Last November, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) published its report on civil unrest in Bahrain and the government's response to it. By now, the report's criticisms of the government of Bahrain are well known. But did anyone actually read the report, and has anyone really paid attention to events in Bahrain since?
The report's criticisms of the government have been widely reported and commented on. Bahrain's government embraced those criticisms immediately after the commission's chairman, Dr. Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, presented them to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in a public ceremony. When was the last time a head of state agreed to receive in public a report that he knew would be critical? His Majesty then pledged to use the report as a basis for correcting the conditions that led to the excesses cited by the commission, and to continue the process of reform he began more than ten years ago.
Anyone who believes in redemption through acceptance of truth would have to agree that Bahrain had made a good start. The commitment our king made that day marked the beginning of an accelerated effort at reform and reconciliation.
There was much more in the report than criticism of the government, but it has largely gone unnoticed or simply been ignored. As a result, there remains a great deal of misunderstanding and plain urban myth about the events that gripped Bahrain nearly a year ago.
The most glaring continuing myth is that 21 medical professionals from Salmaniya Medical Center (SMC) were arrested for treating protesters. The report makes clear that this is untrue. In fact, many doctors and nurses in Bahrain treated protesters, including many more at SMC, and were not arrested. So why these 21? The report presents a different view:
"[T]he involvement of some doctors and medical personnel in various political activities on and around the SMC premises was clearly difficult to reconcile with the full exercise of their medical responsibilities and highly disruptive to the optimum operation of an important medical facility in time of crisis (para. 847)."
The Commission gave specifics:
- Some of the medical personnel had political ties with the opposition and pursued a political agenda.
- Protesters and supportive medical personnel controlled some areas of the hospital.
- "Some Sunni patients seeking to gain access to SMC were turned away."
- Some medics intentionally spread false information about the events at SMC, and at least one person impersonated a doctor when he spoke to media.
- Some medics violated their code of ethics in other ways, such as by allowing media to film patients.
- Ambulances were not arbitrarily blocked from reaching or treating protesters.
- The "manner in which some of the doctors treated some injured expatriate persons rises to a level of human insensitivity and professional disregard for medical ethics."
In fact, the expatriates living in Bahrain - who are engaged in commerce, services and many other sectors in Bahrain - were frequently attacked by protesters and lived in constant fear. The report confirms this (paras. 1525 - 1526) and gives numerous, specific examples.
