\nSeptember 8, 2011\n<\/p>\n
\n(New York) – Syrian security forces forcibly removed 18
\nwounded people from al-Barr hospital in the central city of Homs on September
\n7, 2011, including five from the operating room, Human Rights Watch said today,
\nbased on reports from witnesses, including doctors. Security forces also
\nprevented medical personnel from reaching the wounded in a number of the city’s
\nneighborhoods on that day.\n<\/p>\n
\nHuman Rights Watch interviewed two doctors from al-Barr
\nhospital as well as two Red Crescent volunteers. Syrian authorities should
\nallow injured protesters unimpeded access to medical treatment, Human Rights
\nWatch said.\n<\/p>\n
\n“Snatching wounded people from the operating room is
\ninhumane and illegal, not to mention life-threatening,” said Sarah Leah Whitson
\n[2], Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Cutting people off from
\nessential medical care causes grave suffering and perhaps irreparable harm.”\n<\/p>\n
\nSyria’s security forces began a large-scale military
\noperation in Homs in the early hours of September 7. Many residents said they
\nheard heavy gunfire starting at 6:30 a.m. Local activists provided Human Rights
\nWatch with a list of 23 people they said were killed that day by the security
\nforces. Syria’s national news agency, SANA, reported [3] that “terrorist
\ngroups” killed eight members of the security forces. Two local activists told<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch that a group of soldiers defected on September 7 and joined
\nsome local residents in fighting security forces who had deployed heavily
\nthroughout the city.\n<\/p>\n
\nA doctor who went to the Bab Dreib neighborhood after being
\ntold that doctors were urgently needed there described the situation:\n<\/p>\n
\nI got to Bab Dreib around 8:30 a.m. There were already three
\ndead and eight wounded. The situation was very dramatic. Five of the wounded
\nhad bullets in their stomachs and required hospitalization, but I could not get
\nthem to any hospital. Regime snipers were firing on any car leaving the
\nneighborhood and armed vehicles were stationed around the neighborhood,
\nshooting indiscriminately. I had to operate on them in an improvised field
\nhospital in a mosque. The numbers of wounded kept increasing, and at one point
\nthere were 18 of them. I finally managed to send eight wounded to the al-Barr
\nhospital, but getting them there was like a suicide mission. Young men put them
\nin pickup trucks and just drove as fast as they could to avoid sniper fire and
\nother random fire from the armored vehicles.\n<\/p>\n
\nAnother doctor, who was at the al-Barr hospital, told Human
\nRights Watch that security forces came and seized some wounded from the
\nhospital:\n<\/p>\n
\n <\/span>I got to the hospital \nWhen we tried to help the wounded who needed urgent medical \nThe forcible transfer of wounded patients created panic in \nRed Crescent volunteers in Homs told Human Rights Watch that \nAnother Red Crescent volunteer told Human Rights Watch that \nBlocking access to necessary medical treatment for people \nHuman Rights Watch has previously documented a troubling \nThe president of the International Committee of the Red \n“There can be no justification for denying medical care,” \nSource URL: http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2011\/09\/08\/syria-security-forces-remove-wounded-hospital<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nLinks:\n<\/p>\n \n[1] http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2011\/09\/08\/syria-security-forces-remove-wounded-hospital<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n[2] http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/bios\/sarah-leah-whitson<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n[3] http:\/\/www.sana.sy\/ara\/336\/2011\/09\/08\/368004.htm<\/a>\n<\/p>\n
\naround 1 p.m. There were around 50 security forces surrounding the hospital.
\nThey shot in the air and went to see the administrative director. They were
\nlooking for a specific person called Bilal. The administrator told them that
\nthere had been a Bilal who arrived at the hospital but he had died from his
\nwounds and his family had already taken the body. The security forces then
\nasked the administration for lists of wounded who had arrived that day and then
\nI saw them go through the rooms of the hospitals taking anyone with a bullet
\nwound, regardless of when they had arrived. In total they took 18 wounded from
\nthe hospital. Five of them were taken from the operating room, including two
\nwho were still unconscious.\n<\/p>\n
\ncare, the security forces pushed us back, saying these were criminals and
\nrapists. They were beating the wounded as they moved them out of the hospital.
\nA woman, who must have been a mother or a sister of one of the wounded, begged
\nthem [the security forces] to give her relative his medication but they pushed
\nher. The security forces then put the wounded in ambulances and drove them
\naway. We could see them beating them inside the ambulance as they departed. I
\ndon’t know where they took them.\n<\/p>\n
\nthe hospital and prompted many families to withdraw patients for fear that they
\nwill also be detained by the security forces, the doctor said.\n<\/p>\n
\nsecurity forces prevented them from reaching some of the wounded. One volunteer
\ntold Human Rights Watch that their center received a call around 7 a.m.
\ninforming them that four wounded people who needed to be hospitalized were in a
\ndispensary in the Bab Tadmor neighborhood. The Red Crescent dispatched an
\nambulance, but 800 meters from the dispensary security officers stopped them at
\na checkpoint and ordered the ambulance crew to transport two security officers
\n– one wounded and one dead. The ambulance crew complied, and the Red Crescent
\nsent another ambulance to pick up the four wounded civilians. But officers at
\nthe same checkpoint point refused to let them through.\n<\/p>\n
\na police officer came to their operations center in the morning and told them
\nthat he had received orders to direct the operations for the day. The policeman
\nstayed at the center until around 2 p.m., the volunteer said, and gave orders
\nto the Red Crescent staff to help wounded security officers but not anyone
\ninvolved in anti-government activities.\n<\/p>\n
\nwho have been wounded or injured – regardless of whether they are involved in
\nany anti-government activity or supporters of the government – violates Syria’s
\nobligation to respect and protect the right to life and the right to health and
\nnot to subject anyone to inhuman treatment, Human Rights Watch said.\n<\/p>\n
\npattern [4] of security forces preventing medical personnel and others from
\nreaching wounded protesters, forcing many of the wounded to be treated in
\nmakeshift field hospitals set up in private homes or mosques.\n<\/p>\n
\nCross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, concluded a visit to Syria on September 5 by
\nemphasizing [5] that “Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers and medical personnel
\nmust be allowed to carry out their life-saving work in safety.”\n<\/p>\n
\nWhitson said. “President al-Assad and other Syrian officials bear ultimate
\nresponsibility for this flagrant violation of the right to health and
\npotentially the right to life.”\n<\/p>\n