Despite fresh reports of violence between police and protesters in Bahrain, the F1 Grand Prix is scheduled to go ahead next week.
F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone (the extremely haggard-looking character pictured above) seemed to attract the ire of protesters in the country when declaring yesterday that it was perfectly safe to go ahead with the race despite mass outbreaks of civil unrest and violence in the Gulf state.
Anti-Government protests have been taking place in the country for over a year now and similar outbreaks of unrest caused the Grand Prix to be cancelled last year.
It had been feared that this year’s race on 22 April would also be cancelled, but the FIA put those concerns to bed with a statement saying that having “received regular security briefings from the most senior diplomatic officials based in the Kingdom, as well as from other independent experts,” they were “satisfied that all the proper security measures are in place for the running of a Formula 1 world championship event.”
Since then, however, there has been eruptions of further violence, with firebombs hurled by protesters towards police, who responded by aiming tear gas and bird shot pellets at the protesters.
According to AFP, US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) say that the decision to go ahead with the race will be exploited by the ruling Sunni dynasty and will cause further unrest amongst protesters who have launched a campaign on Twitter to prevent it from going ahead.
Proceeding with the race “gives Bahrain’s rulers the opportunity they are seeking to obscure the seriousness of the country’s human rights situation,” HRW said in a statement.
“Formula One promoters say their decision to race in Bahrain should not be derailed by political considerations, but the ruling family will attempt to portray today’s (Friday’s) decision as a political statement of support for its repressive policies,” said Tom Porteous, deputy programme director at HRW.
“The FIA has played into the government’s narrative to gloss over Bahrain’s continuing human rights crisis.”
Despite the unrest, all 12 Formula One teams have committed to next week’s even, even though some are believed to be privately concerned about the potential implications of racing under such duress.
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