Bahrain asks UN to postpone human rights inspection

Bahrain has asked the UN to postpone a planned trip by its special investigator to conduct an investigation into torture, the world body said on Thursday.

The Gulf monarchy also imposed restrictions on groups trying to monitor reform in the country.

The UN human rights office in Geneva said Bahrain formally requested postponing until July the visit by the UN special rapporteur on torture, which had been scheduled for March 8-17.

The investigator, Juan Mendez, will express his regrets to Bahraini representatives in meetings next week over this "last minute postponement," said Xabier Celaya, a spokesman of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He would also "seek to secure new dates as he remains very committed to undertaking this important visit," Celaya added.

Bahrain said it was "still undergoing major reforms and wants some important steps, critical to the special rapporteur's mandate, to be in place before he visits so he can assess the progress that Bahrain has made to date," the spokesman said.

Bahrain, a key US ally and host to the US Fifth Fleet, has been under pressure to improve its rights record and institute political reforms after it crushed a pro-democracy uprising last year, imposing a period of martial law.

Fatima al-Balooshi, Bahrain's minister for social development, told the UN Human Rights Council this week that the kingdom had drawn lessons from the upheaval.

"Mistakes were made. Serious wrongs were committed," she told the Geneva forum. "We believe we are on the right track."

The country remains in turmoil as clashes between youths and riot police continue daily and the banking and tourism-based economy, already down after the world financial crisis, struggles to pick up.

Three international rights groups including Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Bahrain's Human Rights and Social Development Ministry informed them this week of new rules limiting them to five-day trips which must be arranged via a Bahraini sponsor.

Brian Dooley, director of the Human Rights Defenders Program with US group Human Rights First, said he made three trips to Bahrain last year without such limits.

"After the BICI report the Bahraini government was supposed to improve its human rights record, but limiting NGO access like this is a step backwards," he said. HRW said it had planned a three week trip in March. Amnesty also hope to send a team.

Bahrain witnessed mass pro-democracy protests against the royal family of King Hamad Al-Khalifa in February 2011 before authorities, backed by neighboring countries, crushed the uprising, killing at least 35 people.

Bahrain human rights groups, in a report last November, said "Bahrain committed violations of various international human rights treaties which it has signed and ratified."

(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)