Bahrain is engaged in use of Chemical Weapons against its Citizens

The CS Gas used in Bahrain is “Weaponized” in the truest sense of the word. The use of Military Grade CS GAS an Order of Magnitude more potent than “riot control agents” used in the streets of the United States and the United Kingdom is well documented in Bahrain. The weapon being discussed here is a Combat grade CS Gas.

Use of CS Gas in war is prohibited under the terms of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, signed by most nations in 1993, with all but five other nations signing between the years of 1994 through 1997. Only five nations have not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention and are therefore unhindered by restrictions on the use of CS gas: Angola, Egypt, North Korea, Somalia, and Syria.

The “weaponization” that the PHR Report discusses concerns the use of CS Gas, typically considered “less-than-lethal”, as a “lethal weapon”. Gas Canisters are being fired as a projectile directly are protesters causing death and CS Gas is being fired directly into homes, transforming them into “gas chambers” where infants and elderly die from asphyxiation. – Phlipn

SEE REPORT FROM PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS HERE

Bahrain Is Criticized for Its ‘Torrent’ of Tear Gas Use
1 August, 2012 – NYT

Despite a pledge to stop abuses by its security forces, the ruling Sunni minority in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain is engaged in systematic and disproportionate use of tear gas on its restive Shiite majority, permitting police officers to routinely fire volleys at point-blank range at crowds and into homes and vehicles in Shiite neighborhoods, a leading rights group said in a report released on Wednesday.

A Bahraini protester hit by a tear gas canister on Sunday was treated by underground doctors and nurses in a house after clashes with the police.

The group, the Physicians for Human Rights, which has been highly critical of the Bahraini monarchy’s behavior since the Shiite protests inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings began there 18 months ago, called the policy on tear gas use unprecedented in the world, even among dictatorships where tear gas is a staple tool for crowd control.

Its report, based on dozens of interviews of victims in Bahrain and forensic evidence gathered there by the group’s investigators in April, said the Shiite populace’s abnormally prolonged exposure to the tear gas’s toxic components had already led to an alarming increase in miscarriages, respiratory ailments and other maladies.

It documented examples of grievous wounds suffered by civilians whose skulls and limbs had been struck by metal tear gas canisters blasted from a few feet away. The report also described instances in which people not engaged in protests were attacked with tear gas fired into their cars and through the windows or doors of their homes, including at least two cases in which residents died from complications from exposure to the gas because they were trapped in enclosed spaces.

“Since February 2011, the Bahraini government has unleashed a torrent of these toxic chemical agents against men, women and children, including the elderly and infirm,” asserted the report, titled “Weaponizing Tear Gas.” …more