MANAMA, Bahrain: Rights advocates in Bahrain want amends for Shia activists abused during the 1990s but the government insists that the chapter is closed.

Secretary-general of the Bahrain Human Rights Society Sabika An-Najjar said: "We want the government to recognize that there were serious crimes of torture … We call for the establishment of a Reconciliation and Truth Commission, like what happened in Morocco and South Africa."

The commission "should listen to people, investigate and document the cases, and rehabilitate and compensate the victims," Najjar said. "Criminals" who confess and 'express their regrets' could avoid prosecution, she added.

A Manama-based diplomat said that while the scale and seriousness of human rights violations in Bahrain are certainly "not comparable" to what happened in South Africa or Morocco, "they are an issue" in the small Gulf kingdom, where they had caused a "deep trauma."

The abuses go back to the 25 years following the dissolution of parliament by the then-emir in 1975, chiefly during anti-government unrest that left at least 38 people dead between 1994 and 1999.

The protests were led by the Shia opposition, whose community makes up a majority of the native population in Bahrain.