Bahrain: Stop Systematic Attacks on Medical Providers

Bahrain: Systematic Attacks on Medical Providers
Stop Targeting Medics, Patients, Health Facilities
July 18, 2011

(Beirut) – The Bahraini government should immediately end its campaign of arrests of medical professionals and attacks on injured patients linked to recent anti-government protests, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch called on authorities to investigate the violations against medical personnel and patients who exercised their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, hold those responsible to account, and allow unhindered access to medical treatment for all.

The 54-page report, “Targets of Retribution: Attacks against Medics, Injured Protesters, and Health Facilities,” documents serious government abuses, starting in mid-February 2011. These include attacks on health care providers; denial of medical access to protesters injured by security forces; the siege of hospitals and health centers; and the detention, ill-treatment, torture, and prosecution of medics and patients with protest-related injuries.

“The attacks on medics and wounded protesters have been part of an official policy of retribution against Bahrainis who supported pro-democracy protests,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Medical personnel who criticized the severe repression were singled out and jailed, among the more than 1,600 Bahrainis facing solitary confinement and ill-treatment in detention and unfair trials before a special military court.”

The government violations were part of the violent response by authorities to largely peaceful pro-democracy and anti-government demonstrations that began in February and continued months after military and security forces began a massive crackdown in mid-March, which led to the armed occupation of Bahrain’s main public hospital, the Salmaniya Medical Complex, on March 16.

Beginning on February 17, Human Rights Watch documented attacks by security forces on paramedics, doctors, and nurses who were providing urgent offsite medical care to wounded protesters and bystanders. Sadiq Alekry, a 44-year-old doctor, volunteered his services at the Pearl Roundabout on the evening of February 16, prior to the attack by security forces after midnight that resulted in the deaths of four protesters. Shortly after 3 a.m. Dr. Alekry said, riot police confronted him with sticks and guns, handcuffed him and began punching, kicking, and beating him with sticks. …more