A team from the Porsche Supercup, a supporting series during the upcoming Grand Prix of Bahrain this weekend has cancelled its participation in the race, outing its doubts about the safety at the middle-east country.
Or go to Fuji for the Grand prix and keep Suzuka for later in the year?Websta wrote:No way am I waiting 4 weeks between the Chinese GP and Spanish GP. They had better get a Turkish GP sorted pronto if they are going to cancel the Bahrain GP.
Better yet...Hail22 wrote:Or go to Fuji for the Grand prix and keep Suzuka for later in the year?Websta wrote:No way am I waiting 4 weeks between the Chinese GP and Spanish GP. They had better get a Turkish GP sorted pronto if they are going to cancel the Bahrain GP.
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 February 2012 15.49 GMT wrote:
Bahrain receives military equipment from UK despite violent crackdown
Britain sold over £1m worth of weapons including rifles and artillery to Gulf kingdom during last year's unrest
Bahraini security forces in Manama during clashes with protesters.
Britain has continued to sell arms to Bahrain despite continuing political unrest in the Gulf state, new official figures disclose.
According to the figures the government approved the sale of military equipment valued at more than £1m in the months following the violent crackdown on demonstrators a year ago. They included licences for gun silencers, weapons sights, rifles, artillery and components for military training aircraft.
Also cleared for export to Bahrain between July and September last year were naval guns and components for detecting and jamming improvised explosive devices. No export licences were refused.
Security forces in Bahrain fired teargas and stun grenades at protesters in pre-dawn skirmishes before Tuesday's first anniversary of the uprising in the Gulf kingdom. Armoured vehicles patrolled the capital, Manama, in a security clampdown after protesters flung volleys of petrol bombs at police cars. There was also a massive police presence in Shia Muslim villages ringing Manama, with helicopters buzzing overhead, underlining the concerns of the Sunni-Muslim-led monarchy about a new explosion of civil unrest by Bahrain's disgruntled Shia majority.
After the exposure a year ago of Britain's approval of arms sales, including crowd control equipment, guns, and ammunition to Bahrain, Libya and Egypt, the government revoked 158 export licences, including 44 covering military exports to Bahrain.
The latest figures, published on the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills website, also show that during the third quarter of last year Britain exported arms valued at more than £1m to Saudi Arabia, including components for military combat vehicles and turrets. During last year's uprising, Saudi Arabia sent forces to Bahrain in British military trucks.
Britain also supplied equipment, including components for military combat vehicles, weapons night sights, communications and rangefinding, valued at more than £1m, to Egypt's armed forces.
Vince Cable, the business secretary, admitted to a committee of MPs last week: "We do trade with governments that are not democratic and have bad human rights records … We do business with repressive governments and there's no denying that."
He was giving evidence to the Commons committee on arms export controls whose chairman, the former Conservative defence minister Sir John Stanley, accused the government of adopting a "rosy-tinted" and "over-optimistic" approach to authoritarian regimes.
The foreign secretary, William Hague, told the committee that Saudi forces were sent into Bahrain last year "to guard installations but not to take part in dealing with unrest in Bahrain so they did not fall foul [of the export guidelines]".
On Saudi Arabia, Hague said the government had raised concerns about its treatment of women and foreign workers. But 99% of Britain's exports to the kingdom consisted of Typhoon jets. "They are not relevant to our concerns about these rights," the foreign secretary said.
Cable announced that the government had reviewed its system of monitoring arms exports and that in future ministers would be able to "suspend" arms exports quickly in the event of political upheaval or a regional crisis.
Sarah Waldron, campaign co-ordinator for CAAT, the campaign against the arms trade, said: "The UK seems to have learned absolutely nothing from the last year. In the glare of media attention in February last year it revoked some arms licences – but the latest figures show it was quickly back to business as usual."
A decision by the Obama administration to agree a $1m arms sale to Bahrain was attacked last week by Human Rights Watch.
"Bahrain has made many promises to cease abuses and hold officials accountable, but it hasn't delivered," said Maria McFarland, the group's deputy Washington director. "Protesters remain jailed on criminal charges for peacefully speaking out and there has been little accountability for torture and killings – crimes in which the Bahrain Defence Force is implicated."
The US state department said the equipment included spare parts and maintenance of equipment needed for Bahrain's external defence and support of US Navy Fifth Fleet operations. But the US, in common with the UK, has not made public a full list of equipment to be supplied to Bahrain, or elsewhere.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "The government takes its export responsibilities very seriously, and operates one of the most rigorous arms export control regimes in the world. All licence applications are considered on a case by case basis against agreed international criteria. Each assessment we make takes into account the intended end use of the equipment, the behaviour of the end user … We pay particular attention to allegations of human rights abuses."
The Commons arms export controls committee said in a stinging report last year: "Both the present government and its predecessor misjudged the risk that arms approved for export to certain authoritarian countries in north Africa and the Middle East might be used for internal repression."
International sports tend to be the poster childs for corruption and greed.n smikle wrote:Forum posters don't care about the Bahrain people anyway, they just love talking politics.
I am in support of the GP, because I think international sports always bring a good message.
A more naive statement you'll be hard pressed to find.n smikle wrote:Forum posters don't care about the Bahrain people anyway, they just love talking politics.
I am in support of the GP, because I think international sports always bring a good message.
Spa to me is like Jerusalem, a place of worship for all Formula 1 Fans, Enthusiasts...if they get rid of this circuit or have it interchanging with the French GP I will not support the sport any longer.SeijaKessen wrote:Better yet...Hail22 wrote:Or go to Fuji for the Grand prix and keep Suzuka for later in the year?Websta wrote:No way am I waiting 4 weeks between the Chinese GP and Spanish GP. They had better get a Turkish GP sorted pronto if they are going to cancel the Bahrain GP.
Keep Spa every year and add Paul Ricard in place of Bahrain.
Or go back to Argentina.
And I have to wonder what those measures will be.A "global event with so much exposure" will benefit Bahrain economically and politically.
"There will be so much good with Formula One back in Bahrain. I am confident that all measures will be taken to ensure the safety of the teams and fans."
So what does human rights have to do with F1? The human rights are just about the same as any other Muslim country. They are fine with themselves. Look how many Human rights breaches occur in the USA every year. The same for China, Malaysia, Russia and ANYWHERE else in the world. F1 is a blessing to this people why should anyone have the right to deny them an F1 race? Why should we westerners use F1 as a political sanction? Why? Should other international sports not be played their as well?strad wrote:This resent quote by Sheik Salman bin Isa Al-Khalifa exemlifies the problem..They think we are worried about our and the teams safety, not human rights. If we go we endorse them.And I have to wonder what those measures will be.A "global event with so much exposure" will benefit Bahrain economically and politically.
"There will be so much good with Formula One back in Bahrain. I am confident that all measures will be taken to ensure the safety of the teams and fans."
