Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Syrian doctors face government wrath



Just Like Bahrain: Three doctors reportedly arrrested for treating wounded protesters amid security crackdown.

Al-Jazeera

"Three doctors from the private-run Hamdan hospital in Douma, the town in the Damascus countryside that has been a centre of protest, were arrested by the secret service on Monday night, according to two trusted sources.

The arrested included the director of the hospital, Dr Hosam Hamdan.

According to the first source, an activist in the area, the doctors had been arrested because they had disobeyed orders from the secret police to refuse treatment to protesters wounded in the armed crackdown by security forces.

As Al Jazeera reported on Friday, residents of Douma formed a human shield around the Hamdan hospital in an effort to prevent secret police breaking in and taking away the dead and dying.

"This is the last way we have to protect our wounded from being kidnapped by secret service," said the second source, who took part in the human shield around the Hamdan hospital on Friday.

"We held the line until live fire was used and we had to run and hide. I saw the secret police break into the hospital and later when I went back to the hospital some of the bodies and some of the injured were missing."

Fear of arrest

The source said doctors had been asking residents not to bring the wounded to the Hamdan hospital unless they were in a critical condition, fearing the secret police would try to arrest the injured inside the hospital, and take them away to a security prison or the military-run Tishreen hospital....

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