All attempts to make their voices reach him have come to no avail so far.

In the face of these facts, in what image will the crown prince appear in Washington, of course, he cannot be seen as a man of solutions in a country that has been ravaged by political, human rights and even financial crises for more than a decade.

This is the picture: the head of government and the country's second-in-command in charge of addressing crises and finding the necessary solutions seems incapable of creating solutions or a positive initiative, as has been promoted.

The man, as reported by international news agencies, will appear as an irresponsible person, who failed in most of the duties required of him, unable to resolve the simplest issues, leaving the matter of solving and addressing them to the man of aggravation and repression in Bahrain, his Minister of Interior, Rashid bin Abdullah.

What his government has succeeded in is silencing voices, not only opposing ones, but even loyalist voices that disagree with the government in some aspects. The government has only tightened its security grip, and has set a cybercrime department as a watchdog to monitor everything.

Arabic Version