PHR Report on Bahrain Provides First Forensic Evidence of Attacks on Physicians, Medical Staff, Patients and Unarmed Civilians with Weapons, Beatings, and Tear Gas

CAMBRIDGE, MA - Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today released an emergency report which documents and decries systematic human rights abuses in Bahrain. For the first time, the report, Do No Harm: A Call for Bahrain to End Systematic Attacks on Doctors and Patients, provides forensic evidence of attacks on physicians, medical staff, patients and unarmed civilians with the use of bird shot, physical beatings, rubber bullets, tear gas, and unidentified chemical agents.

“The excessive use of force against unarmed civilians, patients in hospitals and medical personnel that PHR’s investigators documented is extremely troubling and is cause for an immediate international investigation,” said Hans Hogrefe, Washington Director of Physicians for Human Rights. “Attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and medical clinics are attacks on the very fabric of the community and harm the health of the whole country. Physicians have an ethical responsibility to care for and treat all people, and must be afforded the right to perform these duties.”

The report details systematic and coordinated attacks against medical personnel, as a result of their efforts to provide unbiased care for wounded protestors. These attacks violate the principle of “medical neutrality” and are grave breaches of international law which dictate noninterference with medical services in times of civil unrest.

“While in Bahrain, I spoke with several eyewitnesses of abducted physicians, many of whom were ripped from their homes in the middle of the night by masked security forces,” said Richard Sollom, Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights and author of the report. “Although every attack we documented is troubling, attacks on medical professionals are particularly disturbing because they also impact the five, 10, or 15 people that could have been helped or treated by that doctor, nurse, or medic.”

The report also includes documentation of other violations of medical neutrality including the beating, abuse, and threatening of six Shi’a physicians at Salmaniya Hospital; egregious abuses against patients and detainees including torture, beating, verbal abuse, humiliation, and threats of rape and killing; government security forces stealing ambulances and posing as medics; the militarization of hospitals and clinics which has resulted in the obstruction of medical care; and rampant fear that prevents patients from seeking urgent medical treatment.

Other key findings of the report include:

• Security forces deploying excessive use of force including high-velocity weapons and shotguns, while using birdshot, rubber bullets, and tear gas against unarmed civilians – often at a close range. One story highlighted in the report details attacks on guests at a wedding.
• Bahraini forces releasing tear gas in enclosed spaces, including homes.
• Security forces’ use of unidentified chemical agents which cause disorientation, aphasia and convulsions.
• Attacks on patients including one story of the beating, torture and interrogation of a dozen patients in the hospital by masked security forces.
• Forensic evidence indicating detainees were violently assaulted while in custody.

The report concludes with policy recommendations for Bahrain, the United States and the international community. Among other calls for action, PHR demands for Bahrain to immediately cease and desist all attacks on medical personnel and facilities. PHR also calls on the Obama Administration to lead an international effort to appoint a Special Rapporteur on Violations of Medical Neutrality through the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The findings of the report are based on a one-week investigation which included 47 interviews with patients, physicians, nurses, medical technicians, and other eyewitnesses to human rights violations. The report was written by Richard Sollom and Dr. Nizam Peerwani, a senior forensic pathologist and chief medical examiner.