ICRC Demands Access to Detained in Bahrain

ICRC wants more access to detainees in Syria, Bahrain
May 26, 2011

The head of the International Committee for the Red Cross on Thursday criticized both Syria and Bahrain for denying the rights group access to people detained during crackdowns on political demonstrations.

“It is true that we are the only international humanitarian organization accepted to work in Syria,” Jakob Kellenberger, the ICRC chief told journalists while presenting the group’s annual report. “But I have to tell you (…) what we can do so far is really very modest.”

Kellenberger said his staff have been denied access to several cities where people have been detained while demonstrating against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. ICRC staff have been given some access to prisoners in Daraa, Kellenberger added.

Some UN Security Council members are currently working on a draft resolution that says the brutality leveled against Syrian protestors amounts to a war crime.

Kellenberger also said that Bahrain has so far not honored requests by the ICRC to visit detainees arrested during its heavy-handed crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. Bahraini authorities came under strong criticism from international human rights organizations for their brutal suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations that lasted for a month in the capital Manama.

Bahraini authorities said 24 people died during the crackdown, including four who died in detention.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon …source