Public tribunal – foreign and national security forces acting under the authority and directed by the al Khalifa regime did commit “war crimes” and attempt a “cover up”, against the 13 March protesters and thier medical rescuers

“I wouldn’t stay here at the Center and wait for the wounded to come here dead. I’m going where they are. I wouldn’t wait for dead bodies to come”. She went to one of the paramedics. “I couldn’t bear that, take me now, take me there immediately”. The paramedic was smoking his cigarette nervously, he took a deep breath, looked at her insisting eyes, and said “Get in”.

Bahraini Doctors: A Thorn to the Regime- part 6- Sitra’s Long Day
Bahrain Mirror

“We were at the Health Center. We were treating the wounded who were brought in hundreds. We heard terrible screams coming from outside the Health Center. We got ready for something important. A young man came in carrying one of the injured. His steps were heavy. His face was bloodless. His countenance could not fully express the shock on his face. As he entered, screams exploded in the center. I was standing away from the entrance, I only noticed trail of blood that was spilling on his walking line. When the man passed by anyone, that one would cry, slap their chest, curse, beat their head with their hands or against a wall. Still, he was far from me. I got a glimpse of a piece of something dangling behind the injured’s head. I didn’t figure out what it was. The young man got closer to me. I approached him to treat the injured. He looked at me momentarily in despair. He continued his way to the other door toward the ambulance. The place got hysteric. No one was able to believe what they saw, neither able to contain themselves. The victim’s head was then directly in front of me. I saw the horrible view. I hadn’t imagined I would see such a view for my entire life, a head was burst open by bullets. His brain was spilt out. Only skin remained. I totally collapsed”A female doctor remembered.

This scene took place in Sitra, and specifically in Sitra Health Center. It was March 15, 2011. The first day of the martial law (National Security Law). The particular event which preceded the scenes at the Health Center was the besieging of Sitra and attacking it by the security forces. To be more specific, the event was the incursion of Peninsula Shield troops into Bahrain. The martyr was Ahmed Farhan (30 years) whose brain spattered. He was shot directly in the head. The young man who carried his body was Monem Mansoor. Monem would be sentenced for three years in prison because he carried Farhan’s body.

The ambulance arrived at Salmaniya Hospital with Farhan’s body at around 3:00 PM(1). The receiving of the body was not different from that at Sitra Health Center. The same shock, self-beating and bewilderment. A female doctor recalled: “We were in a state of mourning. Even the male doctors collapsed and cried loudly. Some women fainted. Nobody dared to see the horrific and ugly scene. Dr. Ali AlEkri shouted hysterically: Treat him, why are you just looking at him? Another replied: Oh, doctor, how can we treat him while he’s without a brain”.

Appreciation of Another Sort
The medical staff were no longer outside the event. They became part of it. It was not because the killed and the wounded passed through them, but because they became subjected to dangers in the same way as the peaceful protesters. In the previous part of this report we saw what the medical staff were subjected to; beating and threats for exercising their humanitarian and professional role in treating the wounded and injured. In this part we will see more of punishment, harassment and torture.

Jailed nurse Rulla Al-Saffar hugs Dr.Haneen Al-Bosta

Haneen Albosta was a young female doctor. She loved here profession. During her university study she scored the third among young scientists(2) in a competition that was held by the University of Medicine in Ukraine. That is how the international community acclaimed her talents while she was still a student. However, on March 15, 2011, and as a full-fledged doctor, she was waiting for a prize of another sort. The prize was from her own country.

Haneen recounted what she had gone through to the Bahraini daily “Al-Wasat”, which published her testimony the following day(9). She documented it on the police records when she would be interrogated later. “Bahrain Mirror” got more details from one of Dr. Haneen’s relatives.

Haneen was at home, she had just come from the medical tent at the Pearl Roundabout. She slept for only few hours. It was 10:30 in the morning. A paramedic phoned her: “Come now, they have attacked Sitra Area”. She got up immediately, put on her dress. Her mother tried to stop her, her brother tried too. They yelled at her not to go. She did not care. She prepared her things to leave. The last she heard was her mother’s voice calling her. She would know later that her mother lost her conscious after she left. In Salmaniya Hospital she stood waiting for an ambulance to take her to Sitra. A minibus with a wounded entered the hospital. Haneen helped in removing the wounded from the minibus. She got on the minibus, closed the door, and headed to Sitra.

When the minibus approached Sitra, she saw that garbage containers and rocks were scattered on the road at the entrance of the area. Those acted a deterrent for security forces when trying to enter. At the Health Center, she saw the wounded lying on the ground, some of them suffering from tear gas suffocation, and some were wounded by gunshots(3). Haneen quickly set to work treating the gunshot cases and moving the ones with larger wounds to the nursing section. A large crowd(4) of people gathered at the entrance of the Center, orming a human chain to organize and facilitate the entry of the cases being received. At the entrance, there was a doctor who quickly triaged the incoming injuries and directed them to the appropriate section of the Center(5).

I wouldn’t wait for dead bodies to come
“It was about noon time, the number of wounded was increasing quickly, we started to smell blood and see more of it. We felt that things started to warm up. We expected the worst” A member of the medical said. It was not long after the mid-day, before the devastating arrival of Farhan’s body, that shook the Center and the people who witnessed that arrival. The ambulance left to Salmaniya Hospital with Farhan’s body to issue a Death Certificate . For fifteen minutes after that the medical staff were still in a state of bewilderment. Screams prevailed over talk. The shock shrouded the place.

Farhan’s body kept Haneen shocked for a while. She was silent. Then she screamed: “I wouldn’t stay here at the Center and wait for the wounded to come here dead. I’m going where they are. I wouldn’t wait for dead bodies to come”. She went to one of the paramedics. “I couldn’t bear that, take me now, take me there immediately”. The paramedic was smoking his cigarette nervously, he took a deep breath, looked at her insisting eyes, and said “Get in”.

They proceeded toward where the clashes were raging. They were behind the first row of the bare-handed protesters who were face-to-face with the anti-riot police. They started showering rubber bullets. Some of the bullets hit the garbage containers. frightening sounds were heard. The youths kept on shouting: “God is Great”. They were increasing in numbers, not decreasing, while advancing closer to the police. The tear gas became denser. Fainting cases increased. The youths dragged the injured toward Haneen. The shooting became more violent and the police aimed their rubber bullets and birds gunshots directly at the protesters(8). With each round of attack the youths jumped into the houses, but then kept returning. “Those young men didn’t break, they didn’t get tired, attack and retreat” An eyewitness said. …more