Source:
ABC (Australia)Wednesday, March 16, 2011 18:38
MARK COLVIN: Armed forces have also formed a ring around the country's main hospital, Salmaniya Medical Complex. They have a ring of tanks around it, and no-one can get in or out.
Nedhal Khalifa is a doctor at the hospital. Unable to get to work, she spoke to me from her home.
=snip=
MARK COLVIN: Deliberately preventing people who are wounded from getting into a hospital sounds precariously close to a war crime to me.
NEDHAL KHALIFA: Well what's happening is a war crime; this is a genocide. I mean using a military against people who are completely defenceless, have no weapons whatsoever, there are women, there are children and there are men sitting in that roundabout.
Read more:
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3165831.htm
Full transcript and audio player at the link. Click here to download the interview (MP3):
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/pm/201103/20110316-pm8-bahraindoctor.mp3 Syed Al Alawi, a witness, told Al Jazeera that troops were surrounding the Salmania hospital and not allowing doctors and nurses to enter.Calling for help, Alawi said: "
The GCC troops are for fighting against foreign forces, instead they are targeting the people of Bahrain. What's our fault, we are asking for our legitimate rights."
Full article:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/201131643831976772.html http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/middle-east/live-blog-bahrain-crackdown">Live Blog: Bahrain crackdown 9:56am A contact on Twitter passes along this photo of riot police surrounding an ambulance - notice that the ambulance's tire has been flattened:
9:49am Doctors in Salmaniya Medical Complex, the main hospital in Bahrain, say riot police are preventing them from moving in and out. That's also what we're hearing from the Wefaq Society, one of Bahrain's formal political opposition parties, which has been posting
http://twitpic.com/49xuyh">photos from the hospital on its Twitter feed.
One of the photos shows riot police standing next to an ambulance - though whether they're blocking it or simply checking it is unclear. They're waving to a tank driving by on the street. Another photo shows hospital staff standing outside a closed gate.
And then there's this photo, of doctors and nurses standing idly at the hospital's emergency entrance:
Al Jazeera English broadcast a really interesting show the other day about Bahrain. It was an extremely insightful view into what's been going on there lately and gives a very good understanding of why what has happened over the past couple of days matters so much (as does the
Inside Story show linked to at the bottom of this OP)...
Peopele & Power: Bahrain - Fighting For ChangeAs unrest sweeps through the Middle East, People & Power looks at the mounting pressure for reform in Bahrain.Pro-democracy activists in the Gulf state of Bahrain have been on the streets of the capital Manama for four weeks, but have yet to win the kind of dramatic results achieved by their counterparts in Egypt and Tunisia.
At first their demands were for constitutional reform and a reduction of the powers of King Hamad and the al-Khalifa ruling family, but opinion hardened after an attempted government crackdown in the first days of the protest saw seven demonstrators killed at Manama's Pearl Roundabout.
Although the army then withdrew and the regime began calling for dialogue, many protestors now want an end to the monarchy altogether.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that while the ruling dynasty is Sunni, the majority of the population and many of the protestors are Shia, and have long complained of political persecution.
With the US, which sees Bahrain as a key ally, and nearby Saudi Arabia and Iran all having a strategic interest, stakes are high.
As reporter John D McHugh discovered for People & Power, the young activists driving the protests are determined not to back down.
Watch here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/03/201138153916892448.html Inside Story - Saudi intervention in Bahrain: Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Mar 16, 2011http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QTNHiuiW6kPolice crackdown against Bahrain protesters Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Mar 16, 2011http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjteA9AmltQhttp://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/bahrain/">
Image above is a live link to AJ English's spotlight
page for all the latest on Bahrain & image below is
a live link to watch AJ English live online, free.