A mixed Party Group of the British Parliament is lobbying to retain the Bahrain Grand Prix on this year’s Formula 1 calendar, responding to widespread claims that the event should be called off for the second year running. Tuesday marks 12 months since the beginning of protests now broadly dubbed as the ‘Bahraini uprising’.
With the February 14 Revolution now moving into its second year, reports have emerged this week that Bahrain’s race should be cancelled once again as fresh violence is being reported in and around capital city Manama, although the scale of the conflict remains difficult to judge.
On Tuesday, Britain’s The Times newspaper received a letter from MPs Conor Burns (Conservative Party, Bournemouth West) and Thomas Docherty (Labour Party, Dunfermline and West Fife), Chair and Vice-Chair of the All Party Group on Bahrain, in which it is stated that postponing the event again would only cause further damage to the nation.
The full letter reads as follows:
‘Those who want Bahrain to continue on the path of genuine reform will do the cause no service by cancelling the Grand Prix. 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 labeled 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.’
Bahrain is scheduled to return as Round 4 of the F1 calendar on 22 April.
Other
DTM Tickets (best price guarantee!) at Sportstadium.com
| 2012 Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
| More 2012 Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix photos | |||
 |  |  |  |
| More photos | |||
English
Nederlands
Español
Italiano
