Formula One race in Bahrain to go ahead

The Formula One auto race scheduled for next week in Bahrain has been given the green light by the International Automobile Federation, or FIA. The race was cancelled last year after a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protestors, which led to the deaths of at least 30 people.

Demonstrations and violence have continued since then, and Monday a home-made bomb wounded seven Bahraini policemen during a protest near the capital. Another factor weighing on the situation is the health of jailed human-rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike for over two months.

Al-Khawaja served for three years as Protection Coordinator for the Middle East for the Dublin human-rights group Front Line Defenders. He resigned in February last year to focus on human rights in Bahrain.

“We...weren’t calling for the cancellation of the Formula One race in Bahrain,” said Mary Lawlor, the Executive Director of Front Line Defenders.

“However, we are very concerned that Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is on his 65th day of hunger strike in Bahrain, and time is running out,” she told Vatican Radio. “We had hoped that the organizers of Formula One would use their influence and seek his transfer on medical grounds to Denmark [where al-Khawaja has dual citizenship], or any other institution that is able to treat somebody in his medical condition.”

Lawlor said there is still a window of hope for al-Khawaja.

“Formula One is really the only thing that the Bahraini government really want, and now it is going ahead,” she pointed out. “Maybe there is space for negotiation on behalf of Abdulhadi for humanitarian reasons that the Bahraini government would exercise mercy.”

Listen to the extended interview by Charles Collins with Mary Lawlor: