EU Senior Official on Bahrain: 'Accidents happen, ... and demonstrators might have asked for it!'

(BBC)- "..robert Cooper, special adviser to EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton, was briefing Euro MPs about his fact-finding visit to Bahrain last weekend. The harsh crackdown has claimed several lives and dozens are reported missing.

Mr Cooper, a veteran British diplomat, said that "the exceptional nature of recent events is part of the problem, because... it's not easy dealing with large demonstrations in which there may be violence. "It's a difficult task for the policemen, it's not something we always get right in Western countries, and accidents happen...the authorities did at one stage apologise for the way the police had handled events...It's wrong to suggest that only violence has been from the police and the authorities. Undoubtedly there has been violence by some demonstrators and the deaths of at least two policemen."....

Mr Cooper said the 1,500 troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been invited in to guard key installations. They were "not visible" and had "not participated in riot control", he said.

Normally Bahrain is "a rather pleasant, peaceful place", he said, .....he praised Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa as "absolutely admirable"...."