(AFP Photo)
(AFP) – Authorities in the United Arab Emirates said on Monday that a Western academician was barred from entering the Gulf state following his strong criticism of the monarchy in neighbouring Bahrain.
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen was stopped on Friday from entering the UAE where he was supposed to deliver a paper on Bahrain at a conference organised by the American University of Sharjah and his institute, the London School of Economics and Politics (LSE), the UAE foreign ministry said.
“Ulrichsen has consistently propagated views de-legitimising the Bahraini monarchy,” the ministry was quoted as saying by WAM state news agency.
“The UAE is a strong supporter of efforts by the Government of Bahrain and the opposition parties to resolve their situation through peaceful dialogue.
“The UAE took the view that at this extremely sensitive juncture in Bahrain’s national dialogue it would be unhelpful to allow non-constructive views on the situation in Bahrain to be expressed from within another GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) state,” the ministry said.
Ulrichsen had written a paper last year titled — After the Arab Spring: power shift in the Middle East?: Bahrain’s aborted revolution.
After his deportation the LSE reportedly pulled out of the conference titled “The New Middle East: Transition in the Arab World” which itself was later cancelled.
Ulrichsen wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday that he had returned to London after being barred from entering the UAE, adding that he was told by passport authorities that his name was on a “blacklist”.
His deportation stirred a buzz on Twitter, with some condoning LSE for withdrawing from the conference.
“Bravo LSE for principled stand canceling Mideast conference in UAE,” wrote Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch’s executive director of the Middle East and North Africa.
Bahrain’s security forces, boosted by Saudi-led Gulf troops, stormed in mid-March 2011 a protest encampment in Manama’s Pearl Square, ending a month-long Shiite-dominated uprising that demanded democratisation in the Gulf archipelago.
