Could Bahrain’s security forces be arresting medical professionals for collecting health data? One opposition leader claims that they are:
Mattar Ibrahim Mattar, a former member of parliament for Wefaq, the country’s leading opposition group, told Al Jazeera that the families of medical staff who have been providing treatment to injured protesters were being arrested.
“The attack is also against the families of the activists who were against the prevention of medical services in the crackdown,” Mattar said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Medical staff were targeted because they had been keeping accurate statistics on the number of people injured or killed in the uprising, he said, information which the government did not want to be made public.
“It is a way to hide the situation,” he said.
While not confirmed, it is a troubling accusation given the regime’s recent behavior towards its health workers.
Christopher R. Albon is a political science Ph.D. specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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See work on this from HRW and PHR:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/09/bahrain-free-prominent-opposition-activist
“…Human Rights Watch has documented the arbitrary arrests and detention of more than a dozen medical personnel and physicians….”
And a PHR campaign page:
http://bahrain.phrblog.org/
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