Irish solidarity with tortured Bahraini doctors

This video is called Torturing detainees in Bahrain.

A letter to the editor of The Irish Times – Monday, November 19, 2012:

Detention of medics in Bahrain

Sir, – We are delighted to have the Bahraini “Information Affairs Authority” further highlight the plight of our tortured and jailed colleagues in Bahrain (November 12th). The failure of €35 million worth of spin from PR companies to suppress the truth must be quite frustrating for the authority.

One of the medics mentioned is Dr Ali Alekri who trained and worked in Dublin. On returning home he was rewarded by the King of Bahrain for his heroic medical work in Gaza. He became the leading paediatric orthopaedic surgeon in Bahrain.

His actions during the violent suppression of peaceful protests were those of a brave and responsible trauma surgeon, fulfilling his moral and ethical duties in harrowing circumstances. He was a lead clinician in a war zone and worked day and night without sleep trying to save lives; lives threatened and taken by the Khalifa regime. He and others spoke out against the violence and he and others were brutally arrested and tortured for doing so. Ali Alekri was abducted from the operating theatre during surgery. His torture is well documented (DoctorsInChains.org) and included beatings, sensory deprivation and overload, sleep deprivation, electrocution, sexual molestation.

The torture of over 50 medical personnel in Bahrain has revealed the true nature of the Khalifa regime. Its dysfunctional Orwellian ministries and shocking malevolence are now infamous.

Currently all protests are banned in Bahrain. Freedom of assembly is denied. Freedom of speech is denied. Most prominent human rights activists in Bahrain have been arrested.

The United Nations regards medical workers as “civil society actors”, concerned specifically with the promotion and protection of universal human rights. Thus an attack on medical workers constitutes an attack on civil society and on the founding principles of the United Nations Human Rights programme.

The “Information Authority” in Bahrain should stop believing its own propaganda and heed Hamilton’s words; “Truth is like a torch, the more it is shook, the more it shines”. – Yours, etc,

Prof DAMIAN McCORMACK FRCS Orth,

Eccles Street, Dublin 1

One Year Later, Bahrain Reform Remains Shallow Promise: here.

Bahrain- Systematic crackdown on human rights defenders: here.

Bahrain activists demand action over rights abuses: here.

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