King of Bahrain, accused of brutally suppressing pro-democracy protests, among those included on controversial guest list
guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 May 2012
"The king of Bahrain, whose regime has been accused of brutally suppressing pro-democracy demonstrations, has been revealed as one of the guests at a historic lunch of sovereign monarchs hosted by the Queen at Windsor Castle on Friday.
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa appeared on a guest list released early on Friday ahead of the unprecedented gathering to celebrate the diamond jubilee.
Other guests include Swaziland's King Mswati III, as well as Sheikh Nasser Mohamed Aal Jaber Aal-Sabah of Kuwait and Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz Aal Saud of Saudi Arabia......
The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was critical of the inclusion of eight of the monarchs on the Queen's guest list. He said: "It is outrageous that the Queen has invited royal tyrants to celebrate her diamond jubilee.
"She should not host the monarchs of countries such as Brunei, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and United Arab Emirates."
He added: "All eight royal families preside over a variety of human rights abuses, such as detention without trial, torture, the denial of free speech, restrictions on press freedom, discrimination against women, oppression of minority faiths, homophobic persecution, ill-treatment of guest workers and the violent suppression of peaceful protests."....."
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