Police Sytematically Abuse Children as a means to ‘terrorise’ Citizens Opposing Regimeegime

Just weeks after approving a new law on childrens’ rights on 8 Aug 2012 [1] the violations against children in Bahrain have escalated seriously. At least 10 children have been killed since last year, hundreds were tortured and beaten, hundreds arrested and detained, even as young as 9 years. Other children were emotionally traumatized witnessing one or both of their parents killed, violently beaten, arrested and detained for months or seriously injured. They have also been suffering from the regime’s collective punishment procedures, such as randomly breaking into houses and the excessive use of teargas.

Children as Young as Five are Targets of Riot Police Excessive Use of Force
14 September, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Extra Judicial killing of children

Hussam Al Haddad (16 years old) was killed by security forces on the night of 17th August 2012, according to an eyewitness and as confirmed by an official statement from the ministry of interior (MOI); AlHaddad was shot with shotgun pellets causing him to fall to the ground. The witness stated that AlHaddad got kicked repeatedly by men in civilian clothing while security forces stood idly watching. In the hospital family members and a BCHR representative were kept for hours before being allowed to retrieve his body for burial. In the Ministry of Interior’s statement about the killing of Hussam, they stated that security force officials were defending themselves and following legal procedures, calling the child a terrorist, they neglected to mention the fact that he was unarmed. In photos published next day of Hussam’s (16) body, birdshot injuries were visible on his left arm, back and left side of his body, as well as marks of severe beating on his back and shoulder. The location and depth of injuries indicate that he was shot at close range and that the shooting was intentional and not an act of self-defense [2] .

Hussam is one of 10 children killed by the security forces in Bahrain:

1 Yahya Yousif Ahmed, 1 month old, died 5-Mar-12, Suffocation by tear gas
2 Yaseen Jassim AlAsfoor, 14 years old, died 20-Jan-12 Suffocation by tear gas
3 Sayed Hashim Sayed Saeed 15 years old, died 31-Dec-11 shot – tear gas canister
4 Sajida Faisal 5 day old, died 11-Dec-11 Suffocation by tear gas
5 Ali Yousif Badah 16 years old, died 19-Nov-11 Run over by a Police car
6 Ahmed Jaber AlQattan 16 years old, died 6-Oct-11 shotgun
7 Ali Alshaikh 14 years old, died 31-Aug-11 shot – tear gas canister
8 Mohammed Abdulhussain Farhan 6 years old, died 30-Apr-11 Suffocation by tear gas
9 Sayed-Ahmad Sa’eed Shams 15 years old, died 30-Mar-11 Shotgun

The Ministry of Interior confirmed responsibility of the murder of Hussam as well as some of the other children that were killed since the popular uprising, like Ali Al Shaikh and Ali Al Badah. It is claimed that investigations have been launched for a few cases, however, we have yet to see any official being held accountable for these deaths.

Arbitrary arrest and Detention

In the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) “Post-BICI Part II” report it was stated that 123 children have been arrested (26.6% of total arrests) with an average detention periods of 91 days. The numbers in the report were for the period of post BICI from March 2012 to 18 Jun 2012 when the BCHR report was published. For the couple of months post the publishing BCHR part II report, arrests of children was escalated to close to 100 children in around 2 months.

Abdulla K. , 17 years, was arrested on 22nd June 2012. He was at home with his family when riot police broke into his house and started to conduct a search. They asked his parents who was on their roof and before Abdulla’s father could answer, they beat him. Then they shouted at his mother when she asked why they were breaking in without a warrant. Abdulla and his brother were scared of being tortured and arrested. The two of them went to the roof and jumped to attempt to get away. He injured his leg and was arrested by the riot police. They made him walk on his injured leg which caused him great pain. He was slapped and threatened with a shotgun as he was taken away. …more