Arrest of a Unionist and an X-ray Specialist for their Treatment of the Person Wounded with Shotgun Bullets without Security Consent
19 March 2010
Arrest of a Unionist and an X-ray Specialist for their Treatment of the Person Wounded with Shotgun Bullets without Security Consent
19 March 2010
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its great concern for the serious escalation approached by the Bahraini authorities in dealing with the public protests witnessed in the villages and areas of Bahrain, in protest against the violations practiced by the Authority through the Special Forces’ use of live ammunition against the protestors in these peaceful demonstrations, as well as arresting two nurses; one who is a human rights defeder, due to their contribution in treating one of the victims of these public protests.
On 14 March 2010, the Special Forces (forces made up of foreign mercenaries) suppressed one of the protests in the village of Karzakan by using live ammo and fission bullets known locally as the shotgun bullet – and which is usually used to hunt birds and small animals – and one of the victims of these protests was the young Hussein Al-Sahlawi, 25 years old, who was shot several times at a close distance when he was leaving his grandfather’s house in the village of Karzakan – which left almost 70 splinters all over his body. Due to his poor condition and the many scattered wounds and his continuous bleeding due to those splinters, he turned to the house of the known unionist and vice-president of the Nursing Society Ibrahim Al-Dimistani, and who carried out an initial treatment and stopped the bleeding, and who told him to immediately head to the hospital to have the tests, necessary x-ray and required treatment taken, and this led to the arrest of Al-Dimistani and the x-ray specialist in Salmaniya Hospital Abdul-aziz Shabeeb on charges relating to nursing and hospitalizing an injured in security cases without a prior consent or informing the Ministry of Interior.
In a statement made by the General Director of the Police Directorate of the Northern Governorate on 15 March 2010, he admitted using live ammo by the Special Forces to suppress the protests, he even added that the people who break the administrative custom procedures when entering a patient and treating him in the hospital will be questioned, emphasizing that covering up for a wanted person is considered a crime. However, the injured person was not wanted for any security or judicial body when he turned for treatment; all the charges against him later were related to assembling and do not require such a violent reaction or firing shots at him. Instead of the security apparatuses being questioned for the crime of using live ammo against peaceful and innocent individuals, the accusation, conviction or questioning is pointed at the people who carried out their human obligation with ethical proficiency and professionalism required by their profession.
Individuals from the Bahrain Human Rights Society attempted to visit the injured; however they prevented them from doing so. Worthy of mentioning, the local hospitals have orders of the necessity of informing the security apparatuses before initiating any treatment in protest demonstrations, which is contrary to the requirement of their humane career. Due to the state of fear felt by the victims of violations practiced by the Special Forces, the majority of victims of those demonstrations and protests do not go to hospitals to receive the right treatment, and only satisfy themselves with house treatments or some folk remedies, which poses significant risk on their health condition.
The unionist, Al-Dimistani, is considered one of the known human rights defender of the rights of the nursing career in the country. He was previously brought forth for investigation in past periods due to his activity in the Bahrain Nursing Society and his hard work towards improving the conditions of nurses. He has also been harassed due to his union work, where the Public Prosecution had charged him with libel and insult of officials in the Ministry of Health, and he was released with ensuring the place of his residence until the court acquitted him from this charge later. The Ministry of Social Development dissolved the administrative board of the Nursing Society which he is active in, and appointed a president by the Ministry. However, the general assembly of the Nursing Society refused the decision and fired the president appointed by the Ministry. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights believes that the arrest of Al-Dimistani in this incident comes first among the sequential attempts to restrict him and his activity as a known unionist and to stop his work in the Society and to silence another voice of a known defender for human rights. Secondly, the aim of the arrest of his colleague and him is to threat and intimidate all the doctors and nurses from carrying out their humane role in nursing all the victims away from their political, ethnic, sectarian and religious background without turning to any security or intelligence apparatuses to take permission from them, because that does not fall into the range of the profession of doctors and nurses. The BCHR believes that this security scare against treating the victims and pressurizing the doctors and nurses to report them is a means of transform this humane career practiced by doctors and nurses to security men and informers of security state apparatuses and which is completely contradictory to this humanitarian profession and its ethics.
The villages and areas of Bahrain are witnessing escalating public protests similar to a public uprising due to the Authority’s policy in the continuous arbitrary arrests; torture practiced in prisons; political naturalization to change the demographics; systematic discrimination against the Shiite; bringing mercenary individuals and recruiting them to raid the Bahraini Shiite villages; the increasing level of poverty; rampant corruption among government; the Authority entering as a party in instigating disputes between the Shiite and Sunni; marginalizing the role of the Parliament and further humiliating the loyal representatives of the people in it. Instead of it changing its policy in reforming those outstanding issues that are causing this crisis.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights demands the following:
1. To immediately release the unionist and human rights activists Ibrahim Al-Dimistani and his colleague the x-ray specialist Mr. Abdul-aziz Shabeeb;
2. to provide all the required medical care to citizen victims of violations away from the prior security consents, and to maintain all the professional and humanitarian standards, and not to bow to any security pressures that could make this profession loose its humanity and ethics;
3. to lift the ban of visiting the victims in the hospital immediately;
4. to stop using firearms and fission bullets to suppress the peaceful protests;
5. to initiate a serious dialogue with the pillars of society and to seriously look into the causes leading to the youth’s participation in those demonstrations instead of the security solutions.
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The news piece about the arrest of Aziz Shabeeb http://www.alwasatnews.com/2750/news/read/382549/1.html
Statement of the Ministry of Interior on the Suppressing the protests in the village of Karzakan http://www.alayam.com/Articles.aspx?aid=10474
http://www.alwasatnews.com/2170/news/read/162480/1.html
http://www.alwasatnews.com/2170/news/read/162480/1.html