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Facts About Torure-in-Chief

“Ian Henderson”

Note: Many British officers are with Henderson supervising torture and repression.

Henderson’s deputy is a Briton by the name: Don Bryan. Before coming to Bahrain he served in Hong Kong police.

Mr. Dave Darby is another senior British officer supervising torture and repression

Several names were honoured (on 29 March 2000) by the Al-Khalifa including (names are re-translated from Arabic and hence may have different spelling):

1. Ian Henderson,

2. Raymond Michael Mather Lou,

3. N. C. G. Raffle,

4. J. Stone,

5. Fernon Barry Wamsley,

6. A. B. McInt (or MacKent),

7. Donald Joseph Bryan,

8. Samuel B. Ishaq,

9. James Windsor,

10. David B. R. Darby.

The honouring of these intelligence and interior ministry officers by the Al-Khalifa shows that they are intent on continuing to repress the citizens of Bahrain.

Other security officers honoured by the Amir for their inhuman services were:

1. Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Khalifa

2. Rashid Khalifa Al-Khalifa

3. Khalid Mohammed Al-Khalifa

4. Abdul Aziz Atteyat-Allah Al-Khalifa

5. Isa Ahmed Al-Khalifa

6. Ahmed Abdul Rahman Bu-Ali

7. Hassan Isa Al-Hassan

8. Mohammed Jasim Al-Thawadi

9. Abdl Salam Mohammed Al-Ansari

10. Abdulla Mohammed Jabr Al-Musallam

11. Rabea Hamad Senan

12. Abdul Rahman Rashid Al-Khalifa

13. Mohamed Ali Fadl Al-Nuaimi

14. Duaij Khalifa Al-Khalifa

15. Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Aziz

16. Khalifa Sultan Al-Khalifa

17. Naser Mohamed Jabr Al-Musallam

18. Isa Abdulla Bu-Khowwah

19. Khalifa Ahmed Al-Ghatam

20. Isa Rashid Flaifel

21. Faisal Salim Rashid Al-Absi

22. Rashid Abdul Aziz Al-Khalifa

23. Farooq Salman Al-Maawdah

24. Ahmed Abdulla Al-Abbasi

25. Kamal Abdul Rashid

26. Faez Ahmed Melik

27. Hamad Abdulla Al-Khalifa

28. Ahmed Hasan Al-Dowseri

29. Abdulla Isa Jabr Al-Mussalam

30. Khalifa Mobarak Al-Ghatam

31. Khalifa Salman Al-Khalifa

32. Salman Mohammed Al-Khalifa

33. Ali Duaij Al-Bin-Ali

34. Mohammed Aziz Jalal Khan

35. Javid Latif Kalon

36. Abdulla Salman Al-Maawdah

37. Isa Mohammed Al-Dowsery

38. Adel Jasim Mohammed Flaifel

39. Soud Haji Abdulla

40. Salim Khalifa saad Moftah

41. Abdul Rahman Saqr Al-Khalifa

42. Sabah Duaij Al-Khalifa

43. Mobarak Ahmed Al-Fadil

44. Mohammed Hamad Al-Maawdeh

45. Awatef Hasan Al-Jeshi

46. Ibrahim Habib Al-Ghaith

47. Ali Abdulla Al-Khalifa

48. Naji Fahad Al-Hashel

49. Sultan Ali Al-Suleiti

50. Abdulla Seif Al-Nuaimi

51. Mahmood Hussain Al-Akkori

52. Abdulla Abdul Latif Al-Sadeh

53. Mobrak Najim Al-Najim

54. Monira Ahmed Al-Khalifa

55. Zakkiyya Isa Al-Darraj

56. Nora Abdulla Al-Khalifa

Bahrain: Henderson’s Singaporean villa; More citizens sentenced

More information was revealed about the British officer who has led the repressive security forces since 1966. Sources inside Bahrain indicated that the ruling Al-Khalifa family has purchased a large villa for him in Singapore and that he plans to travel between the two countries. The Singaporean villa will be used as his residence if and when he feels that returning to the UK would be risky for him. On 2 July, the ruling family honoured him publicly. His name was mentioned in the local Arabic media for the first time since he assumed his role in Bahrain in 1966. Bahrain Freedom Movement 7 July 2000 Tel/Fax: (+44) 207 278 9089

3 July 2000 MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — A Briton who was accused of rights abuses while head of Bahrain’s internal security apparatus retired Monday from government service. The Gulf News Agency said Bahraini Prime Minister Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa met Col. Ian Henderson on Monday and thanked him for his contribution to the state during his long service in the security department. Opposition leaders have accused Bahrain’s security services of using force, detention and torture against dissidents. A British newspaper published allegations of torture against Henderson in the mid-1990s. In January, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch welcomed Britain’s decision to investigate Henderson’s alleged role in torture in Bahrain. Henderson, who is in his 70s, has denied the torture claims, saying they were invented by opposition groups to attract media attention. The Scottish-born Henderson took over the security service in 1966, five years before the Gulf island took independence from Britain. He retired from the post of security chief in February 1998 and was rehired to serve as an adviser to the Interior Ministry. It was not known if there was any replacement for Henderson. Beginning in December 1994, Bahrain experienced a violent campaign for political and social reform led by Shiite Muslim activists. More than 40 people were reportedly killed in the unrest. Shiites are a slight majority of the 400,000 citizens of Bahrain, but the ruling Al Khalifa family are Sunni Muslims. The political turbulence has quieted in the past three years under the weight of a government crackdown. Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who has led the emirate since his father’s death last year, has taken a more lenient approach toward the Shiite community. He has also relaxed media restrictions and made moves toward democracy. Bahrain maintains close ties with the United States and is home to the U.S. 5th Fleet. am-jbm

In the UK, Channel 4 and the Guardian covered on 4 July 2000 the news of the retirement of Ian Henderson and confirmed that Scotland Yard is still examining his case. The “chief torturer” will be awaited in Britain where human rights campaigners are calling for his arrest and trial. On the other hand, local newspapers said on 4 July that the Cabinet has approved the law regulating the National Guard. This paramilitary unit was formed by the Amir (then a Crown Price) in early 1998 in the absence of the prime minister. The premier considered the formation of the force as one of the steps to out-maneuvour his grip on the security forces.

British ‘torture chief’ quits

Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, Tuesday July 4, 2000, page 13.

A British colonel accused of torture while running the secret police in Bahrain retired abruptly yesterday from his post as an advisor to the island’s interior ministry.

A statement by the Gulf News Agency said the prime minister, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, met Ian Henderson and thanked him for his ‘long service in the security department’.

Mr Henderson, 71, a Scot, took charge of Bahrain’s security in 1966, five years before it gained independence from Britain. He had previously served in colonial Kenya, fighting the Mau Mau uprising.

Oppositions groups in Bahrain, which has a population of 400,000, frequently complain of human rights abuses. In 1995 they accused Mr Henderson of ‘masterminding a ruthless campaign of repression’. He denied the accusation.

Mr Henderson’s retirement comes as the new ruler of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa, sets about liberalising the state. Besides announcing steps towards democracy, he has released several political detainees and set up a committee to monitor Human rights.

An Amnesty spokesman said:’ We’ve repeatedly raised our concerns about torture with the Bahraini authorities and with Henderson himself, since 1987.

‘ The government of Bahrain has consistently denied torture, but has never, to our knowledge, carried out a proper investigation.’

Mr Henderson left his post as Bahrain’s head of security two years ago to become an advisor to the interior ministry.

In January this year Jack Straw, the home secretary, announced that the organised crime branch of the Metropolitan was investigating Mr Henderson’s activities.

This came after it was reported that Mr Henderson had celebrated New year at his country home on Dartmoor, which is marked with a 5ft-high gallows and a sign saying ‘Beware of the Dogs’.

Lord Avebury, vice-chair of the parliamentary human rights group, suggested that Mr Henderson was liable to be arrested if he set foot in Britain again.

Scotland Yard confirmed yesterday that the papers in the case were still being examined.

 

Bahrain: Government’s declaration on Henderson

The Government of Bahrain declared on 3 July that Ian Henderson , the chief of intelligence department since 1966 has retired. The news was displayed in the local papers and this is the first time since 1966 that his name and tittle has been announced in the Arabic language media. The declaration is aimed at sending a message to the outside world that the “Henderson Era” is over. A spokesperson for the BFM said that this declaration would not change the actual policies of the regime for the following reasons: 1. There are a dozen British officers who assume senior roles in the internal security apparatus, such as Donald Bryan and Dave Derby. Al-Khalifa members and other people, mainly from the outside, fill the rest of the top positions. 2. The security system has been extended with more authorities given to local police stations to intimidate and persecute political activists. This internal security system has unlimited and unaccountable powers by virtue of the State Security Law that was masterminded by Ian Henderson. 3. Ian Henderson and his men will remain in Bahrain to oversee other operations they are involved with, such as espionage. In the UK, Scotland Yard is investigating the case of Ian Henderson for alleged involvement in torturing Bahrainis since 1966. Human rights campaigners are calling for his arrest upon his return to the UK so that other tortures are warned that there is no impunity for human rights abusers. Bahrain Freedom Movement 4 July 2000

Tel/Fax: (+44) 207 278 9089

A Document

From: Nairobi RPTD: Dar Es Salaam (Acting H.C.) Kampala (Acting H.C.) D . Nairobi 12.31 hours 6th August 1964 E . R. 10.56 hours 6th August 1964 Sir Geoffrey de Freites EN CLAIE Immediate No. 1521 Adrressed Commonwealth Relations Office No. 1521 repeated Immediate Dar es Salaam No. 480, Routine Kampala No. 416 ( 13 ) My immediately preceding telegram No. 1520. EXPULSIONS Following is text Kenya Government statement issued 1515 GMT 5th August. Begins: Mr. Richard Kisch, a correspondent who misreported the speech of the Prime Minister at a rally last Sunday August 2nd 1964, has been ordered to leave Kenya and has already left the ccountry. Investigations have revealed that the presence of Mr. Walter John Edward Whitehead, a Civil Servant of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Mr. Gordon Thomas Peter Hender of the East African Railways and Harbours Engineering department, and Mr. Ian Stuart McWalter Henderson, lately of the Police department, is contrary to natiFrom: Nairobi RPTD: Dar Es Salaam (Acting H.C.) Kampala (Acting H.C.) D . Nairobi 12.31 hours 6th August 1964 E . R. 10.56 hours 6th August 1964 Sir Geoffrey de Freites EN CLAIE Immediate No. 1521 Adrressed Commonwealth Relations Office No. 1521 repeated Immediate Dar es Salaam No. 480, Routine Kampala No. 416 ( 13 ) My immediately preceding telegram No. 1520. EXPULSIONS Following is text Kenya Government statement issued 1515 GMT 5th August. Begins: Mr. Richard Kisch, a correspondent who misreported the speech of the Prime Minister at a rally last Sunday August 2nd 1964, has been ordered to leave Kenya and has already left the ccountry. Investigations have revealed that the presence of Mr. Walter John Edward Whitehead, a Civil Servant of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Mr. Gordon Thomas Peter Hender of the East African Railways and Harbours Engineering department, and Mr. Ian Stuart McWalter Henderson, lately of the Police department, is contrary to national security. They therefore have been declared prohibited immigrants and ordered to leave the country within 24 hours and under an order signed by the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr. Oginga Odinga. Copy to: EAST AFRICA POLITICAL DISTRIBUTION J.I.C. DISTRIBUTION C.R.O. Mr. Chatterton

Gulf State’s British torture chief moved

The Independent,5 March 98, Robert Fisk

“Officially, Ian Henderson has lost his job. According to the Bahrainis, the former British Special Branch officer and “hero’ of the Mau Mau war in Kenya has been replaced as head of the island’s Special Intelligence Service by Sheikh Khaled bin-Mohamed bin-Salman al-Khalifa, a member of the emirate’s ruling family. But opposition groups, whose members have storture in the cells of Mr Henderson’s SIS headquarters in Bahrain, have their doubts about the announcement. For almost 10 years, Bahraini dissidents, especillay Shia opposition members demanding a return to parliamentray rule, have claimed Mr Henderson, a Scot largely credited with breaking the Mau Mau’s intelliegence service, has been in charge of the island torture chambers. Thheir allegation is true. His interpreter -after three decades in Bahrain he cannot speak Arabic- is a Jordanian army officer who has personally whipped interrogation victims.

The New York-based human Rights Watch has reported that the toe-nails of prisoners have been torn out. Electricity has also been used on Shia protesters brought to Mr Henderson’s offices, although witnesses say the Briton has himself never inflicted torture.

In Britain, Bahraini opponents of the regime have been demanding Mr Henderson be brought to trial in London for rights abuses, a call supported by a number of Labour MPs. British foreign secretaries have disclaimed any responsibility for his activities – Mr Henderson’s victims have sometimes been deported to London and forbidden form returning to their country of birth, even though they hold full Bahraini passports.  There are rumours in Bahrain that Mr Henderson has cancer and has been given a golden handshake by the al-Khalifa family to buy property for his retirement in the US. But Bahraini opposition still wonder if the announcement is true. Asking for anonymity, one Bahraini critic said yesterday that even if Mr Henderson has been fform his job as SIS head, he may still hold a position within the al-Khalifa’s personal security service. “We are told he is being replaced by Khaled Mohammed-but the sheikh is not an interlligence man, just a traffic official,” the Bahraini said ” I suspect this is just a blind to ease the criticism form London.” His suspicions can only be re-inforced by a statement form the Bahraini government that Mr Henderson will be kept on as an “adviser” to the intererior ministry. 

Britain appointed him to his post in Bahrian prior to the emirate’s independence in 1971. The US has never uttered a word of protest about his presence on the island-not least because of Bahrain’s role as headquarters to the US 5th Fleet in the Gulf. 

Mansour al-Jamri, a spokesman for the “Bahrain Freedom Movement” in London , said it made little difference whether Mr Henderson or Sheikh Khaled ran the security services so long as Bahrainis continued to be impreisoned and tortured. ” If we see the number of..victims decrease ..that will be a positive sign”. Mr al-Jamri’s father, Sheikh Abdul-Amir al-Jamri, has been in jail on the island since January of 1996. Violent protests have decreased in recent months -a reason, perhaps, for Mr Henderson’s departure from the SIS.

—————– 

SUNDAY MAIL, 8 MARCH 1998 (Issue No, 4176)

Jailed threat to scots terror boss

No hiding place for Bahrain barbarian

This scot is accused of some of most horrific crimes known to h. As security chief Ian Henderson ruled in the Gulf state of Bahrain, his men allegedly:

· RANSACKED whole villages and jailed preachers.

· INFLICTED sadistic sex torture on men and women.

· SNATCHED kids as young as seven, returning them dead in body bags.

· USED electric drills to maim prisoners and drill into their skulls.

Hellish torture cells earned Henderson, 69, the nickname ” The Bahrain Barbarian”. But he may soon be staring at the four walls of his own cell if he carries out his plan to slip back quietly into Scotland.

Henderson has been ousted as head of Bahrain’s State Investigation Service. But any thoughts he may harbour of coming home to retirement have been dashed due to a sickening catalogue of allegations against his organisation.

MP George Galloway, member for Hillhead, Glasgow, has demanded swift retribution against Hendersonif he sets foot in Scotland. And human rights campaigner Lord Avebury is calling on the Attorney General to take action against him under section 132 of the Criminal Justice Act.

Lord Avebury said: ” Since Britain signed the UN convention against torture, it means we must prosecute alleged offenders, our own citizens or not, and whether or not the offences were out with our jurisdiction. ” He is liable for prosecution”. ” there may be difficulty proving he had tortured anyone personally. ” However under the Nuremberg principle, heads of an organisation are responsible for the actions of subordinates. ” Hermann Goering was not accused of murdering Jews perso, but he led the organisation that was responsible – just like Henderson.

” Britons would hang their heads in shame if they knew what his organisation has done. ” we never contemplate the possibility that a British citizen should oversee these atrocities and tortures. ” Some of the worst examples include the imprisonment and torture of hundreds of children.”

And Mr. Galloway said: ” Henderson must face justice. We have a duty to take action against a man whose offices have overseen the most hideous tortures.”

Henderson, born in Aberdeenshire, was replace by a member of the ruling Al Khalifa family last week.

Amnesty International has produced a damning, detailed report against the Bahrain State Investigation Service, claiming the scale of its atrocities had risen to an unprecedented level.

Even though Henderson has stepped down, the Bahrain Freedom Movement don’t believe things are going to change dramatically. Dr Sayeed Shehabi, who fled to Britain, said last night: ” No one will be safe until all his henchmen are gone. ” He may have stepped down from his position, he leaves behind a regime which continues to torture, maim and imprison innocent men, women and children”.

Henderson won medals extracting confessions from Mau Mau rebels in British- ruled Kenya in the late 1950s.After a career in the police, he became head of the Kenyan Special Branch, where he was known for his ability to ” extract” information from rebels tribesmen. His repitation got him deported in 1964, the minute Kenya won her independence. Balding Henderson and his wife Marie moved to Bahrain, a British protectorate, where he became head of Special Brach in 1966.

Last night, a Bahrain Embassy spokesman said: ” We have no information on Ian Henderson’s future plans.”

The Big Issue in Scotland

Issue No: 159 (26 Feb – 4 mar 1998)

How We Toppled A Tyrant

SPECIAL REPORT BY NEIL MACKAY

Manama was suddenly plunged into total darkness. As a show of solidarity, Bahrain’s pro-democracy campaigners had doused the lights in their homes and on their streets in unison. The secret police patrolled the pitch-black capital looking for dissidents, their torches picking over the gloom. The spotlights, circling walls, illuminated a poster. The lettering was English, not Arabic. It was a page of the Big Issue in Scotland, smuggled into the country and pasted up by protestors. The headline read: “No blood on my hands”.

Beneath a picture of a dapper middle-aged man with a public school tie was a story, which had become a symbol of hope for Bahrainis fighting against their country’s autocratic rulers. For the first time, that article –which went on to win two awards – had called to account the head of Bahrain’s intelligence service, Scottish colonel Ian Henderson. He stands accused of directing torture, murder and repression.

The secretive director of intelligence had never spoken of his role before. Bahraini dissidents in exile in Bahrain and the Gulf kingdom saw the interview – in which Henderson effectively admitted his troops carried out torture – as the first victory in a long was to have the Scot brought to book.

Now that the war seems to be over. This week The Big Issue in Scotland can reveal that the 71-year-old has been removed as head of the ‘torture squad’. He is to be replaced by a young member of the ruling family.

Bahrain’s pro-democracy groups claim international pressure led by The Big Issue in Scotland resulted in Hunderson’s removal – but State propaganda maintains otherwise, Bahrain’s ambassador, himself a member of the Royal family, contacted The Big Issue and insisted Henderson had merelyretired.

Leading human rights campaigners contend Bahrain, keen to be seen as a ‘good guy’ by the West, took the first opportunity they could to get rid of their aging secret policeman.

The Big Issue in Scotland, which campaigned for over a year to have Henderson removed, has received huge acclaim as a key player ending hid reign of terror. Mansoor al-Jamri, leader of the Bahrain Freedom Movement (BFM), said: “The Big Issue’s campaign has been humanistic, brave and pioneering.

“You have led those who aspire to a fairer, kinder world. You have fulfilled the role of true journalists in fighting evil and crusading for good”.

The exiled dissident, now living in London, added: “The Big Issue has carried a banner of justice and a torch of truth for the last year. The people of Bahrain will be forever in your debt.”

Locals call Henderson, a former colonial special branch agent, “the butcher of Bahrain”. The Scot fought in the bloody Kenyan independence war, and was later deported for his role in the conflict. He worked for Rhodesian security and apartheid South Africa before moving to Bahrain over 30 years ago.

The majority of Bahrainis are Shi’ite Muslims. They have been discriminated against by the ruling Sunni Muslims since independence in 1971. Dissidents want rulers, who have destroyed all democracy, to restore parliament following its 1975 suspension and lift the staggering violence; arrest, torture, detention without trial (even for children), forced exile and murder.

When The Big Issue interviewed Henderson, he admitted that “vigorous interrogation” was common, but denied directing torture.

But victims we have spoken to described their horrific treatment at the hands of Henderson’s men. Zaki Khalifa, now seeking British political asylum, was trussed up, hung by his arms, beaten and kept standing for 72 hours. He was just 17 when he endured the 29-day ordeal. Now permanently disabled form the abuse, he recalls one chilling face-to-face encounter with Henderson. “I told him that I had told the guards everything I knew. He just looked at me with cold emotionless eyes and said, ‘Do you think you can ever go home?’ I thought then, I was going to die. I just prayed that my end would be quick.”

Many other dissidents have died under torture. When quizzed by The Big Issue, Henderson said: “Torture is a much abused term, Arabs have a different way of looking at things.”

The most sickening case against Bahrain is that of Saeed al-Eskafi. The 16-year-old was arrested after a street campaign and died under interrogation. His body had been burned with and iron and he had been sexually assaulted.

The rape of prisoners is not uncommon. Bahrain is run like a feudal sheikdom. Its 500,000 population are completely under the power of the emir, Sheikh Isa Bin Salman al-Khalifa –although many ex-patriot Britons live in opulent luxury. Until now Henderson has been described as the power behind the throne.

BFM leader Mansoor al-Jamri, whose father is the jailed leader of the dissidmovement, said Henderson had become a “liability” in Bahrain, bringing too much attention to the country’s abysmal human rights record.

It is though that a token gesture on human rights, like the departure of Henderson, will keep the eyes of the West away from the regime’s abuses.

With rumours now circulating of Henderson’s plans to retire to the UK or America, there are calls for his prosecution. In his interview with The Big Issue Henderson said he dreamed of retiring to Scotland. And he poured scorn on calls for his arrest, saying: “That would be a very big mistake. They wouldn’t have a legal let to stand on.”

But a US Government source said: “Henderson sounds like a very bad character. The Government wouldn’t want him to set foot on US soil.”

Henderson’s escape routes from Bahrain seem cut off. His past is catching up with him.

Britain’s leading human rights campaigner, Lord Avebury, said: “The Big Issue should take every credit. While horror after horror was unfolding in Bahrain, no one cared by The Big Issue. It led the way in calling for action.”

The end of Henderson’s regime has added new momentum to the BFM’s struggle. “We have won a battle, but we still have to fight the war,” says Mansoor al-Jamri. “Henderson has gone, but the regime he controlled will remain the same. At the end of the day we have only replaced one evil with a new evil.” END

Bahrain: Opposition figure interviewed on reported dismissal of security head

Text of telephone interview with Ali Salman, a Bahraini opposition figure in London by Muhammad Kurayshan in Doha broadcast live by Qatari Al-Jazirah satellite TV on 28th February 1998 (Source: BBC Monintoring Service).

[Kurayshan] Good evening, Mr Salman. How do you view the dismissal of [Bahrain’s Security Chief] Ian Henderson?

[Salman] So far, the picture is not clear. The only certain development is that one of the ruling family members has been appointed director of the state intelligence service. This was one of Ian Henderson’s previous duties, among the other duties he has been assuming at the Interior Ministry. The dismissal is not certain as yet. A week ago, Ian Henderson was at the inauguration of an Interior Ministry centre. He was accompanying the interior minister.

[Q] Perhaps this is because of reports that he kept his position as an adviser to the interior minister.

[A] That is possible. No doubt the opposition pressure and the continuous nationalist demands over many years are working in this direction, forcing the state to make some formal changes. We are aware that there are more than 30 foreigners, British and other nationalities, managing the security apparatus. These are led by Ian Henderson.

[Q] It may be worth noting that Henderson’s dismissawas one of your persistent demands, but when this took place we noted that your reaction was lukewarm as though the event was not so important to you perhaps.

[A] For one thing, we are not certain of the resignation. For another, the presence of the other foreigners dampened our jubilation. The continuous violent practices – we receive daily reports about new torture victims – reduce our joy in this regard. All these things make the opposition statements devoid of joy.

[Q] Mr Salman, do you have any information, however rudimentary, about the character of Shaykh Khalid Bin Muhammad Bin Salman Al Khalifah? Do you believe that his attitude differs from the one you referred to a short while ago?

[A] The first observation is that the current appointments are confined to the ruling family. In addition to Khalid Bin Muhammad, a family member has also been appointed as governor of Muharraq and another as governor of Manama. This orientation indicates ill intentions towards the people and failure to recognize the abilities of other citizens in general. All we wish is that this new appointee will offer positive initiatives on the ground. There are 2,000 detainees concerning whom he needs to take action. There are daily reports on torture victims. We need to see indications so that we could give an impression about this person. However, we the opposition have the general impression that this policy, regrettably, is adopted at the highest political levels in the country.

[Q] If Shaykh Khalid takes initto calm the atmosphere with the opposition, will you respond positively?

[A] The opposition will respond positively to any positive step so as to arrive at a state of genuine stability in the country and discuss the Bahraini people’s political demands. Any positive step will be reciprocated by positive steps on the part of the opposition.

[Kurayshan] Ali Salman, the Bahraini oppositionist from London, Thank you very much.

Al-Jazirah Satellite Channel, Doha, in Arabic 2150 gmt 28 Feb 98 (BBC Mon ME1 MEPol rs)

Financial Times

Friday February 20,1998

Bahrain spy chief replaced

Ian Henderson, the reclusive 70-year-old British head of Bahrain’s Intelligence Service blamed by Shia dissidents for the Sunni government’s repressive policies, has been replaced.

His successor is Sheikh Khalid Bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa, a member of the ruling Al Khalifa family, whose members hold all the key cabinet posts.

Mr. Henderson, a former colonial intelligence officer in Kenya who made his name during the 1950s Mau Mau rebellion, was appointed in 1966 by Sheikh Isa. Although nominally under the control of the interior ministry, Mr. Henderson became a power in his own right with direct access to the ruler.

According to western diplomats Mr. Henderson had” long wanted to retire, and had only stayed at the urging of the ruler himself.” His departure is seen by many in both the minority Sunni and the Shia communities as the end of the colonial era; and according to Bahrain Freedom Movement in London, ” the end of an era of torture and repression.”

The New-York based Human Rights Watch recently castigated Bahrain for repeated violations of civil and political rights.

11 December 96: A significant reorganisation of the interior ministry was announced by the Bahraini government with plans to create more capabilities for intelligence services and repressive units. The new organisation was designed with the view that Ian Henderson, the Scotsman who controlled all security operations in Bahrain since 1966, may not be in charge of the new structure in a short time

The First Ever Interview with Ian Henderson

Scots security boss branded “master torturer” of Bahrain

“No blood on my hands”

EXCLUSIVE: The Big Issue in Scotland dated 28 December – 8 January 1997

by Neil Mackay

A SCOT who heads a Middle East “torture squad” could face arrest if he retires to Britain, The Big Issue in Scotland can reveal. Colonel Ian Henderson spoke of his hopes to give up his role as Bahrain’s Director of Intelligence and spend his final days in Scotland. But retirement plans could be his downfall, as Henderson could be arrested and tried for a catalogue of alleged crimes if he sets foot in Britain.

Human rights campaigners and Bahrainis fleeing persecution claim Henderson master-minded a reign of terror by the security forces – including torture, detention without trial and forced exile. Legal experts say the UN Convention Against Torture places an obligation on Britain to arrest or extradite him.

Henderson, known as “the master torturer”, has never spoken before of his role as a hired gun for the oppressive regime – he was decorated for fighting the Mau-Mau in Kenya before signing up as a mercenary in Bahrain.

The well-spoken 69-year-old poured scorn on calls for his arrest, saying: “That would be a big mistake. They wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on.” Henderson admits “vigorous interrogation” is common, but denies torturing or directing torture, adding: “I’ve never lifted a finger against anyone, or asked officers to do so.” Lord Avebury, UK Parliamentary Human Rights Group Chairman, said Henderson was “awash with blood”.

One victim Zaki Khalifa, seeking British political asylum, told how Henderson’s men trussed him, hung him by his arms, beat him for days and kept him standing for 72 hours. Henderson allegedly threatened Khalifa, who is now almost crippled, that he would never leave the jail. The 25-year-old said: “Henderson is a monster.”

Since pro-democracy demonstrations flared in 1994, Henderson has ordered interrogations leading to death through torture, according to the Bahrain Freedom Movement (BFM). Security forces also shot demonstrators dead. Many Bahrainis have been forcibly exiled, and detention without trial – even for children – is common. The BFM says ‘rape squads’ sexually assault prisoners. The death of 16-year-old Saeed Al-Eskafi shocked campaigners who claim he had been repeatedly raped and burned with an iron. The Bahraini Embassy described Saeed’s death as “natural”. Henderson dismissed BFM accusations as pro-Iranian propaganda, a claim the BFM deny. However, Henderson admitted: “There has been violence on both sides.”

Henderson denied torture allegations, including claims of electric shocks and drilling victims’ bodies, saying: “I don’t do nine-tenths of what I’m accused of. I’m an easy propaganda target because I’m British. BFM allegations of violence are nonsense. My job is to resist violence.” The European Parliament condemned Bahrain for human rights abuses, calling on Britain to order Henderson to quit Bahrain.

A foreign Office spokesman said the Government was concerned about Human rights abuses. The issue has been raised at ministerial level with Bahrain. However, Britain does not accept responsibility for Henderson’s actions despite his UK citizenship.

The Bahrain Embassy refused to comment on Henderson’s role claiming it could not “divulge information concerning internal security”. The BFM describes Henderson as “the power behind Bahrain’s throne”. It is claimed that he has a dozen British officers on staff, some of whom are alleged to have directed interrogations.

BFM believe Henderson has a security company working for him in London spying on Bahrain exiles. Exiled BFM leader Mansoor Al-Jamri, whose father has been jailed and sister detained and tortured, said Henderson was personally responsible for directing repression. The Scots-educated protester said: “Henderson is ruthless. Even the king can’t save you from him. “Torturers cannot act with impunity, Britain must arrest him when he next arrives.”

Campaigners demand Britain steps up pressure on Bahrain. There are also calls for economic sanctions. Exile Abdul Mohammed, Secretary-General of Copenhagen-based Bahrain Human Rights Organisation, said Henderson gave orders resulting in his torture. “People will continue to die, unless Britain compels Bahrain to reform,” he added.

Amnesty International’s Bahrain expert Hania Mufti said human rights in Bahrain, ruled by the autocratic Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa, are “in crisis”, and torture is “routine and widespread”. Bahrain human rights are bottom of western government agendas, Mufti added.

Lord Avebury, Parliamentary Human Rights Chairman, claims Britain and America are unwilling to get tough on Bahrain because it is militarily and economically strategic in the Gulf. He labeled Henderson “the arch torturer at the apex of repression”, urging British-based victims to take civil action if he returns. But Avebury would prefer to see Henderson jailed.

Extracts from “The Independent” 18 Feb 96

Briton at the heart of Bahrain’s brutality rule: Robert FISK on the secretive and widely feared ‘power behind the throne’ of the troubled emirate

By ROBERT FISK

IAN Stewart MacWalter Henderson has torturers on his staff. In the embattled state of BAHRAIN, he is the most feared of all secret policemen, the General Director of Security and head of the State Investigation Department, a 67-year-old ex-British police superintendent whose officers routinely beat prisoners, both in the basements of the SIS offices and in the al- Qalaa jail. Leaders of the Bahraini opposition believe he is the power behind the throne of Sheikh Issa bin Salman al-Khalifa, and they may well be right.

Interviews with former Bahraini prisoners living in Beirut, Damascus, Qatar and London provide consistent and compelling evidence that severe beatings and even sexual assaults have been carried out against prisoners under Henderson’s responsibility for well over a decade. Although the British Government has repeatedly denied any connection with Henderson, the Foreign Office remains deeply embarrassed by the role of the former Special Branch officer who twice won the George Medal for his role fighting the Mau Mau in British-ruled Kenya. Accounts given to me by Bahraini nationals suggest that Henderson now wields total power over the island’s security apparatus.

A leading Shia clergyman has described to me how he was beaten with a cane last year by a Jordanian SIS colonel called Adel Fleifl – who is Henderson’s official interpreter. The same man was accused of torturing a young Shia woman in 1985 by tying her to a pole in SIS headquarters and beating her insensible with his fists. One former prisoner claims that in the 1980s he was sexually abused in Henderson’s headquarters by another British officer who forced a bottle into his anus in an attempt to persuade him to reveal the names of Shia opponents of Sheikh Issa’s regime. The man identified the Briton by name and we have confirmed that a British officer of the same name worked for Henderson at the time.

Henderson himself is a bespectacled, almost avuncular, figure whose politeness is as legendary as his staff’s brutality. He has never personally harmed a prisoner – nor, so far as is known, been present at torture sessions – and his fourth-floor offices and archive rooms in Bahrain’s SIS headquarters suggest the workplace of a hard-pressed civil servant rather than that of the secret policeman he is. His wife is his personal secretary, a woman in her mid-60s who, dressed in a brown one-piece suit – ‘like any English housewife’ as one ex-detainee described her – ushers prisoners into her husband’s office for interrogation. Sometimes Henderson prefers to meet important prisoners at the al-Hidd headquarters of the Bahraini Interior Ministry Special Forces whose all- Pakistani units smartly salute Henderson on his arrival and guard him during his daily swim near the BAHRAIN dry-dock complex. Sheikh Khalil Sultan, a prominent Shia clergyman now in exile, met Henderson 20 times last year during a series of negotiations that briefly halted the largely Shia insurrection against Sheikh Issa – talks which proved beyond doubt that the former colonial police officer plays a crucial personal role in dealing with opposition demands for the return of parliament and constitutional democracy to the emirate. Local newspaper photographs of Henderson – which never identify him by name – invariably show him next to the Interior Minister, Sheikh Mohamed al-Khalifa, and the ministry’s director of training, Colonel Hassan Issa al-Hassan.

Voice of Bahrain, May 1993 issue

Henderson: The British Quasi-Colonial Ruler of Bahrain

Many intellectual people would argue that we are currently living in the age of democracy and human rights. Furthermore, colonial rule as was practiced before the Second World War is over. However, ordinary people see things differently. Colonial rule does exist with different protocols. There is no doubt that Bahrain is an independent state. It is also a member of United Nation. It has a national flag, a national anthern, a national currency and many other national features. However, common people see at the core of every thing, there is a controlling factor. Any decision is valid as long as it is cleared by “al Dakhiliyah”, i.e. Interior Ministry. At the heart of the interior Ministry, there is a central command which has been chaired by British officers ever since its creation.

When its Director General (Mr. Jim Bill) retired in December 1992, a more notorious person was put in-charge, yes, as you may have guessed, it was: Ian Henderson. The conclusion arrived at by a common person can be corroborated by “intellectual” assessment as follows.

Henderson is a British officer. He has been in charge of intelligence service since 1966. British officially controlled Bahrain until 1971. In1956, The British army was deployed to suppress the national uprising, which started in 1954. The British then established the Special Branch (See Dr. M. Al-Rumeihi in his PhD Thesis on Bahrain). A state of emergency was declared and the then three leaders of the uprising were jailed in the British Island of St. Helena. The three were then released in 1961 and compensated after a labour MP had campaigned for them.

In 1965 another uprising was quelled by the Brithish army stationed in Bahrain. This time the British decided to strengthen the intelligence service. And in 1966, the security service was re-structured by installing Ian Henderson at the top of the organization to suppress any opposition to the feudal regime of Al Khalifa. Before then Ian Henderson had been in Kenya.

The Keesing’s Contemporary Archives No. 20333 (October 3-10.1964) provides a detailed account of an encounter between the then Kenyan Minister for home affairs and a group og British security officers, amongst them Mr. Ian Henderson. Extracts from the referenced archives are as follows:

“Mr. Oginga Odinga, the minister of Home Affairs, Declared Assistant Commissioner of Police Leslis Pridgeon a prohibited immigrant on July 1 and ordered him ro leave the country within 24 hours, no explanation of reason for this action being given other than that its was “in the interests of internal security.” Mr. Pridgeon had been in command of the police force which suppressed the Somali election riot at Isiols in May 1963 (see 19487 A). The British High Commissioner, Sir Geoffrey de Freitas, sent a strongly-worded protest against Mr. Pridgeon’s expulsion to Mr. Kenyatta on July 2. ” Mr. Odinga stated at a press conference on July 10 that Mr. Pridgeon’s expulsion was “the first set” in a “cleaning-out process designed to rid the country of ill-intentioned imperialist remnants,” by whom “a cloud of suspicion and rumours” had been “deliberately created to sow the seeds of discord within the Government by discrediting my standing in the political leadership”.

“Four other Britons, including Mr Ian Henderson, G,M., a retired Assistant Commissioner of police, who had captured the Mau Mau “Field-Marshal” Dedan Kimathi in 1956 (see 15638 A), were declared prohibited immigrants on Aug.5 and ordered to leave within 24 hours. After the British High Commissioner had failed to obtain an extension of the time limit for trhe deportees, both he and the governor-general, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, Made representations on their hehalf to Mr.Kenyatta, while Sir Alec Douglas -Home Telegraphed the Prime Minister of Kenya in the matter without apparent avail”.

Another source of information continues the story. Janathan Block and Patrick Fitzgerald in their book “British intelligence and Covert Action” page 154 state: ” Shortly after independence Kenyatta let it be known that the British had refused to let him appoint Odinga as Finance Minister. Instead, he became Minster of Home Affairs, where he had to oversee the tricky process of pulling the rug out from under the regionally-biased independence constitution. He was also given the task of deporting a while police intelligence officer. Ian Henderson, a task which made him unpopular with the whit settlers. Henderson subsequently turned up in Bahrain where he devised and implemented the Gulf’s most elaborate and pervasive internal security system”. The Economist of 22 August 1987 described Henderson’s security service system as: “Bahrain’s efficient British-officered security force, which contrives to impose the strictest security in the nicest possible way”.. “Bahrain’s jails contain plenty of political prisoners”.. “A polite police state”.

The British Government has a formal response to any enquiry regarding Ian Henderson: Henderson and other Britons have not been seconded by HM Government. The night be technically true but not so from an historical point of view. Henderson was put in-charge of the intelligence service in 1966 when Britain controlled Bahrain. It might be said that : OK, that was in the sixties, But later on Henderson was responsible to the Al-Khalifa ruling family. The Bahraini public does not see the issue in this way. It is also immoral to say the least, when Britain raises the flag of freedom and democracy, while paying no attention to individuals who after all are British and were senior British officials some years age. Moreover, these are still British citizens and would be protected by HM Government if any happens to them. The people of Bahrain see Henderson and likes as instruments used by Al-Khalifa and Britain to succumb the country to the rule of a feudal regime for the gratification of ill individuals. The British Government has a moral obligation to prove that it is not implementing a double-standard policy regarding human rights and democracy.

 Henderson: Tortured the Mau Mau Activists before the Bahrainis

The Kenyan Connection

A lot has been said about Ian Henderson. His name has symbolised repression and atrocities since his appointment as Bahrain’s intelligence chief in 1966. He remains a mysterious individual, though, Bahrain’s opposition consider him, more or less, enemy number 1. Bahrainis know that Henderson was engaged in suppressing the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, that he was expelled from there in 1964 after Kenya’s independence and that Britain installed him as head of Bahrain’s intelligence after quelling the workers and students uprising of 1965.

More about Henderson’s personality has been highlighted by the newly published book “MauMau and Kenya” by Wunyabari O. Maloba (Indiana University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-25333664-3). Maloba explains the background to the Mau Mau revolt starting from the period before British colonial rule when the Kikuyu people were involved in a southward expansion owning and utilising the land. British settlers started occupying land starting from 1900 after building the Uganda railway. The latter represented Britain’s commitment to securing a firm foothold in East African including the part that became to be called Kenya after 1920. Because Kenya and Uganda lacked minerals, the railway could be profitable only if it stimulated agricultural production. To this end the British (then controlling Kenya as protectorate) considered encouraging the Indians (then under the British rule) to colonize the land. Another British proposal was put to the Jews to migrate to Kenya and establish a Jewish state. However, the Zionist Congress voted to reject the proposal. The latter came after resistance from white settlers who argued that only Christians, and not Jews, were ideally suited to bring the benefits of Western civilization to Africans.

Africans would in the circumstances have to be controlled and disciplined. In the years ahead, up to 1923 and beyond, the white settlers agitated for self-rule in one form or another, and especially for severe legislation in dealing with Africans, such as the “Land Alienation Act” and “Land Ordinance” leasing the land to settlers for 99 and 999 years consequently. Land scarcity in Kikuyuland inevitably led to overutilization of land, which aggravated the agricultural and economic problems. An emotional issue around which many African protests revolved was competition intensity for land possession and utilization. The development of African nationalism up to 1939 was a series of protests against colonial policies. Manyofthose who protested and formed protest organizations wcre aware of the physical power of the state. Their objectives remained, therefore, modest requests for reform within the colonial system

Chapter 3 of Maloba book is titled “Years of Collision”, and it is from here onwards, Ian Henderson is mentioned in relation to suppression of the uprising. Henderson even wrote a book about his adventures titled “Man Hunt in Kenya” (published in New York: Doubleday, 1958). Maloba referred to Henderson’s book which he found to emphasize Henderson’s side of the story than provide a redaction of the facts.

In 1950, an important meeting of the influential Kenyan African Union (KAU) and trade union leaders recognised the immense potential for an oath as an in instrument for achieving unity and concerted action. In 1952, it was decided to expand oath-taking campaign to as many people as possible toc reate amass organisation. In his capacity as intelligence officer, Henderson embarked on recruiting Africans as informers. KAU found a member of the central committee to be a spy. The taxi driver, J. N. Mungai, who had been transporting KAU leaders confessed that: from 1944, he was helping Ian Henderson of CID with information to him concerning KAU leaders, which led to the arrest and deportation of Markham Singh. Henderson gave this spy Shs. 100 in order to meet Mau Mau oath fee. Some 400 Africans were arrested by Henderson group with the help of African informers.

During 1952, African nationalist movement acquired a lot of ammunition and the first groups of fighters were despatched to Aberdare Mountains and to Mount Kenya. WaruhiuItote, known as General China, went to Mount Kenya. Since 1953, there was a noticeable expansion of the Special Branch under the direction of British intelligence of finials.. Perpetual harassment and infiltration by trained spies and informers weakened the Mau Mau adherents. Then there were the dreaded screening teams (Hooded African informers) who parade randomly arrested Africans and point out Mau Mau activists. However, the turning point for Britain was the arrest in January 1954 of General China.

Ian Henderson interrogated General China for 68 hours. Henderson was born in Kenya and spoke Kikuyu language fluently. China broke down and gave Henderson detailed insight into Mau Mau organisation. Henderson managed to convince General China to arrange for peace talks between the government and the forces, which used to be under China’s cornmand. This attempt failed to cause the mass surrender sought by Henderson. During the lull (3 months) Henderson’s group gathered more information and arrested more than a thousand in Nairobi (Mau Mau reserves) in three days.

After 1955, the most effective method used by the government against Mau Mau was the “pseudo-gangs” composed of ex-African guerrillas, again under the supervision of Henderson. These were sent to the forest (without white supervision) and managed to kill their former comrades. These were released from capital punishment in return for going back against their people. Mau Mau casualties increased considerably in 1955, when two thousand guerrillas were still active in the mountains. The policy of food denial was tightened by requiring that cattle be kept in guarded enclosures during the night and prohibiting the peasant cultivation of food crops within three miles of the forest. Shortage of ammunition and lack of food considerably reduced the fighting capacity of the guerrillas, who were now hunted down deep in the forest. By 1956, British forces stated that 503 Mau Mau guerrillas were killed, 1,035 wounded, 1,550 captured in action, 26,625 arrested and 2,714 surrendered. Only 63 white re killed. Five hundred guerrillas remained fighting under Dedan Kimathi. Henderson made it known that the pressure will not be relaxed until the capture of Kimathi. On 21 October 1956, Henderson captured Kimathi and the British offensive came to an end.

Not surprising that when Kenya gained its dependence, the then (October 1964) Kenyan Sinister for Home Affairs, Mr. Oginga Odinga, declared Mr. Ian Henderson (with four other British security officers) as illegal immigrants and ordered them to leave Kenya within 24 hours. Soon afterwards, Britain (then controlling Bahrain) despatched Henderson in 1966 to re-structure the intelligence network following the uprising of 1965 (in Bahrain). Henderson lost no time in implementing his skills and expertise to suppress Bahrainis. All interrogation methods used to break down General China and other Mau Mau leaders were used. There is very close comparison to the methods used in interrogation and suppression, such as letting the imprisoned believe that security forces know every thing, the extensive use of African informers by threatening them with long term jails or execution if they didn’t cooperate, calling for peace with senior figures while arresting followers, use of screening teams and pseudo-gangs. (refer to Voice of Bahrain, May 1993, Issue No.17 for more information on Henderson).

From the “Voice of Bahrain” January 1994

January 1995

Henderson: A Symbol of Hate and Embarrassment

Ian Henderson is a symbol of hate in Bahrain and an embarrassment in London. The Times of 25 January 1995 wrote: “Lord Avebury, a leading human rights campaigner, is to propose amending a long-standing law preventing British citizens from enlisting in foreign armies so that British passport holders would also be forbidden to serve in foreign security forces. His move follows a letter he wrote to Douglas Hogg, the Minister of State at the Foreign Office, expressing concern at the employment by the Bahrain Government of Ian Henderson, a British citizen who holds a senior position in the country’s security apparatus. Lord Avebury said that the three Bahraini Shia dissidents, who recently applied for political asylum in Britain, had told him that some people in Bahrain thought that Mr. Henderson’s role meant that Britain supported the Bahrain Government.

“The presence of a British citizen in the top levels of another state’s security forces makes it seem as though we officially support their methods of dealing with dissent” he said.

Lord Avebury intends to consult legal experts in the House of Lords to see how the 1870 Foreign Enlistment Act can be broadened to include serving in foreign security services. In a letter to Douglas Hurd, Lord Avebury also asked the Foreign Secretary not to give in to pressure by Sheikh Muhammed al-Khalifa, the Foreign Minister, who arrives on Friday to discuss the three dissidents’ request for asylum. He asked Mr Hurd to point out to Sheikh al-Khalifa that, according to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Bahrain was in breach of its obligations under international law by expelling its own citizens. A decision on the three will be taken by the Home Office”.

The Guardian of 30 January wrote “The recent unrest in Bahrain has unexpectedly focused attention on a handful of British citizens who wield enormous influence behind the thrones of the ruling sheikhs in the Gulf…At last December’s demonstrations for democracy in Bahrain, a hate figure mentioned frequently in popular slogans was the chief adviser on security matters, Ian Henderson. For the past three decades, Mr Henderson has been a taboo subject. Now the opposition movement wants the former colonial to be asked to leave the island…In Bahrain, he created the Special Branch and is said to have played a key role in framing internment laws which allow the security forces to detain suspects for three years.

The Notices of Motions published by the British House of Commons on 25 January, circulated Motion No. 458 signed by 17 British MPs entitled “British Mercenaries in Bahrain”. The Motion stated: That this House expresses grave concern at the continuing savage repression against the demonstrators for democracy in Bahrain; is shocked at the presence of British hired mercenaries in the ranks of the security apparatus, SIS, of the Bahrain Royal dictatorship; in particular deplores the role of Mr Ian Henderson, the chief of the SIS and a British citizen who has presided over a service which has killed at least nine people under torture, illegally deported more that 1,000 Bahrainis, warned hundreds more not to return to the country and which has, since the most recent democratic upheaval last November, shot dead six demonstrators and arrested without charge, 1,500 more and now deported three leading opposition figures to London via Dubai; and calls upon Her Majesty’s Government to dissociate itself from the actions of British mercenaries in Bahrain, to demand respect for basic human rights in Bahrain and to support those struggling for the restoration of the constitution in Bahrain, the establishment of representative government there and an end to the massacre of democrats there”.

The Sunday Times of 5 February 1995 published an article by Jon Swain entitled “Gulf dissidents accuse colonial hero of torture” with new revelations about Ian Henderson. Many thousands copies of the article have been circulated by Bahrainis inside Bahrian:

At six in the morning, while Bahrain slumbers, Ian Henderson, the most powerful but elusive British citizen in the Gulf, is already up and about. He seldom varies his routine. Rising with the sun, he begins his day with coffee and a sharp bout of exercise. Then he settles down to his work: ensuring that law and order is maintained in the Gulf island state.

It is becoming a taxing job, as an increasingly restless opposition takes to the streets to demand democracy. It is hard to know, though, how this blue-blazered, balding colonial figure of 67 is bearing up: security-conscious to the degree that he is seldom seen in public, he almost never allows himself to be photographed; when he does, he invariable hides behind sunglasses.

“He is illusive like the Scarlet Pimpernel,” said a former diplomat stationed in Bahrain, “a man in the shadows whom we used to hear of but never saw”.

Not, perhaps, for a lot longer. Much as he would choose to avoid it, Bahrain’s recent spate of unrest has put Henderson back in the limelight for the first time since he won the George Medal nearly 40 years ago as a colonial police officer fighting the Mau Mau. Only this time he has become a hate figure, instead of the hero he was in pre-independence Kenya. He is under mounting pressure to retire and leave Bahrain for good. Old Kenya hands still recall how, alone and almost always unarmed, he made more than 60 trips into the forest to contact the Mau Mau terrorist leaders; Henderson captured Dedan Kemathi, a notorious chief later executed by the British.

He came to the Gulf in 1966, when the British installed him as head of Bahrain’s intelligence service after quelling a workers’ and students’ uprising the year before. Later, he was recruited by the Bahraini royal family and stayed on to become director-general of security, the key job in which he supervises the entire apparatus from intelligence gathering and Special Branch work to prisons, coastguards and traffic police.

The suppression of street demonstrations last year has made him the butt of anti-government slogans. Since the troubles broke out in December, at least six people -including a policeman- have died; 2,000 have been arrested and seven Shi’ite Muslim clerics have been expelled.

The troubles began with the arrest of Sheikh Ali Salman, a Shi’ite preacher who returned from religious studies in Iran to play a prominent part in gathering 25,000 signatures on a petition demanding the restoration of the Bahraini parliament and the 1975 constitution.

The ruling Al-Khalifa royal family is deeply suspicious of Iran’s objectives in the Gulf and fears the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. Consequently, it identified Salman as a troublemaker and he was forcibly deported with other clerics, He is now in Britain and has applied for asylum.

The opposition accuses Henderson of masterminding a ruthless campaign of repression, including torture, arbitrary detention and forced deportations. One opposition newspaper described him as “British quasi-colonial ruler of Bahrain”, and questioned why a British citizen should wield such influence nearly 25 years after Bahrain’s independence.

It is a question Lord Avebury, the human rights campaigner, also wants answered. He has written to Douglas Hogg, the Foreign Office minister about Henderson. He said last week: “The presence of a British citizen in the top levels of another state’s security forces makes it seem as though we officially support their method of dealing with dissent.” Avebury is seeking ways of amending an 1870 law that prohibits British citizens from enlisting in foreign armies to include British passport-holders serving in foreign security forces.

However UK officials say that as Henderson was not seconded to the state by the British government, but worked there for the Bahraini royal family, this country cannot intervene.

Bahraini exiles in London argue that Henderson, seen as the mascot of a regime which detains and tortures opponents, is damaging Britain’s image. He was instrumental in framing Bahrain’s draconian internment laws, which allow security forces to detain suspects incommunicado for three years without charge or trial; and he is the brains behind the recent wave of deportation that included seven young clerics.

Amnesty International’s latest report said it was “seriously concerned” by the abuse of human rights in Bahrain. Its delegates have been denied access since 1987.

Salman, deported last month, said in London that during his interrogation, Bahraini officers had asked him questions from a list written in English. Another exiled said: “There is nothing over Henderson. Everything is under Henderson”. He added that as many as 20 other Britons worked with him in the leadership of the security services. They did not torture suspects themselves, but ordered it.

A friend from Henderson’s days of combat against the Mau Mau said: “I would find it very difficult to believe that Ian would countenance anything like that. If there was torture, it would be going on without his knowledge.”

When the sun finally sets on Henderson’s job in the Gulf, he will have a country house in Britain to retire to. This might not be too far from his mind. He has recently advertised for a butler and maid to run his home in the country.

The Scotsman, 5 June 1997

Scot in Bahrain torture claims

Glasgow MP denounces Kenyan-born Scotsman as ” Britain’s Klaus Barbie” over brutality allegations

NICK THORPE

A YOUNG torture victim last night recalled his terror at the hands of henchmen in the service of a Scottish colonel, Ian Henderson, the man dubbed the”Butcher of Bahrain”.

Zaki khalifa, 25, an exile from the Middle Eastern state, told how he was hung upside down like a trussed chicken and beaten with a rubber hose. Henderson, the head of Bahrain’s intelligence service, was denounced in the Commons this week as”Britain’s Klaus Barbie”, by George Galloway, the Labour MP for Glasgow Hillhead.

Although Mr Galloway’s historical allegiance with pro-Palestinian causes may have attracted controversy in the past, his strong concerns over alleged brutality instigated by Mr Henderson are shared by the United States Department, Amnesty International and those claiming to be his victims.

Mr Khalifa, a Bahraini citizen who fled to Britain last year described how Henderson’s men had blindfolded hem and forced him to stand up continuously for three days after he was arrested in 1988 when he was aged 16. It was the first of many arrests connected with peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations Mr Khalifa was involved in.

” I can’t describe what it was like. I still have problems with my legs and sitting down,”said Mr Khalifa, who claims never to have been tried despite having spent a total of eight months in Bahrain prison.

On other occasions he was hung from the ceiling “like a chicken” for hours on end, beaten with rubber hose and attacked from behind by up to five guards tying to force confessions from him.

But his chance meeting with the man in charge of his torturers, as he was being led to a cell, is equally strong in his memory.

“Henderson looked different to all the others-he never smiled, he made no reply when I said good morning, but he just stared at me, ” recalled Mr Khalifa, who fled to Britain in 1996.

” I told him everything I knew and he just stared at me and said “Do you think you can go home now?” It made me very frightened.” “The next time I saw Henderson was in 1989 when I had been beaten and tortured again.

“My shirt was torn and there was blood on my shirt and the smell was bad because I had been there 29 days without a bath. Henderson was in the room but he said nothing.

“He is responsible for everything – it could not happen with out him.” It is unfortunately an account typical of hundreds collected by human right campaigners who accuse the Kenyan-born Scot of sanctioning routine torture as part of interrogation.

The well spoken, blue-blizzard colonial figure has led Bahrain’s intelligence service since he was installed by the British when the island was still a colony in 1966, and has since gained a reputation as a cold, shadowy figure who shuns publicity and issues orders to his men, many of whom are also British.

“Henderson orders things, but we don’t have any evidence he tortures people himself that’s not his style,” said Mansoor al-Jamri, a London-based exile and leader of the Bahrain Freedom Movement. “But he stands by and watches his men carry out the orders, which is, If anything, worse. People in Bahrain are frightened if they hear his name, because his word is final. He is very powerful and even the king does not overrule hem.”

Mr Jamri’s father, the imprisoned Sheikh Abdul Amir al-Jamri, is a prominent opposition leader in Bahrain, having served as an MP in the country’s short-lived parliament, which was dissolved in 1975, two years after it was elected.

His influence among enemies of the regime led by Sheikh Issa Bin Salman al-khalifa was demonstrated by the fact that, when he was imprisoned with out trial for his part in street protests in 1995, it was Mr Henderson who interrogated him.

There was no physical torture for such a high-level captive, his son said last night, but his 60-year-old father has been in prison for 18 months without trial.

Less prominent captives are not so lucky, falling victim to torture techniques that include electric shocks, pulling out fingernails, sleep deprivation and suspension upside sown, according to Mr. Jamri.

A report by Amnesty International in 1995 claimed that Bahrain had been engaged in a “consistent pattern of human rights violations since the early 1980s”, including arbitrary arrest and detention without trial, and torture.

The scale of atrocities has risen to “unprecedented ” levels since December 1994 when mass protests by Bahrainis have created an explosive situation.

Henderson won the George Medal nearly 40 years ago fighting the Mau Mau terrorist movement as special branch police officer in pre-independence Kenya, the country where he was born.

He was deported by Kenya’s black leaders after independence in 1964, going on to work for Rhodesian security under Ian Smith and for apartheid South Africa before ending up in Bahrain in 1966.

In what is possibly his only press interview, granted to the Big Issue last December, Henderson admitted “vigorous in terrogation” was common, but said: “I ve never lifted a finger against anyone or asked officers to do so. “I don’t do nine-tenths of what I’m accused of – I’m an easy propaganda target because I’m British,” he said, claiming that allegations from the Bahrain Freedom Movement were “nonsense”.

Henderson, now 69 and balding, has spoken in the past of retiring to Britain, where he is already understood to own a holiday home in the Themes valley. However, if campaigners are successful, such a return could result in his arrest.

Yesterday he was unavailable for comment on the allegations made by Mr Galloway in Tuesday’s late night Commons debate, in which the MP called for the Government to “pursue people who torture and murder for money and carry British passports”.

Mr Galloway said last night: “My legal advice is that under the UN convention on torture we have not only a right but an obligation to seek his extradition ad stop his torture.”

The Foreign Office said it had raised the concerns with the Bahrain Embassy, where a spokesman refused to comment.

Mr Jamri added: “There is a hope that now at last we have a government with a moral dimension, they can at last wield some influence. If they gave just one tough word every thing would change.”

Malcolm Rifkind, the former Tory Foreign Secretary, called Mr Galloway’s comments “curious”, although he added that he did not know Mr Henderson himself.

“Bahrain has been a moderate country in a very unstable region and the UK has a long history of relations with Bahrain, but we don’t involve ourselves in the internal affairs of the country any more than in any other country, “he said.

Lord Avebury: We should Not Tolerate Henderson

The “Independent” newspaper of 22 Oecember 1994 published the letter sent by Lord Avebury, Chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group. The letter stated the following:

Sir: The reason for the demonstrations mentioned in Michael Sheridan’s article “Violent Shia protests embarrass Bahrain” (20 December 1994), was the demand for restorations of the 1973 constitution, under which the state had an elected Parliament. The Emir dismissed the Parliament in 1975 and has ruled by decree since then. The arrest of Sheikh Ali Salman for voicing this demand was only the spark which set off the unrest. ..if he had not spoken out, others would have done so.

A petition signed by more than 25,000 people, calling for the restoration, w as to have been presented on or about 16 December, the Bahraini National Day. The leader chosen to present it was Dr Abdul Latif El Mahmoud, a Sunni Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Bahrain, but it was supported by people from every section of the community.

Few if any of those involved in the demonstrations were from the Persian-speaking minority, which constitutes 15 per cent of the population. There is no question of revival of Iranian claims to Bahrain, which were disposed of by the United Nations nearly a quarter of a century ago.

We have a list of 79 people arrested since the troubles began on 5 December but we know that the actual total is much higher. Four people are known to have been killed by the security forces, and others are critically injured. Under the emergency law prevailing in Bahrain, a person may be detained without charge for three years, and the detention may be renewed indefinitely.

Michael Sheridan does point out that a British citizen, Ian Henderson, commands the security apparatus of Bahrain, and many people here will be surprised that we should tolerate an arrangement which associates us with abuses of human rights in another country.

I had hoped to visit Bahrain as the guest of the Government in November, but the authorities cancelled at the last moment, suggesting that early 1995 would be more convenient. Recently they again put me off, without suggesting that an alternative date. It might help to restore Confidence in the Bahrain Government’s good intentions if they would reinstate their invitation to me, for a January visit.

Yours faithfully: ERIC AVEBURY House of Lords, London SW1

20 December1994

The Sunday Herald (Scotland), 9 January 2000

Bahrain Butcher can’t hide any more

Neil Mackay, Home Affairs Editor

As the sadistic head of Bahrain’s special branch, he stands accused of torture and murder. Yet Britain has always washed its hands of Scots-born mercenary Ian Henderson until now. Suitably, for a man who has made his bolthole in the heart of Thomas Hardy country, Colonel Ian Henderson seems to have an eye for macabre symbolism. Just outside his £250,000 home in the innocuous-sounding Stoke Shallows near the village of Holne on the Dartmoor marshes, Henderson has erected a “Beware of the dogs” sign on a five-foot-high makeshift gallows. It could be that there was nowhere else for him to put the sign, but it is unlikely. It is possibly a reflection of that grim, almost inhuman humour often possessed by those who have allowed themselves to touch evil. Until last night, the 400-strong population of the Devon village had no idea that they were living alongside a man who has been labelled the “Butcher of Bahrain” in the House of Commons. For decades, Henderson – the head of the Bahraini special branch – has been accused of overseeing the widespread and state-controlled repression, torture and murder of pro-democracy activists in the sheikdom. His agents have carried out a range of abuses against dissidents, including the murder of detainees, the rape of captives and the use of electric shocks to extract confessions. Henderson has been known to beat prisoners himself. And for decades Bahrain – a key British ally in the unstable Persian gulf – has defended its hired gun while Britain has dragged its feet, failing to condemn Henderson and the reign of terror he brought to the state of 33 islands. Until, on Thursday, Home Secretary Jack Straw announced that detectives attached to the Met’s organised crime unit are to probe allegations of torture against Henderson. Some time after Christmas, Henderson, now 71, slipped into Britain from Bahrain with his wife, Marie. He knew that, for at least the last four years, MPs friendly to human rights groups and the hundreds of Bahrainis living here who were forced into exile by the Al-Khalifa regime wanted him arrested or extradited the moment he set foot in Britain. But Henderson had always arrogantly laughed at such plans. This wasn’t the first time he had come back to the country since he took over as head of the Bahraini secret police more than 30 years ago. He makes the trip at least once a year. But his latest jaunt was badly timed. Britain had just had a rough few days with alleged war criminals. The Labour government – in the midst of dealing with the Pinochet extradition crisis – was shamed by revelations that suspected Nazi war criminal Konrad Kalejs had made his home in the UK. On Thursday, the 86-year-old alleged killer left Britain, ahead of a deportation order, as a free man on board a plane to Australia. Jack Straw admitted he thought Kalejs was involved in war crimes, yet said there was not enough evidence to prosecute, despite the clamour for Kalejs’ arrest and trial. On the same day, Henderson’s Devon hideaway came to light and he was suddenly fair game. It was the British government that installed Henderson as head of Bahrain’s security service. Last year the Sunday Herald uncovered secret documents that showed that, in 1966, after his deportation from Kenya – where he had coordinated brutal reprisals against Mau Mau rebels – Henderson was approached by senior diplomats, who smoothed the way for his entry into Bahrain as its secret police chief. Until this discovery it was thought that Henderson was just another mercenary.He was born in Aberdeen but lived most of his life as a colonial gent overseas. By the mid-1960s he had a ferocious reputation as an expert in covert counter-terrorism. The documents uncovered by the Sunday Herald proved that Britain colluded in the repression of Bahraini dissidents. Antony Parsons – the senior British diplomat in Bahrain at the time – and Michael Weir, of the Foreign Office’s Arabian Department, worked to persuade the then Emir to hire Henderson. Correspondence, marked top secret, between Weir and Parson reveals that the pair asked the Emir if he “wanted us to try and recruit specialist staff for the special branch”. Another coded telegram stresses Henderson’s suitability for the job, adding that the Bahrainis should be urged to give him “a free hand to concentrate on rebuilding the special branch”. Within weeks of Henderson taking up the post, Parsons was reporting how covert operations were under way, targeting possible “terrorists”. For “terrorists”, read pro-democracy campaigners. Parsons is now dead, but Weir – who eventually became ambassador to Cairo – has admitted Britain’s role in recruiting Henderson. Today, he somewhat reservedly refers to the appointment as “controversial”. Until the decision to set the police onto Henderson, the Foreign Office has had one reply for journalists investigating him: “He is not a British official. His role is a matter for the Bahrain government. Britain never supported his position.” Britain annually supplies Bahrain with large consignments of arms that can be used in counter-insurgency operations. Department of Trade regulations state that no arms shipments can be used for “internal repression”, but the rules are ambiguous enough to let Britain claim that it is not breaching any rules. The UK has exported flame-throwers, machine-guns, grenades, smoke-bombs and mortars to the Gulf state. It also trains members of the Bahraini security forces, including the Defence Force and the National Guard – units accused of shooting pro-democracy demonstrators. Lord Avebury, vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee, said: “Britain has systematically colluded in imposing a regime of terror on innocent Bahrainis. I am ashamed to be British.” Bahrain’s human rights record has improved slightly since the death in March last year of the Emir, Sheikh Isa bin Sulman Al-Khalifa, and the succession of his eldest son, Sheikh Hamad, who has released a number of political dissidents. Yet it has always been a cosy ally of the West. A British protectorate until 1971, its position in the Persian Gulf means it is a key spot for controlling western oil interests and is strategically placed in terms of the US-British policy of containing Iraq. It housed the UNSCOM weapons inspectorate and is home to the US 5th fleet. It also has a huge British expatriate presence and is one of the main Arab countries to receive exports from the UK, as well as being a centre for British banking. Bahrain’s ruling Sunni clans control the dissident Shi’ite majority – many of whom are Persian by descent – and the Emir is an absolute monarch. Dissent in the state dates from a series of decrees by the Emir in 1975 that dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution. Shi’ite leaders protested, there were street disturbances, and the army moved in heavily. Government propaganda now claims that the Shi’ites are pro-Iranian Islamic fundamentalists, but campaigners dismiss this claim, pointing out that the Iranian revolution only took place in 1979. The pro-democracy groups took to firebombings, and arms caches were found. Henderson’s secret police responded ferociously. Public relations blunders included the arrest of the chief imam of Manama, the capital, at his mosq ue. Bahrain was also accused by Amnesty International of systematically using torture to interrogate political prisoners. The European parliament condemned the regime of terror and called on Britain to order Henderson to leave the country. As the repression increased, dissidents arrived in the UK and formed the Bahrain Freedom Movement. The ruling regime is accused of carrying out extrajudicial executions and forcing dissidents into exile. There have been allegations of sexual assault of prisoners, while detention without trial is common. Until recently, little was known about Henderson. In 1996 I interviewed him over the telephone at his special branch offices. It was the first time he had given an interview. He claimed then that any moves to prosecute him for his alleged crimes would be a “big mistake”. He added: “They [his enemies in Britain] wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand
on.” He admitted that “vigorous interrogation” was common but he denied torturing or ordering the torture of any detainees – a claim cast into doubt by recent testimony gathered by the Sunday Herald from Bahraini torture victims. Three years ago, Henderson claimed: “I’ve never lifted a finger against anyone or asked my officers to do so.” He made the disturbing comment that the concept of the word “torture” was different to the Arab mind than it was to the European. “There has been violence on both sides,” he went on. On claims that his secret police subjected victims to electric shocks and attacked them with drills, he said: “I don’t do nine-tenths of what I’m accused of. I’m an easy target because I’m British. Allegations of violence are nonsense. My job is to resist violence.” Henderson still made light of the accusations against him on Thursday – prior to Jack Straw’s announcement that a police investigation was under way. He laughed when allegations of torture were put to him, saying he was confident in the British legal system and would be happy for anyone with a complaint against him to go to the police. “I totally dismiss the allegations against me and I have no idea why I am being painted as a monster,” he said. The laugh left his voice the next day. He sounded worried and said the attention had affected his sleep. When asked about the police investigation, he replied: “That’s what I’d expect from this government. That’s fine. I’m glad.” In 1997, it was reported that Henderson had been stood down by the Emir. It seemed press attention in the West had made him a dispensable friend. But there was always a suspicion that he remained the power behind the throne – and, on Friday, Henderson admitted he was still the security adviser to the Emir. No internal policing operation goes ahead without his say-so. All actions are carried out under the command of the numerous other British ex-servicemen hired by Henderson to staff the upper echelons of the special branch. Henderson also claimed he would stay in the UK until at least January 20. The decision to investigate Henderson goes some way toward placating those who have called for him to face justice. Of the MPs who have chased him, the Labour campaigners Jeremy Corbyn and George Galloway have been the most dogged. Corbyn said yesterday: “Henderson must face a full investigation. Justice must be seen to be done. If he is culpable of these crimes, he must be tried and sentenced to a long time in a British jail.” Britain has always said that it is “extremely concerned” at allegations of human rights abuses, and raises these concerns at a ministerial level with Bahrain as often as possible. But it is sometimes hard to see how this can do justice to the horror inflicted on Bahrain’s pro-democracy campaigners. Take 16-year-old Saeed al-Eskafi, who was kidnapped by secret police in 1995, repeatedly raped and burned with an iron. He died during his interrogation. Or 22-year-old Yaser Ibrahim Sdalf, who was detained in 1995, raped with a bottle and died later from his injuries. Or Zaki Khalifa – a survivor. Khalifa was just 17 when he was captured, and is now crippled from the beatings he sustained at the hands of Henderson’s officers in the Al Kala desert fortress. Henderson confronted him one day during his detention and asked him: “Do you think you can ever go home?” Khalifa now says: “Henderson is a terrorist and a monster. He controls the state. I want to see him charged with human rights crimes. Then maybe he will learn what it means to be afraid.” Another survivor, Abdulla Hassan – a pseudonym – now living in London, says Henderson tortured him. He was strung up in a detention cell and was being beaten when Henderson entered the cell. He beat him on the back after asking him to confess. Another man claims he saw Henderson punch a hooded prisoner in the face with a knuckleduster. The Bahrain Freedom Movement fears British desires to preserve good relations with Bahrain will smother any police investigation. As Neil Patrick – head of Middle Eastern affairs with the Royal United Services Institute, an independent defence and international security think-tank – says: “It sounds cynical, but I don’t think Britain will see Henderson as worth a fall-out with Bahrain.”

In London, Dr Saed Shehabi, one of the Bahrain Freedom Movement’s exiled leaders, says: “If there is any natural justice in Britain, this man must be brought to trial. He must face the people he hurt in a court of law. But no matter what happens, he will pay for his crimes – whether it is in this life or the next.”

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(More Text) Sunday Herald ‘Bahrain Butcher’ is still at large in Britain Publication Date: Jan 9 2000 Colonel Ian Henderson, the Scottish secret service officer under investigation by Scotland Yard for allegedly orchestrating a reign of terror and torture in Bahrain, is still in hiding in Britain and coordinating widespread repression in the gulf state, an investigation by the Sunday Herald can reveal. Henderson was said to have left Britain late last week after Home Secretary Jack Straw announced an investigation into allegations of human rights abuses carried out by him. However, Henderson remains in a secure country villa in Devon. Scotland Yard now plans to remove his passport. The Bahrain government claimed Henderson had retired as head of the Security and Intelligence Service in late 1997. However, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald, Henderson admitted he still worked as a special security adviser to the Emir – in effect as head of the state secret police. Jack Straw announced on Thursday that detectives with the Metropolitan Police’s organised crime branch were to investigate torture allegations made against the Aberdeen-born mercenary. Henderson, 71, has been accused of overseeing brutal repression against pro-democracy campaigners. Allegations include claims that prisoners were tortured, raped and forced into exile, and that security forces carried out extra-judicial executions and abused children. Henderson has also allegedly tortured detainees with his own hands. Henderson and his wife Marie arrived in Britain after Christmas, and spent new year at their house in Dartmoor. He has made regular secret visits to the UK over the last 30 years. From his home, Henderson said: “This thing has to take its course so it can be made clear to the authorities who is right – us or them. I am confident in the British legal system. I dismiss all the allegations against me. “I will be staying in the UK until January 20. I have nothing to be worried about. I am still in the security service in Bahrain although I left my job two years ago. At the moment I am an advisor to the Minister of the Interior, but I will be quitting soon. Although I once wanted to retire to Britain, I will not do so now. I have no idea why people keep painting me as a monster.” A Scotland Yard source said the Met may seize Henderson’s passport. “Depending on the circumstances and outcome of the early stages of the investigation, we may seek advice from the Home Office over holding Henderson’s passport and preventing him leaving the country.” Henderson can be brought to trial under Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, which gives Britain the power to arrest and prosecute anyone who has committed human rights offences overseas. Dr Saed Shehabi of the London-based Bahrain Freedom Movement said: “Henderson must be arrested and put on trial. It is the Home Secretary’s duty. I am surprised and angry that [he] is still free. Any right-thinking person must be convinced this man is responsible for a reign of terror.” The Home Office said it was not for Jack Straw to order the arrest of an individual or encourage the police to carry out an investigation. So far police have not been called on to make any arrests. The Bahrain Embassy refused to respond to enquiries about the investigation, claiming its press attache was unavailable due to the Muslim holy period Ramadan. The Foreign Office said it regularly raised human rights concerns with Bahrain, but claimed the investigation would not harm diplomatic relations with the gulf state – which is of importance to the west given its position in the oil-rich Persian gulf.

Bahrain: Citizens celebrate a special Eid
The Bahraini people celebrated the Eid at the end of Ramadan with a special occasion. The news that Ian Henderson was being investigated by the British Metropolitan Police for allegations of torture has made the Eid of this year a special and happy occasion. Investigating Henderson’s crimes gave the wronged people of Bahrain a sense of pride and dignity and sent a message to other torturers in Bahrain, such as Don Bryan (Henderson’s deputy in Bahrain), that there is no impunity for them. This is the age when torturers will have to think more than once before assaulting other human beings. 9 January 2000

The Daily Telegraph

Saturday 8 January 2000

” Gulf police chief faces Met inquiry over torture”

By Sandra Laville

THE British former head of security services in Bahrain yesterday welcomed an investigation by the Metropolitan Police into allegations that he oversaw a torture regime in the Gulf state.

In the past week it has been disclosed that Col Ian Henderson, a British citizen, had spent Christmas and the New Year in Devon. As a result Lord Avebury, vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, wrote to Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, asking for action to be taken against him while he is in Britain. Under a law which came into force in 1998 Britain has the power to prosecute anyone suspected of involvement in torture anywhere in the world. Mr Straw announced on Thursday that the allegations were to be investigated by the organised crime branch of the Met. It had been thought that Col Henderson, 71, and his wife had left the country, but he told The Telegraph from his home in Holne, Devon, that he would be returning to Bahrain on Jan 18. “I have not had any contact with the Metropolitan Police,” he said. “My reaction to the fact they are investigating is that it is very good indeed. Anyone who has any information on anything which concerns crime committed by anyone is perfectly entitled to ask for an investigation.” Col Henderson denied the allegations. He said they were invented by pro-democracy groups in Bahrain. “It’s an attempt to do a demolition job on the British-supported Bahrain government. Many of the senior officers are British. “The Bahrain Freedom Movement, which is leading the struggle for democracy out there, is opposed to the British presence in the government there and wants us all out. Allegations of torture, in so far as they concern me, I would like to say there’s not a single grain of truth in any of them. And I would like to say that no British officer speaks Arabic, none of them carries out interrogations. All that is done by local Arabs.” Col Henderson was a hero in pre-independence Kenya and won the George Medal as a colonial police officer. He made more than 60 trips, alone and hardly armed, into the forest to contact Mau Mau terrorists. He captured a notorious Mau Mau leader, Dedan Kimathi, who was later hanged by the British. Henderson later published a book about the hunt for Kimathi. On the eve of independence, the Kenya-born Col Henderson was expelled by the country’s new leaders. He moved to Bahrain in 1964, where he directed the security forces for 30 years before retiring two years ago. Amnesty International has catalogued extensive human rights abuses in Bahrain since the Seventies. It has repeatedly raised concerns with the Gulf state’s government and with Col Henderson about claims of torture as far back as 1987.

Six weeks ago an investigation by Channel 4 claimed that torture and arbitrary arrest were still used in Bahrain, an absolute sheikdom. Yesterday, when challenged on his role in holding back the movement for democratic reform, Col Henderson defended the non-democratic government of Bahrain as benign. He said: “It is feeling its way towards reform which will suit everyone.”

Amnesty urges UK to try former Bahrain security chief
10:14 a.m. Jan 08, 2000 Eastern

LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Amnesty International has called on Britain to put on trial the former head of Bahrain’s security service, who has been accused of involvement in torture, if an investigation finds enough evidence against him. Britain confirmed this week that it had begun an inquiry into allegations that British citizen Major-General Ian Henderson had overseen the torture of pro-democracy activists in Bahrain. Henderson, 71, was quoted by a British newspaper as saying that the allegations of torture against him were “laughable.” Home Secretary Jack Straw told Channel Four News on Thursday: “I understand that the matters concerned, the allegations, are the subject of an investigation by the Organised Crime Branch of the Metropolitan Police.” He was not able to provide any more information on Henderson, but Amnesty said the investigation was a welcome step towards justice. “Should the UK government find after an initial investigation that it has sufficient admissible evidence on which to prosecute Henderson, it should seek his return to the UK for trial or cooperate with any government ready to carry out such prosecution in a fair trial,” Amnesty said on Friday. The London-based human rights group said the British government was obliged under international law to carry out an inquiry into Henderson’s alleged use of torture in Bahrain. “Over the years Amnesty International has documented extensively human rights abuses in Bahrain,” Amnesty said. “It has repeatedly raised concerns about torture with the Bahraini authorities and with Major-General Henderson himself as far back as 1987.” Amnesty said the government of Bahrain had consistently denied torture was used in detention centres and prisons but Amnesty was not aware it had carried out any proper investigation into the allegations.

Amnesty said that although torture was forbidden in Bahrain’s constitution, it had been used systematically on political prisoners, particularly in the mid-1990s.

Bahrain: “Organised Crime Branch” initiates Henderson’s investigation
The British Home secretary Jack Straw confirmed that an inquiry was now under way over torture allegations made against the British master torturer in Bahrain, Colonel Ian Henderson. ” I understand that the matters concerned, the allegations, are the subject of an investigation by the Organised Crime Branch of the Metropolitan Police” said Mr. Straw. He went on to say ” I’m not in possession of any further information about this man”. The Metropolitan Police waged an investigation into the allegations. A spokesman for Metropolitan Police said ” we are in receipt of papers alleging torture. These papers are being examined by officers from the Organised Crime Group.” British and international media conducted extensive coverage of the case against Colonel Henderson. Paul Lashmar of the Independent said on 7 January: “Under Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1998, anyone involved in torture anywhere in the world can be arrested and prosecuted in Britain. Col Henderson is believed to have returned to Bahrain on Tuesday”. Annie Flury of the Times said on 7 January: “Human rights organisations welcomed the inquiry into Col Henderson, who has been accused of overseeing the torture of pro-democracy activists. Victims say that the colonel’s men used methods such as pulling out fingernails, getting dogs to attack prisoners and sexually assaulting detainees. Some accuse the colonel of taking part in the torture himself.” The Guardian published a coverage from the Press Association titled ” Bahrain torture claims probed”. It said ” Colonel Ian Henderson has been accused of overseeing the torture of pro-democracy activists”. Dr. Saeed Shehabi of the Bahrain Freedom Movement said to Channel 4 and the BBC World Service:  “Hendesrom must stand trial for the horrific crimes he has committed in Bahrain since 1966”. Ken Purchase, the MP who has sympathetic views towards the oppressive regime in Bahrain said to Channel 4 that he met Ian Henderson sometime ago and that he had not been impressed by him. Mr. Purchase said that he found Henderson a “racist” person who claimed that Arabs “enjoy” torture. Mr. Henderson said to Channel 4 that he is “serving a British cause in Bahrain, not an Arab one”. He said that the helped export of weapon to Bahrain. He failed to answer whether he considered torturing Bahrainis a service to a British cause! Al-Quds published a lengthy coverage on 7 January titled “calls for Britain to arrest Bahrain’s former intelligence chief Henderson following the example of Pinochet”. It said: “reports of Henderson’s involvement in torture dates back to the sixties and 1975., when the Bahraini parliament was dissolved and measures taken by the Bahraini government against pro-democracy activists. And during that period numerous reports spoke of the involvement of the Bahraini Special Security Services, which is headed by Henderson, of torturing the oppositionists and their family members including children”. Spokesmen for human rights organisations welcomed news of the investigation. A spokesman for Amnesty International said ” this is the least we would have wished to see”. The Redress Trust said “the victims who have suffered under the regime of torture in Bahrain many years should have the opportunity to gain justice and reparation”.

Bahrain Freedom Movement 8 January 2000

Tel/Fax: (+44) 207 278 9089

Amnesty International on Henderson

7 January 2000

United Kingdom: Amnesty International welcomes investigation into Henderson’s role in torture in Bahrain

The British government’s announcement that a British national who is alleged to have played a key role in torture in Bahrain is being investigated is a welcome step toward justice, Amnesty International said today. If you are a UK based journalist and require further information please call the AIUK Press Office on 0171 814 6238 or e-mail press@amnesty.org.uk Major-General (Bahraini rank) Ian Henderson, a 71-year-old British national, has been an official in Bahrain’s Security Intelligence Service (SIS) since 1966, raising to the position of deputy and then head of the service until his reported retirement two years ago. He has been on holiday in Britain since the end of December 1999. The SIS and other security apparatuses in Bahrain, including the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), have for many years been responsible for gross human rights violations. The names of a number of SIS and CID employees have featured regularly in the testimonies of former political detainees and prisoners, particularly regarding the use of torture under interrogation. Although torture is prohibited by Bahrain’s Constitution, it is practiced and has been systematic with regard to political prisoners in the past, particularly in the mid-1990s. The most common methods of torture include severe beating with electric cables on the back and on the soles of the feet, suspension by the limbs, victims being blind-folded with their hands tied behind their backs and left standing up for hours, and prolonged solitary confinement. Over the years Amnesty International has documented extensively human rights abuses in Bahrain. It has repeatedly raised concerns about torture with the Bahraini authorities and with Major-General Henderson himself as far back as 1987. The government of Bahrain has consistently denied torture is used in detention centres and prisons but to the organisation’s knowledge it has not carried out any proper investigation into allegations of torture. The UK Government, under international law, has an obligation to conduct an inquiry into Henderson’s role in the use of torture in Bahrain. A superior who knew or should have known subordinates were committing human rights violations and took no steps to ensure punishment of those responsible and stop the abuse, is criminally responsible. Also under international law, torture is a crime against humanity when committed on a widespread or systematic basis. Should the UK government find after an initial investigation that it has sufficient admissible evidence on which to prosecute Henderson, it should seek his return to the UK for trial or cooperate with any government ready to carry out such prosecution in a fair trial.

The Times 7 January 2000 Spy chief Briton in torture inquiry BY ANNIE FLURY TORTURE allegations made against the British-born former head of the security services in Bahrain are being investigated by detectives, the Home Secretary said last night. Jack Straw confirmed that Colonel Ian Henderson is a British citizen. He said: “I understand that the . . . allegations are the subject of an investigation by the organised crime branch of the Metropolitan Police.” Human rights organisations welcomed the inquiry into Col Henderson, who has been accused of overseeing the torture of pro-democracy activists. Victims say that the colonel’s men used methods such as pulling out fingernails, getting dogs to attack prisoners and sexually assaulting detainees. Some accuse the colonel of taking part in the torture himself. An Amnesty International spokesman said he was pleased that an inquiry had been launched. “This is the very least we would have wished to see,” he added. Last week Lord Avebury, vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, said that he had written to Mr Straw asking for action to be taken against Col Henderson, who was then visiting Britain. Under a 1998 law, Britain has the power to arrest and prosecute anyone suspected of involvement in torture anywhere in the world. However, although Col Henderson, 71, and his wife, Marie, spent the new year on holiday on Dartmoor, Devon, they are thought to have left the country. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: “We are in receipt of papers alleging torture and these are being examined by officers from the organised crime group.” Col Henderson said in a recent interview that allegations that he had been involved in torture were “laughable”.

The Independent Alleged torturer facing police inquiry By Paul Lashmar 07 January 2000 The Metropolitan Police have begun investigating Ian Henderson, former head of secret police in the Gulf state of Bahrain, who has been accused of torturing suspects, Jack Straw, Home Secretary, said. Yesterday The Independent disclosed that Colonel Henderson and his wife holidayed in Dartmoor over the New Year. Six weeks ago he faced new accusations of being involved in and overseeing torture in Bahrain, where pro-democracy activists are persecuted. The inquiry follows in the wake of the Pinochet and Kalejs controversies. The Metropolitan Police said: “We … are in receipt of papers alleging torture. These papers are being examined by officers from the Organised Crime Group.” They were not prepared to say they might interview Col Henderson . Col Henderson said allegations that he had been involved in torture were “laughable”; the charges were made up by opposition groups from Bahrain to attract media attention. Mr Straw had been asked by Lord Avebury, vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, to take action against Mr Henderson while he is in the country. Under Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1998, anyone involved in torture anywhere in the world can be arrested and prosecuted in Britain. Col Henderson is believed to have returned to Bahrain on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the Redress Trust, which seeks compensation for torture victims, said: “The victims who have suffered under the regime of torture in Bahrain for many years should have the opportunity to gain justice and reparation.

Henderson Investigation in the UK

7 January 2000

By John Deane, Chief Political Correspondent, PA News

Police were today continuing investigations into torture allegations made against the British-born former head of the security services in Bahrain.

Colonel Ian Henderson has been accused of overseeing the torture of pro-democracy activists there.

Home Secretary Jack Straw said last night an inquiry into the claims was now under way.

“I understand that the matters concerned, the allegations, are the subject of an investigation by the Organised Crime branch of the Metropolitan Police,” Mr Straw told Channel 4 News.

“I’m not in possession of any further information about this man,” added Mr Straw, although he did confirm that Col Henderson was a British citizen.

The allegations against Col Henderson have attracted the attention of a variety of human rights groups.

A spokesman for Amnesty International welcomed confirmation that a police inquiry was being undertaken.

“This is the very least we would have wished to see,” the spokesman said.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman confirmed: “We are in receipt of papers alleging torture.

“These papers are being examined by officers from the Organised Crime Group. We are not discussing the matter further.”

Col Henderson, 71, and his wife Marie are known to have spent the New Year period on holiday at a house on Dartmoor in Devon. They are now thought to have left the country again.

In a previous interview with Channel 4 News, Col Henderson said the allegations that he had been involved in torture were “laughable”.

He claimed that the allegations were invented by opposition groups in Bahrain to attract media attention.

Nevertheless last week Lord Avebury, vice chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, said he had written to Mr Straw asking for action to be taken against Col Henderson while he was in this country.

There has been a growing movement for the restoration of democracy in Bahrain since the state’s rulers abolished the national assembly in 1975. The security services in Bahrain have been central to the prevention of a return to democracy.

There have been allegations against the secret police of the murder of suspects and the arrest and maltreatment of children.

Col Henderson, who was born in Aberdeenshire, moved to Bahrain in 1964 after being deported from Kenya after independence.

He was part of the British colonial security apparatus in Kenya suppressing the Mau-Mau uprising led by Jomo Kenyatta.

He spent 30 years directing Bahrain’s state security forces before retiring two years ago. He is now an adviser to Bahrain’s Ministry of the Interior.

7 Jan 2000

LONDON (AP) — British police are investigating torture allegations against a Briton who formerly headed Bahrain’s security services, Home Secretary Jack Straw said in a television interview.

Col. Ian Henderson, 71, has been accused of overseeing the torture of pro-democracy activists in the tiny Gulf state, a former British protectorate that gained independence in 1971.

“I understand that the matters concerned, the allegations, are the subject of an investigation by the organized crime branch of the Metropolitan Police,” Straw told Channel 4 News on Thursday.

A police spokesman confirmed the organized crime branch has received documents alleging torture. The spokesman would not elaborate on the allegations or investigation.

The Scottish-born Henderson, who retired in 1998 after more than 30 years in Bahrain, was traveling and not immediately available for comment Thursday.

But in a previous interview with Channel 4 News, he called the torture allegations “laughable” and said they were invented by Bahrain opposition groups to attract media attention.

There has been a growing movement for the restoration of democracy in Bahrain since the state’s rulers abolished the national assembly in 1975. In addition, simmering resentment by the country’s Shiite Muslim community has periodically exploded into violence.

Bahrain’s ruling family is Sunni Muslim, while most ordinary Bahrainis are Shiites.

Opposition leaders have accused the security services of using force, arrest and torture against political opponents.

Since Bahrain’s longtime ruler died last March, his son who replaced him, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, has shown a willingness to address social and political issues. He has loosened media restrictions and called for greater democracy.

Col. Henderson and his wife Marie reportedly spent the New Year at a house in Dartmoor, Devon, in southwest England but are believed to have since left the country.

Lord Avebury, vice chairman of the parliamentary human rights group, said he wrote to Straw last week asking for action against Henderson while he was in the country.

Henderson, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, moved to Bahrain in 1964 and becoming the security chief in 1966. He retired in 1998, and now is an adviser to Bahrain’s Interior Ministry.

6 Jan 2000

By John Deane, Chief Political Correspondent, PA News

Detectives are probing torture allegations made against the British-born former head of the security services in Bahrain, Home Secretary Jack Straw said tonight.

Colonel Ian Henderson has been accused of overseeing the torture of pro-democracy activists there.

Tonight Mr Straw told Channel 4 News that an inquiry was now under way.

“I understand that the matters concerned, the allegations, are the subject of an investigation by the Organised Crime branch of the Metropolitan Police,” said Mr Straw.

“I’m not in possession of any further information about this man,” added Mr Straw, although he did confirm that Col Henderson is a British citizen.

The allegations against Col Henderson have attracted the attention of a variety of human rights groups.

Tonight a spokesman for Amnesty International welcomed confirmation that a police inquiry was being undertaken.

“This is the very least we would have wished to see,” the spokesman said.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman confirmed: “We are in receipt of papers alleging torture.

“These papers are being examined by officers from the Organised Crime Group. We are not discussing the matter further.”

Col Henderson, 71, and his wife Marie are known to have spent the New Year period on holiday at a house on Dartmoor in Devon. They are now thought to have left the country again.

In a previous interview with Channel 4 News, Col Henderson said the allegations that he had been involved in torture were “laughable”.

He claimed that the allegations were invented by opposition groups in Bahrain to attract media attention.

Nevertheless last week Lord Avebury, vice chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, said he had written to Mr Straw asking for action to be taken against Col Henderson while he was in this country.

There has been a growing movement for the restoration of democracy in Bahrain since the state’s rulers abolished the national assembly in 1975. The security services in Bahrain have been central to the prevention of a return to democracy.

There have been allegations against the secret police of the murder of suspects and the arrest and maltreatment of children.

Col Henderson, who was born in Aberdeenshire, moved to Bahrain in 1964 after being deported from Kenya after independence.

He was part of the British colonial security apparatus in Kenya suppressing the Mau-Mau uprising led by Jomo Kenyatta.

He spent 30 years directing Bahrain’s state security forces before retiring two years ago. He is now an adviser to Bahrain’s Ministry of the Interior.

Bahrain: Hendersons case on the international agenda

The human rights activists came nearer last night to the goal of putting Ian Henderson in the dock for his role as the head of a regime of torture in Bahrain. Channel 4 News programme began its bulletin at 7.00 pm with a report compiled by Sarah Spiller on him. She had met him earlier in the week at a home in Devon, South West England, where he is spending his new years holiday with his wife, Marie.

Mr. Henderson denied the charges put forward to him by the team of journalists and attacked the Arabs with racist tones. He said all allegations about torture are false and that he worked for the British interests in the region. He refused to appear in person for the interview. Media interest in his case is mounting especially as he is being portrayed on the same lines as Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator and Knorad Kalejs, the alleged Nazi war criminal.

The programme also included an interview with Ken Purchase, a friend of the Bahraini Government. He lashed out at Henderson describing him as racist. He agreed that Henderson should be questioned by the police, but said that the extent of human rights abuses in Bahrain is highly inflated by people like Lord Avebury who is campaigning for human rights in the world. A member of the BFM demanded that Henderson be arrested and confirmed that there is an abundance of evidence that torture has been used extensively in Bahraini jails since Henderson took charge of the security service in 1966.

Observers noted with enthusiam the analogies between Henderson, Pinochet and the alleged Nazi war criminal. They believe that Hendersons case has now been internationlised to his disadvantage. On the other hand Londons daily “The Independent” published a long article in todays edition with the title: “Britain fails to detain Bahrains torturer in chief”. The article was written by Paul Lashmar. It said: “Under a law that came into force in 1988 anyone involved in torture anywhere in the world can be arrested and prosecuted in Britain. However, a joint investigation by The Independent and Channel 4 News found Colonel Henderson and his wife, Marie, enjoying a holiday at a house in Dartmoor, Devon. They had flown into Britain just after Christmas”. The article quoted Lard Avebury as saying: “I’d love to see him [Colonel Henderson] before the magistrates in the same way that Pinochet was, except that, of course he would finish up in our prisons and he would get a very long sentence, I hope, for the crimes he has committed.”

It further added: “Against a background of recent controversies over the treatment of the Chilean dictator and the alleged Nazi Konrad Kalejs, this case reveals further confusion in the Home Office about who can be detained over allegations of human rights abuse. The article also quoted a spokeswoman from the Redress Trust, which seeks reparation for the victims of torture, as saying: “When Britain became a party to the International Convention against Torture, it took on the responsibility to bring to justice suspected torturers who come within our borders.”

It said that there has been a growing movement for the restoration of democracy in Bahrain since the state’s rulers abolished the national assembly in 1975, and that the security services in Bahrain under Col Henderson have been central to the prevention of a return to democracy. It said that documents in the Public Record Office at Kew, south-west London, show that the Foreign Office persuaded Col Henderson to take over as head of the security service in Bahrain. Bahrain was a British colony until 1970. He was to direct the state’s security forces for 30 years before retiring two years ago.

He is now an adviser to Bahrain’s Ministry of the Interior. The paper said that Col Henderson’s wife, who worked for Bahrain’s government in an administrative role for 20 years, said that claims of torture were “fashionable” in the Arab world. “If anything, he has done everything to alleviate torture,” she said. This afternoon, Radio London broadcast the news about Henderson as the main story in its news bulletin this afternoon. It highlighted the Channel 4 programme including the interviews.

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The Independent, 6 Jan 2000

Britain fails to detain Bahrain’s ‘torturer in chief’

Head of secret police in Gulf state is allowed to holiday in Devon, as legal trials of former Chile dictator go on

By Paul Lashmar

06 January 2000

The former head of the secret police in the Gulf State of Bahrain, who stands accused of torture, has spent New Year on holiday in England untroubled by the British authorities.

Six weeks ago Colonel Ian Henderson faced new accusations of overseeing torture sessions in Bahrain where pro-democracy activists are ruthlessly persecuted.

Under a law that came into force in 1998 anyone involved in torture anywhere in the world can be arrested and prosecuted in Britain. However, a joint investigation by The Independent and Channel 4 News found Colonel Henderson and his wife, Marie, enjoying a holiday at a house in Dartmoor, Devon. They had flown into Britain just after Christmas.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, he said allegations that he had been involved in torture were “laughable”. He said that the charges were invented by opposition groups in Bahrain to attract media attention.

Last week Lord Avebury, vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, said he had written to the office of the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, asking for action to be taken against Mr Henderson while he was in this country. Campaigners also contacted police. Lord Avebury said: “I’d love to see him [Colonel Henderson] before the magistrates in the same way that [General] Pinochet was, except that, of course he would finish up in our prisons and he would get a very long sentence, I hope, for the crimes he has committed.”

Against a background of recent controversies over the treatment of the Chilean dictator and the alleged Nazi Konrad Kalejs, this case reveals further confusion in the Home Office about who can be detained over allegations of human rights abuse.

A spokeswoman from the Redress Trust, which seeks reparation for the victims of torture, is pressing for action to be taken against Col Henderson. She said: “When Britain became a party to the International Convention against Torture, it took on the responsibility to bring to justice suspected torturers who come within our borders.”

There has been a growing movement for the restoration of democracy in Bahrain since the state’s rulers abolished the national assembly in 1975. The security services in Bahrain under Col Henderson have been central to the prevention of a return to democracy.

There have been allegations against the secret police of the murder of suspects and the arrest and the maltreatment of children. Six weeks ago protests greeted the new ruler of Bahrain, the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin al-Khalifa, who was visiting Britain to meet the Queen and Tony Blair.

Col Henderson moved to Bahrain in 1964 after being deported from Kenya when the declaration of independence was made there. He had been part of the British colonial security apparatus in Kenya suppressing the Mau-Mau uprising lead by Jomo Kenyatta.

Documents in the Public Record Office at Kew, south-west London, show that the Foreign Office persuaded Col Henderson to take over as head of the security service in Bahrain. Bahrain was a British colony until 1970. He was to direct the state’s security forces for 30 years before retiring two years ago. He is now an adviser to Bahrain’s Ministry of the Interior.

But in November, new evidence uncovered by Channel 4 News suggested that Henderson had been personally involved in torture sessions at the Bahrain security service HQ.

Hashem Redha, a Bahrainian pro-democracy protester who now lives in Britain, says that he was arrested and tortured by Col Henderson’s security officials. This included pulling fingernails off, using dogs to attack prisoners and sexual assault. Hashem Redha said he was attacked personally by Col Henderson. “He tortured me one time. He kicked me and shook me two times. He said, ‘If you like to be hit, we can hit you more than that’.”

Over the New Year the colonel and his wife, Marie, have been staying at their holiday home in Holne, Devon. In an interview over tea and biscuits, he said that all Mr Redha’s allegations were untrue. When asked why there were repeated allegations of torture, he said: “When an Arab child wants a sweet and his father does not give him a sweet the boy will say that ‘My father has tortured me’.”

Col Henderson’s wife, who worked for Bahrain’s government in an administrative role for 20 years, said that claims of torture were “fashionable” in the Arab world. “If anything, he has done everything to alleviate torture,” she said.

Bahrain: British Master Torturer in Devon Ian Henderson, the British officer who masterminded repression, torture and killing in Bahrain since 1966 has briefly appeared on Channel 4 TV on 5 January. He was spending his holiday in a Devon country house when the media filmed him. The master torturer is responsible for the misery of Bahrainis since 1966. While Bahrainis have not been enemies to Britain, he has tortured to death scores of citizens for no reason other than receiving a salary for doing so. Britain has detained General Pinochet of Chile whose case is being reviewed against a request for extradition to Spain to face charge of torture and kidnap. The alleged Nazi criminal Konrad Kalejs, is also under investigation by the British government for his role in the killing of innocent people during the Second World War. The case of Ian Henderson is the “acid test”. He is British and he has tortured Bahrainis who demanded their basic rights. He runs one of the most oppressive network of torturers and informers in a small country and has been going and coming to Britain ever since he started torturing and killing Bahrainis.

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“The Big Issue” magazine, 17 January 2000 Butcher’s Holiday The Former Head of Bahrain’s Notorious Secret Police, who Faces Serious Allegations of Torture Has Been Found Living On Dartmoor. So Why Doesn’t the Government Arrest Him? By Andrew Rowell The former head of the Secret police in the Gulf state of Bahrain, who stands accused of torture, has been found living on Darmoor. Major-General Ian Henderson, a British national and the ex-head of Bahrain’s State Security Forces, who has a long list of human rights violations levelled against him, has been undisturbed by the authorities, even though the Metropolitan Police has a dossier detailing some of the allegations. This revelation came just a week after an alleged Nazi war criminal, Konrad Kalejs, who had also been living in Britain, was allow to fly to Australia, instead of being arrested. Under a law that came into force in 1998 anyone involved in torture in the world can be arrested and prosecuted in Britain. Henderson, nicknamed ” the Butcher of Bahrain’, is also free to leave the country at any time. The European Parliament has called upon Britain to prosecute Henderson. So too, has the Redress Trust, Which seeks reparation for torture victims. ” Where allegations of people’s involvement in torture are raised they should be investigated. The UK has an obligation under international law to pursue such cases”. Says a spokesman for Redress. However, the Government has failed to take action. “There isn’t a position for us have on Ian Henderson at the moment,” comments a Home office spokesman. Local Conservative MP for Totnes, Anthony Steen, has also refused to comment. A spokesman for the Organised Crime branch of the Metropolitan Police says: ” I can confirm that we are in receipt of papers alleging torture and these are currently being examined”. But he refuses to say whether any charges were being pressed. Although Henderson says that a legations are ” laughable”, he admitted to The Big Issue in 1998 that ” vigorous interrogation” was common in Bahrain. “Torture is a much abused term”, he said. ” Arabs have a different way of looking at things” It is a line he is sticking to. “when an Arab child wants a sweet and his father does not give him one, the boy will say ‘ My father has tortured me’,” Henderson says. Before moving to Bahrain in the mid-sixties Henderson ran the British colonial security system during the Mau Mau conflict in Kenya. Thousands of Kenyans were killed by the British in the bloody uprising and when the Kenyans achieved independence, Henderson was deported. But he was then recruited by Sir Anthony Parsons, the British political agent in Bahrain, to take charge of the country’s security services. THE LIST OF ALLEGATIONS IS GRUESONE AND LONG: BEATINGS, ELECTRIC SHOCK TREATMENT, PRISONER HAVING THEIR FINGERNAILS RIPPED OUT, DOGS BEING USED TO ATTACK PRISONERS, RAPE AND MURDER For over thirty years, even after Britain relinquished power in 1971, Henderson ran the country’s security apparatus, which suppressed democracy and oversaw torture and murder. He was finally removed form office in 1998, after a sustained campaign by human rights activists and the The Big Issue to expose the horror of Bahrain’s torture chambers. Henderson now works as an adviser to Bahrain’s Ministry of the Interior. The Big Issue has spoken to Colonel Donald Bryan, another Briton, who currently runs the Security Department in Bahrain. “The Accusations against Henderson are based on spurious propaganda put out by terrorist-inclined dissidents,” he says. ” In the light of the met inquiry, I would not like to say anything else. But the allegations are not true.” Britons work for his department, as it is “confidential”. But there is substantial evidence that torture was carried out under Henderson’s control. ” Henderson was the head of Security intelligence for many years”, says a spokesman for Amnesty International, “and that institution was responsible for torture. Amnesty has had many serious concerns, including the widespread use of torture deaths in custody, and the arrest of hundreds of people involved in demonstrations.” Dr. Saeed Shehabi, of the Bahrain Freedom Movement, adds: ” I know that torture has been rampant – I have relatives and friends who have been tortured. I have been in contact with many people who have been subjected to torture. I know many people who died under torture, and we have plenty of evidence of that. Henderson is aware of this, and did nothing to stop it. If anything, Henderson and his men are trying to stop people giving evidence that incriminates them. This is why I believe Henderson ought be questioned and bought to justice, for the sake of those people”. The Big Issue has spoken exclusively to an exiled Bahrain who gives new evidence that Henderson was personally involved in his torture. Adbul ( not his real name) claims that Henderson repeatedly visited him while he was being tortured in the Eighties. “They hit me with cables all over my body. They put a rope on may legs and hung me, and put cloth in my mouth so I couldn’t cry out,” he says. ” he says. “A British man came in and advised me to cooperate. I though that everything would stop because he was British. I told him they were torturing me, but he just sat and watched what they were doing. He ordered the torture.” His torturers later told him that the man was Henderson. Abdul says tortured on a further three occasions. His case has now been passed to the British Police. The Bahraini Human rights Organisation and the Bahraini Freedom Movement are compiling a dossier detailing more cases of torture carried out under Henderson. The list of allegations is gruesome and long: beatings. Electric shock treatment, prisoners having their fingernails ripped out, dogs being used to attach inmates, people being burned with cigarettes, being injected with drugs or attached with electric drills. Other people were raped or murdered in custody. One sixteen year old, Saeed al-Eskafi, who died during torture, had been burned with an iron and was sexually assaulted. Pictures of another 22 years old man, Nooh Khalil Abdulla Al Nooh, who also died in custody, show his body riddled with marks of torture and abuse. Since 1998, when Henderson was removed from office, the human rights situation in Bahrain has improved slightly, with some prisoners being released and exiles allowed to return. ” They have introduced some positive measures” , says Amnesty’s spokeswoman, ” but we still have concerns about the situation, in particular trials before the State security court, which are unfair because there is no right to appeal. We also have major concerns about legislation, especially the state security measures of 1974, which allow the minister of Interior to arrest and imprison people without trial for up to three years. The use of torture and ill-treatment also continues.” But despite on-going torture, the relationship between Britain and Bahrain remains cosy. ” It’s a long-standing relationship,” says a Foreign Office spokesman. ” It’s a good. Positive one. The crown Prince of Bahrain is coming here at the end of February. The Bahrainis are out good friends.” The Ministry of defense has provided training to Bahrain’s military and the regime is an important purchaser of arms. Between may 1997 and January 1999 some 81 arms export licenses to Bahrain were granted by the Labour Government. Last year a further 29 licenses were granted Labour’s so-called ‘ethical’ foreign policy states that arms for export should not be used for internal repression. But according to Rachel Harford, spokeswoman for the Campaign against the Arms Trade, Britain does not monitor how these arms will be used, so there is no guarantee that they will not be used for torture. ” We are complicit if sell these arms”, she says. Indeed, Henderson admits that he has helped the British export arms to Bahrain. ” I am serving a British cause, not an Arab one,” he says. This raises question over whether he was helping the British Government in an official capacity or not. Although the Foreign Office refuses to comment on this, col. Bryan says that ” arms exports are
a matter between the two Governments and businesses concerned”. Meanwhile back on Dartmoor, residents are coming to terms with the true identity of their secretive neigbhour. ” I am shocked that someone like that is getting away with it,” says a close neigbhour, who wants to remain anonymous. ” I think it is outrageous that the authorities do not seem to be doing much about Henderson. He seems to be able to come and go as he pleases.

SUNDAY HERALD (Scotland) 23 January 2000 ‘Bahrain butcher’ flees Britain

By Neil Mackay Home Affairs Editor

The Scottish secret-service officer accused of coordinating a state-sponsored regime of torture and repression in the Gulf state of Bahrain has fled the country in the midst of a Scotland Yard inquiry into his alleged crimes. Scotland Yard and Home Secretary Jack Straw have been savaged by MPs and human rights activists for letting Colonel Ian Henderson leave. Henderson arrived in the UK in late December for a holiday in his £250,000 home in Holne, Devon. Following an investigation earlier this month by the Sunday Herald into Henderson’s alleged crimes, Straw announced the Metropolitan police was to investigate Henderson’s activities in Bahrain. The Sunday Herald told both the Home Office and Scotland Yard that Henderson had said in an interview that he planned to leave the UK by January 20. Henderson was never arrested and his passport was never confiscated to prevent him leaving. His home on the Dartmoor marshes was empty last night. Henderson has been accused of overseeing the brutal repression of pro-democracy campaigners in Bahrain. Allegations include claims that prisoners were tortured, raped and forced into exile and that security forces carried out extrajudicial executions and abused children. Henderson has also allegedly tortured detainees with his own hands. Henderson and his wife Marie are now thought to have returned to Bahrain. Henderson was, until recently, head of the Security and Intelligence Service, the country’s secret police. He remains as a special security adviser to the Bahrain Interior Ministry. Scotland Yard said that its organised crime unit was still investigating a dossier of reports alleging human rights abuses. When challenged about Henderson’s flight, a spokeswoman said: “The investigation is on-going.” Scotland Yard refused to accept that the investigation was now in ruins because Henderson had fled the UK. Despite the Home Secretary’s powers to retain a suspect’s passport, the Home Office said there was nothing it could do to keep Henderson in the UK while the investigation was under way. “This is a matter for the police,” a Home Office spokes woman said. “We don’t order investigations and we don’t get involved in them.” Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who has campaigned for Henderson’s prosecution, said he was disgusted by the conduct of the police and Home Office. “A massive amount of work has gone into this investigation, with information gathered by human rights groups and the Sunday Herald on Henderson’s alleged crimes,” he said. “It is disgraceful that the inaction of Scotland Yard and the Home Office has allowed this man to flee Britain. “All we can do is hope that Henderson returns to Britain so he can be arrested. But he is not a fool. It looks like this man will go to his grave with impunity.” Corbyn will press the British government to ask Bahrain for Henderson’s extradition. Corbyn is to raise the issue in the House of Commons and ask for an inquiry into the “disastrous investigation”. “We also have to look at Britain’s close links with Bahrain over this matter,” he said. Bahrain is a close ally of the UK and was a key supporter of allied forces during the Gulf war. The country is of primary economic, military and strategic importance to both Britain and the United States. Britain has also armed and trained Bahraini security forces implicated in the abuse, torture and killing of pro-democracy campaigners. Scottish National Party shadow justice minister, Roseanna Cunningham, said: “It seems that the authorities have just sat and twiddled their thumbs until this man got out of the country. Perhaps the intention was to avoid the embarrassment of having to prosecute him. “We can’t continue to sit back while appalling crimes are committed. But that seems to be standard procedure now for the Home Office. Jack Straw has to start addressing this issue with the seriousness it deserves. Britain can no longer be a safe haven for ageing criminals who have worked for brutal regimes,” she said. Straw is under serious pressure over his handling of a series of high-profile cases involving widespread human rights abuses and has paved the way for General Pinochet to be returned to Chile. The Home Office has stubbornly refused to take action against Anton Gecas, a known Nazi war criminal living in Edinburgh, who was involved in the murder of at least 34,000 people in eastern Europe. Straw was also embarrassed by the Konrad Kalejs case, which saw the suspected Nazi war criminal leaving the UK earlier this month as a free man. Last week, as Straw allowed convicted rapist Mike Tyson into the UK, it was revealed another Nazi concentration camp guard, Alexander Schweidler, was living in Britain. Lord Avebury, vice-chairman of the parliamentary human rights group, said: “The Metropolitan police was responsible for this man. I am astonished and disappointed that he has left the country. I want to see Henderson in the dock. There is now no prospect of him returning to Britain. He will end his days in Bahrain. It is an awful blow to the principles of justice that he will avoid prosecution.” Dr Saeed Shehabi, one of the leaders of the Bahrain Freedom Movement, the exiled pro-democracy movement now based in London, said: “Henderson was being investigated for serious human rights violations. I had hoped that the UK government would take this seriously. Britain has an obligation to now seek Henderson’s extradition.”

The Bahraini Crown Prince is due in Britain this week as part of a state visit. Campaigners are urging the government to raise both Bahrain’s human rights record and Henderson’s role in the state police with the Crown Prince. The Foreign Office claims it has often raised the country’s human rights record with officials.

Musilm News (UK), Issue No. 129, Friday 28 January 2000 Henderson: principles versus political interests By: A Special Correspondent When the author of Manhunt wrote his books more than four decades ago, he certainly did not have in mind that one day he would be that hunted man. Ian Henderson, who had spent many years in his youth hunting Dedan Kimathi,is now hunted himself. If the formers own guilt was in calling for the liberation of his country from British colonialists, Hendersons guilt is no less than crimes against humanity according to human rights activists in London. It is alleged he has run a torture regime in the small Gulf island of Bahrain ever since he set foot there in 1966. His hunters have amassed volumes of personal testimonies that have painted an evil picture of the man who was awarded the George Cross for his bravery in the Colonial African Army in Kenya. For two decades he fought relentless battles against Mau Mau insurgents taking the battle into the heart of the forests in Mount Kenya. Today his reputation is that of a criminal. For the past third of a century, Scottish born Ian Henderson, now in his mid to late seventies, has reigned over one of the most sophisticated and inhumane secret service in the Middle East. Many young men, women and children lost their lives at the hands of Henderson’s men. Yet he has shown no remorse. In a recent and rare interview with Channel 4 news, Henderson denied that torture had ever taken place in the torture chambers of the Qalaa (fort) prison in Bahrain. He shunned all claims, often supported by personal testimonies of those who survived the ordeal or by pictures and footage of those who were not so lucky. Mutilated bodies and severed limbs testify to horrific crimes committed by the Special Branch he had created at the heyday of the British colonial power. When journalists attempted to cross-examine him on the allegations of torture, he refused to be drawn into details and preferred to accuse his opponents of exaggeration. Perhaps Henderson had been a regular visitor to his 250,000 pounds residence in the heart of Dartmoor in Devon, but his recent visit stands to become one of the least enjoyable either by himself or his wife, Marie. As soon as one media source was tipped off about his presence in Holne, a small suburban area of Ashburton in Devon, a stream of enthusiastic journalists and human rights activists made the trip to that remote corner of the British Isles only to be met by the grim-faced ageing alleged torturer. He refused to go on record but he admitted that what he had done was for the sake of protecting British interests. The Government is not so sure about that. Even Linda Chalker said in reply to a question about Hendersons role and relations with the British government that “He was not one of us”. The Home Secretary confirmed on Channel 4 that Hedersons file was with the police who will determine if he has a case to answer. However, it is believed that Whitehall is not so enthusiastic about an open trial that may uncover a direct British role in the reign of terror that Henderson had imposed on the people of Bahrain. According to Foreign Office documents, Henderson had been recruited for the Government of Bahrain by the British Government. The correspondence between the late Sir Anthony Parsons and Michael Weir, of the Arabian Department at the Foreign Office in 1966, indicate beyond any doubt that the two played a decisive role in his employment. The subsequent reports by Anthony Parsons, who was the Political Agent in Bahrain on Bahrains internal situation, show complete satisfaction on the part of the British envoy with regards to Hendersons performance as the newly-appointed head of Bahrains Special Branch. Testimonies by victims of torture in the second half of the 1960s confirm that torture was rampant in Hedersons cells and that his previous experience in Kenya was put to the full use in the case of Barhain. Concerns by human rights organisations vis-a-vis the situation in Bahrain were explicitly expressed as early as 1966, when Amnesty International wrote to the Foreign Office about the situation in Bahrain. Bahrains predicaments took dangerous turn after the popular uprising that took place in December 1994. The people had been asking for the reinstatement of the countrys constitution and elections to the National Assembly which were both suspended in 1975. Thousands of young men, women and children were arrested and tortured. Scores were killed under torture or by police bullets. Ian Henderson had directed the State Intelligence Services (SIS) for many years and had established “vigorous interrogation” procedures that employed torture as the main means of extracting confessions from dissidents. He failed to investigate allegations of torture, and none of the known torturers was ever brought to account for his actions. Under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, the British Government is obliged to arrest people like Ian Henderson who are accused of using torture against dissidents. According to the International Convention Against Torture which was incorporated by Britain in 1988, anyone who knows or should know that human rights abuses are occurring and takes no steps to stop them is criminally responsible. As such Ian Hendersons case falls within the remit of this jurisdiction. The question is whether Whitehall will remain faithful to its ethical foreign policy and take the case of Ian Henderson to a just conclusion or whether political considerations will override the ethical and ideological principles contained in the FCOs mission statement.

SUNDAY HERALD (Scotland)

23 January 2000

‘Bahrain butcher’ flees Britain

By Neil Mackay Home Affairs Editor

The Scottish secret-service officer accused of coordinating a state-sponsored regime of torture and repression in the Gulf state of Bahrain has fled the country in the midst of a Scotland Yard inquiry into his alleged crimes. Scotland Yard and Home Secretary Jack Straw have been savaged by MPs and human rights activists for letting Colonel Ian Henderson leave. Henderson arrived in the UK in late December for a holiday in his £250,000 home in Holne, Devon. Following an investigation earlier this month by the Sunday Herald into Henderson’s alleged crimes, Straw announced the Metropolitan police was to investigate Henderson’s activities in Bahrain. The Sunday Herald told both the Home Office and Scotland Yard that Henderson had said in an interview that he planned to leave the UK by January 20. Henderson was never arrested and his passport was never confiscated to prevent him leaving. His home on the Dartmoor marshes was empty last night. Henderson has been accused of overseeing the brutal repression of pro-democracy campaigners in Bahrain. Allegations include claims that prisoners were tortured, raped and forced into exile and that security forces carried out extrajudicial executions and abused children. Henderson has also allegedly tortured detainees with his own hands. Henderson and his wife Marie are now thought to have returned to Bahrain. Henderson was, until recently, head of the Security and Intelligence Service, the country’s secret police. He remains as a special security adviser to the Bahrain Interior Ministry. Scotland Yard said that its organised crime unit was still investigating a dossier of reports alleging human rights abuses. When challenged about Henderson’s flight, a spokeswoman said: “The investigation is on-going.” Scotland Yard refused to accept that the investigation was now in ruins because Henderson had fled the UK. Despite the Home Secretary’s powers to retain a suspect’s passport, the Home Office said there was nothing it could do to keep Henderson in the UK while the investigation was under way. “This is a matter for the police,” a Home Office spokes woman said. “We don’t order investigations and we don’t get involved in them.” Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who has campaigned for Henderson’s prosecution, said he was disgusted by the conduct of the police and Home Office. “A massive amount of work has gone into this investigation, with information gathered by human rights groups and the Sunday Herald on Henderson’s alleged crimes,” he said. “It is disgraceful that the inaction of Scotland Yard and the Home Office has allowed this man to flee Britain. “All we can do is hope that Henderson returns to Britain so he can be arrested. But he is not a fool. It looks like this man will go to his grave with impunity.” Corbyn will press the British government to ask Bahrain for Henderson’s extradition. Corbyn is to raise the issue in the House of Commons and ask for an inquiry into the “disastrous investigation”. “We also have to look at Britain’s close links with Bahrain over this matter,” he said. Bahrain is a close ally of the UK and was a key supporter of allied forces during the Gulf war. The country is of primary economic, military and strategic importance to both Britain and the United States. Britain has also armed and trained Bahraini security forces implicated in the abuse, torture and killing of pro-democracy campaigners. Scottish National Party shadow justice minister, Roseanna Cunningham, said: “It seems that the authorities have just sat and twiddled their thumbs until this man got out of the country. Perhaps the intention was to avoid the embarrassment of having to prosecute him. “We can’t continue to sit back while appalling crimes are committed. But that seems to be standard procedure now for the Home Office. Jack Straw has to start addressing this issue with the seriousness it deserves. Britain can no longer be a safe haven for ageing criminals who have worked for brutal regimes,” she said. Straw is under serious pressure over his handling of a series of high-profile cases involving widespread human rights abuses and has paved the way for General Pinochet to be returned to Chile. The Home Office has stubbornly refused to take action against Anton Gecas, a known Nazi war criminal living in Edinburgh, who was involved in the murder of at least 34,000 people in eastern Europe. Straw was also embarrassed by the Konrad Kalejs case, which saw the suspected Nazi war criminal leaving the UK earlier this month as a free man. Last week, as Straw allowed convicted rapist Mike Tyson into the UK, it was revealed another Nazi concentration camp guard, Alexander Schweidler, was living in Britain. Lord Avebury, vice-chairman of the parliamentary human rights group, said: “The Metropolitan police was responsible for this man. I am astonished and disappointed that he has left the country. I want to see Henderson in the dock. There is now no prospect of him returning to Britain. He will end his days in Bahrain. It is an awful blow to the principles of justice that he will avoid prosecution.” Dr Saeed Shehabi, one of the leaders of the Bahrain Freedom Movement, the exiled pro-democracy movement now based in London, said: “Henderson was being investigated for serious human rights violations. I had hoped that the UK government would take this seriously. Britain has an obligation to now seek Henderson’s extradition.” The Bahraini Crown Prince is due in Britain this week as part of a state visit. Campaigners are urging the government to raise both Bahrain’s human rights record and Henderson’s role in the state police with the Crown Prince. The Foreign Office claims it has often raised the country’s human rights record with officials.

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More text published on 9 Jan by the Sunday Herald (in addition to the text available below)

(More Text) Sunday Herald ‘Bahrain Butcher’ is still at large in Britain Publication Date: Jan 9 2000 Colonel Ian Henderson, the Scottish secret service officer under investigation by Scotland Yard for allegedly orchestrating a reign of terror and torture in Bahrain, is still in hiding in Britain and coordinating widespread repression in the gulf state, an investigation by the Sunday Herald can reveal. Henderson was said to have left Britain late last week after Home Secretary Jack Straw announced an investigation into allegations of human rights abuses carried out by him. However, Henderson remains in a secure country villa in Devon. Scotland Yard now plans to remove his passport. The Bahrain government claimed Henderson had retired as head of the Security and Intelligence Service in late 1997. However, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald, Henderson admitted he still worked as a special security adviser to the Emir – in effect as head of the state secret police. Jack Straw announced on Thursday that detectives with the Metropolitan Police’s organised crime branch were to investigate torture allegations made against the Aberdeen-born mercenary. Henderson, 71, has been accused of overseeing brutal repression against pro-democracy campaigners. Allegations include claims that prisoners were tortured, raped and forced into exile, and that security forces carried out extra-judicial executions and abused children. Henderson has also allegedly tortured detainees with his own hands. Henderson and his wife Marie arrived in Britain after Christmas, and spent new year at their house in Dartmoor. He has made regular secret visits to the UK over the last 30 years. From his home, Henderson said: “This thing has to take its course so it can be made clear to the authorities who is right – us or them. I am confident in the British legal system. I dismiss all the allegations against me. “I will be staying in the UK until January 20. I have nothing to be worried about. I am still in the security service in Bahrain although I left my job two years ago. At the moment I am an advisor to the Minister of the Interior, but I will be quitting soon. Although I once wanted to retire to Britain, I will not do so now. I have no idea why people keep painting me as a monster.” A Scotland Yard source said the Met may seize Henderson’s passport. “Depending on the circumstances and outcome of the early stages of the investigation, we may seek advice from the Home Office over holding Henderson’s passport and preventing him leaving the country.” Henderson can be brought to trial under Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, which gives Britain the power to arrest and prosecute anyone who has committed human rights offences overseas. Dr Saed Shehabi of the London-based Bahrain Freedom Movement said: “Henderson must be arrested and put on trial. It is the Home Secretary’s duty. I am surprised and angry that [he] is still free. Any right-thinking person must be convinced this man is responsible for a reign of terror.” The Home Office said it was not for Jack Straw to order the arrest of an individual or encourage the police to carry out an investigation. So far police have not been called on to make any arrests. The Bahrain Embassy refused to respond to enquiries about the investigation, claiming its press attache was unavailable due to the Muslim holy period Ramadan. The Foreign Office said it regularly raised human rights concerns with Bahrain, but claimed the investigation would not harm diplomatic relations with the gulf state – which is of importance to the west given its position in the oil-rich Persian gulf.

“The Big Issue” magazine, 17 January 2000

Butcher’s Holiday

The Former Head of Bahrain’s Notorious Secret Police, who Faces Serious Allegations of Torture Has Been Found Living On Dartmoor. So Why Doesn’t the Government Arrest Him? By Andrew Rowell The former head of the Secret police in the Gulf state of Bahrain, who stands accused of torture, has been found living on Darmoor. Major-General Ian Henderson, a British national and the ex-head of Bahrain’s State Security Forces, who has a long list of human rights violations levelled against him, has been undisturbed by the authorities, even though the Metropolitan Police has a dossier detailing some of the allegations. This revelation came just a week after an alleged Nazi war criminal, Konrad Kalejs, who had also been living in Britain, was allow to fly to Australia, instead of being arrested. Under a law that came into force in 1998 anyone involved in torture in the world can be arrested and prosecuted in Britain. Henderson, nicknamed ” the Butcher of Bahrain’, is also free to leave the country at any time. The European Parliament has called upon Britain to prosecute Henderson. So too, has the Redress Trust, Which seeks reparation for torture victims. ” Where allegations of people’s involvement in torture are raised they should be investigated. The UK has an obligation under international law to pursue such cases”. Says a spokesman for Redress. However, the Government has failed to take action. “There isn’t a position for us have on Ian Henderson at the moment,” comments a Home office spokesman. Local Conservative MP for Totnes, Anthony Steen, has also refused to comment. A spokesman for the Organised Crime branch of the Metropolitan Police says: ” I can confirm that we are in receipt of papers alleging torture and these are currently being examined”. But he refuses to say whether any charges were being pressed. Although Henderson says that a legations are ” laughable”, he admitted to The Big Issue in 1998 that ” vigorous interrogation” was common in Bahrain. “Torture is a much abused term”, he said. ” Arabs have a different way of looking at things” It is a line he is sticking to. “when an Arab child wants a sweet and his father does not give him one, the boy will say ‘ My father has tortured me’,” Henderson says. Before moving to Bahrain in the mid-sixties Henderson ran the British colonial security system during the Mau Mau conflict in Kenya. Thousands of Kenyans were killed by the British in the bloody uprising and when the Kenyans achieved independence, Henderson was deported. But he was then recruited by Sir Anthony Parsons, the British political agent in Bahrain, to take charge of the country’s security services. THE LIST OF ALLEGATIONS IS GRUESONE AND LONG: BEATINGS, ELECTRIC SHOCK TREATMENT, PRISONER HAVING THEIR FINGERNAILS RIPPED OUT, DOGS BEING USED TO ATTACK PRISONERS, RAPE AND MURDER For over thirty years, even after Britain relinquished power in 1971, Henderson ran the country’s security apparatus, which suppressed democracy and oversaw torture and murder. He was finally removed form office in 1998, after a sustained campaign by human rights activists and the The Big Issue to expose the horror of Bahrain’s torture chambers. Henderson now works as an adviser to Bahrain’s Ministry of the Interior. The Big Issue has spoken to Colonel Donald Bryan, another Briton, who currently runs the Security Department in Bahrain. “The Accusations against Henderson are based on spurious propaganda put out by terrorist-inclined dissidents,” he says. ” In the light of the met inquiry, I would not like to say anything else. But the allegations are not true.” Britons work for his department, as it is “confidential”. But there is substantial evidence that torture was carried out under Henderson’s control. ” Henderson was the head of Security intelligence for many years”, says a spokesman for Amnesty International, “and that institution was responsible for torture. Amnesty has had many serious concerns, including the widespread use of torture deaths in custody, and the arrest of hundreds of people involved in demonstrations.” Dr. Saeed Shehabi, of the Bahrain Freedom Movement, adds: ” I know that torture has been rampant – I have relatives and friends who have been tortured. I have been in contact with many people who have been subjected to torture. I know many people who died under torture, and we have plenty of evidence of that. Henderson is aware of this, and did nothing to stop it. If anything, Henderson and his men are trying to stop people giving evidence that incriminates them. This is why I believe Henderson ought be questioned and bought to justice, for the sake of those people”. The Big Issue has spoken exclusively to an exiled Bahrain who gives new evidence that Henderson was personally involved in his torture. Adbul ( not his real name) claims that Henderson repeatedly visited him while he was being tortured in the Eighties. “They hit me with cables all over my body. They put a rope on may legs and hung me, and put cloth in my mouth so I couldn’t cry out,” he says. ” he says. “A British man came in and advised me to cooperate. I though that everything would stop because he was British. I told him they were torturing me, but he just sat and watched what they were doing. He ordered the torture.” His torturers later told him that the man was Henderson. Abdul says tortured on a further three occasions. His case has now been passed to the British Police. The Bahraini Human rights Organisation and the Bahraini Freedom Movement are compiling a dossier detailing more cases of torture carried out under Henderson. The list of allegations is gruesome and long: beatings. Electric shock treatment, prisoners having their fingernails ripped out, dogs being used to attach inmates, people being burned with cigarettes, being injected with drugs or attached with electric drills. Other people were raped or murdered in custody. One sixteen year old, Saeed al-Eskafi, who died during torture, had been burned with an iron and was sexually assaulted. Pictures of another 22 years old man, Nooh Khalil Abdulla Al Nooh, who also died in custody, show his body riddled with marks of torture and abuse. Since 1998, when Henderson was removed from office, the human rights situation in Bahrain has improved slightly, with some prisoners being released and exiles allowed to return. ” They have introduced some positive measures” , says Amnesty’s spokeswoman, ” but we still have concerns about the situation, in particular trials before the State security court, which are unfair because there is no right to appeal. We also have major concerns about legislation, especially the state security measures of 1974, which allow the minister of Interior to arrest and imprison people without trial for up to three years. The use of torture and ill-treatment also continues.” But despite on-going torture, the relationship between Britain and Bahrain remains cosy. ” It’s a long-standing relationship,” says a Foreign Office spokesman. ” It’s a good. Positive one. The crown Prince of Bahrain is coming here at the end of February. The Bahrainis are out good friends.” The Ministry of defense has provided training to Bahrain’s military and the regime is an important purchaser of arms. Between may 1997 and January 1999 some 81 arms export licenses to Bahrain were granted by the Labour Government. Last year a further 29 licenses were granted Labour’s so-called ‘ethical’ foreign policy states that arms for export should not be used for internal repression. But according to Rachel Harford, spokeswoman for the Campaign against the Arms Trade, Britain does not monitor how these arms will be used, so there is no guarantee that they will not be used for torture. ” We are complicit if sell these arms”, she says. Indeed, Henderson admits that he has helped the British export arms to Bahrain. ” I am serving a British cause, not an Arab one,” he says. This raises question over whether he was helping the British Government in an official capacity or not. Although the Foreign Office refuses to comment on this, col. Bryan says that ” arms exports are a matter between the two Governments and busin
esses concerned”. Meanwhile back on Dartmoor, residents are coming to terms with the true identity of their secretive neigbhour. ” I am shocked that someone like that is getting away with it,” says a close neigbhour, who wants to remain anonymous. ” I think it is outrageous that the authorities do not seem to be doing much about Henderson. He seems to be able to come and go as he pleases.