New Scores of Arrests and Victims of State Violence including 9yr Girl
New Scores of Arrests and Victims of State Violence including 9yr Girl
In the past week, there have been many incidents of fierce and brutal attack by the Bahraini Special Forces –SF- composed of different nationalities (Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian, Yemeni, Pakistani) on peaceful marches and/or demonstration exercising their basic freedom of religion and/or expression. The acts of the SF, classified as hysterical and inhumane, resulted in injuries among citizens; children, women, elderly and youths. A 9year old is in a comma, a women has facial injuries, a young man could lose his hand, while three young student could lose their education, as a result of these barbaric and violent acts of the Security Forces. The stories of violations of the non-national SF are briefed below for reference. Such violent attitude of the Bahraini Authorities is pushing towards more social instability as the wave of popular protests is augmenting leading to reactionary irrational violence from the suffering people.
It is a call for all diplomatic and international organizations to exhaust all possible avenues to salvage the deteriorating situation before it is too late. Human rights organizations are appealed to monitor the situation more closely and intervene for the protection of citizens whose basic rights are systematically violated.
Brief of incidents in the past week:
1) A group of citizens decided to practice their faith of commemorating the 40th day of the demise of Imam Husain, the grand son of Prophet Mohammed, over 13 centuries ago. This was around 3pm (local time) on Wednesday 27th February, when the group of citizen, composed of men, women and children, were in a procession holding flags outside the curb of Budaya road heading peacefully towards Manama, the Capital. As long as they arrived near the area known as Marwazan, between Sanabis and Daih villages, they were fiercely attacked by the Special Forces. The SF not only brutally dispersed the religious procession, but besieged the area, Marwazan and Sanabis, collectively punishing it until dark by showering arbitrarily huge amounts of chemical tear gas and rubber bullets on the premises. As a result of the violent and hysterical act of the SF, the following casualties were reported on that particular day:
a. Mrs Kubra Sayyed Adnan from Sanabis, who was injured as a result of a multi-rubber bullet penetrated her bedroom window on the third floor resulting in facial and other injuries, as well as setting fire to the window curtain and her bed cover. She was taken by her husband to the main Sulmaneyya hospital for treatment.
b. Mr Ali Al-Shamtoot, a guard in Sanabis primary school for girls, was hit by a retardant rubber bullet thrown over the school yard causing a fracture on his right leg, as diagnosed by the x-ray consultant in Salmaneyya Hospital .
c. Mr Reyadh Darweesh, was in the area when a multi-rubber bullet was thrown nearby him. Reyadh thought that the bullet was off, but by the time he picked it up, it exploded in his hand causing severe injury requiring immediate surgery and hospitalization. The Ministry of Interior set guards at his room in Salmaneyya Hospital preventing his family from seeing him, giving the indication that Reyadh is under arrest, and could be framed and criminalized as a result.
d. In Karababad, a kilometre to the west of the capital, the villagers were exercising their religious tradition of commemorating the 40th day of Imam Husain’s death in Karabala of Iraq, when the SF started firing large amounts of rubber bullets on the procession as it started to leave the main East Matam (a procession place) of the village, without them knowing the reason.
2) On Friday, February 29th, the citizens of Sitra, south east of Bahrain, held a peaceful demonstration, well attended by women and children in addition to well known activists, calling for the release of the human rights defenders and other detainees being imprisoned and prosecuted by the authorities aftermath the December protesting events. Without warning, the SF, attended in high numbers, fired huge amounts of chemical tear gas and rubber bullets causing disperse of the demonstrators and ignited confrontations until late that day. The SF not only blocked the entry to the villages of Sitra and collectively punishing its residents by the chemical gas and the rubber bullets, they were abusive beating in groups any young man found standing in that area. They also were seen sabotaging parking cars, by firing rubber bullets directly on its windshields, causing damage and loss to 14 cars. They were hysterical resulting in the following arrests and casualties:
a. Two youths were held in custody after giving them a harsh doze of torture and beatings by the SF using plastic batons and safety army shoes resulting in severe injuries. These are:
i. Husain Ali Ashoor (17yrs) from Al-Qurya village of Sitra
ii. Husain Abdali Al-Naggal (17yrs) from Al-Kharejeyya village of Sitra
There is fear on the wellbeing of these
b. A gathering to bury a deceased Sitra citizen, Mr Hasan Al-Motawaj, a former parliamentarian, was showered by the chemical tear gas while in the grave yard, causing suffocation, especially among elderly who were attending the funeral.
c. A child girl, Fatema Hasan, of 9 years old is hospitalized in a coma a result of inhaling large amounts of the chemical tear gas, early that evening, when she was joining her cousin to buy dinner from nearby restaurants. The amount of gas was so high, the little girl fainted and fell down on her head. Fatema, in intensive care unit in Salmaneyya Hospital, is unconscious since last Friday and could lose her life as a result of the SF hysterical attitude of collective punishment to the villagers of Sitra.
3) At 4pm (local time) on Saturday, March 1st, another initially peaceful demonstration launched from Sanabis, calling for the release of the detainees since the protesting December incidents. It was when it reached the main road near Al-Hashimi Mall, tyres were blazed in form of a protest. This act blocked the main street, south of Sanabis beside Jidhafs village near the house of the martyr Ali Jassim. After about 10 minutes, the SF came armed and in huge number attacked the demonstrators and starting to shower the area, on both sides of the main road, with chemical tear gas and rubber bullets. No, arrests were reported, but the residents of Jidhafs and Marwazan, as well as the shoppers at Jidhafs fruit/vegetable market were suffocated and endangered with the gas and bullets thrown by SF until very late.
4) Last Saturday February 23rd after a protest in Sanabis, a young man Mohammad Ali Ahmed Marhoon (18 years), a sickle-cell sick student from Tubli village, was arrested and is still in Nuaim detention center since then.