Feb.14 (PVM) An All-Party Group from the UK parliament has called for this year's Bahrain Grand Prix, in April, to go ahead amid calls for it to be cancelled for a second year running.
In an open letter to The Times the group state that the event should go ahead to encourage reform in the country and points to well intentioned moves by authorities, in the island kingdom, to invite independent figures to review the judicial situation and opened up detention facilities to be inspected.
Below is the transcript of letter from the All-Party Group on Bahrain,which reads:
"Sir, We note with concern calls on these pages to cancel the planned Grand Prix to be held in Bahrain.
"Bahrain has been conveniently lumped together with other nations and labelled part of the 'Arab Spring'. Yet the response of the government of Bahrain has been notably different. Bahrain invited independent human rights lawyers, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), to investigate and has started to implement its recommendations. In addition to elections that have led to a four-fold increase in women elected to parliament, Bahrain has also asked John Timoney, the former New York police chief, and John Yates, the former Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to overhaul policing, Sir Daniel Bethlehem, the FCO's former principal legal adviser, to review judicial processes, and opened detention facilities for inspection by the Red Crescent.
"Those who want Bahrain to continue on the path of genuine reform will do the cause no service by cancelling the Grand Prix this year. Indeed, surely the presence of thousands of Western visitors and journalists in the run-up to and during the event will act as an additional incentive to the authorities in Bahrain to show the international community its sincerity in the cause of reform and that their support for Bahrain is well placed?"
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