For Immediate Release
The firebombing of a health clinic in Bahrain over the weekend, though reportedly accidental, is yet another reminder of the ongoing threat faced by health facilities and workers in that country since street protests started in the Arab Spring of 2011.
“We urge all demonstrators to protest peacefully and exercise restraint,” said Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, who has investigated human rights abuses in Bahrain. “We also urge the Bahraini government to end its ban on all public demonstrations and allow citizens to exercise their fundamental rights of expression and assembly.”
The Molotov cocktails that exploded outside the Al Razi Health Centre in a Shia neighborhood of Manama were apparently not directed intentionally at the clinic and caused no major damage or injuries, but they charred its exterior wall.
This week, Bahrain’s government banned all rallies and demonstrations in the country in an effort to stem outbreaks of violence. More than 50 people have died in periodic clashes since antigovernment protesters first took to the streets.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.