Photographer John Moore is no stranger to combat. As a member of an Associated Press team in 2005, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for coverage of the war in Iraq and he’s done extended stints in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, South Africa, Mexico and Nicaragua and elsewhere in the last 20 years.
Yet despite his relative comfort with being on the frontlines, Moore told the NewsHour from his hotel room in Cairo that his latest assignment -a six-week trip that took him to the uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain and Libya - might have been his most dangerous. Moore recorded the interview for us after sneaking out of Benghazi, Libya en route back to his home in Denver.
(Manama) - Bahraini authorities should immediately investigate the shooting of a 32-year-old man caught up in a police sweep on March 19, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately reveal his whereabouts and condition and hold those responsible for his attack accountable, Human Rights Watch said.
The man, Hani Abdul-Aziz Abdullah Jumah, is among scores of people arrested since security forces resumed attacks on protesters on March 15. The authorities have refused to reveal where they are being held or the charges against them. “It’s bad enough that authorities refuse to say anything about the well-being, whereabouts, or legal charges against their scores of detainees,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch. “But denying information to the families of people who are injured by security forces is a new and alarming development.” Jumah, a cleaner from Khamis village and the father of year-old twins, left the family’s house at about 5 p.m. on March 19. His father, Abd al-Aziz Abdullah Jumah, told Human Rights Watch his son was responding to a cry for help outside just as riot police began sweeping through the neighborhood. Fifteen minutes later, a witness said, the younger Jumah was seen running from the Khamis roundabout pursued by eight riot police wearing helmets. “Hani was running toward the nearby building, which was under construction, and the police were 15 meters behind him,” the witness said, asking not to be named for security reasons. “He ran straight past my house.” Another witness said he had seen police chase Jumah into an empty apartment building under construction, but only realized an hour-and-a-half later that Jumah had not left the building after the police did. The witness raised an alarm, and local residents went to search for Jumah. They found him unconscious, lying in a large pool of his own blood, the witness said. He sustained massive injuries to his knees and arm caused by being shot at point-blank range with a shotgun, a witness told Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch examined the scene of the attack on March 22, three days afterwards, and found fragments of bone, which a medical expert confirmed to be fragments of knee bone consistent with being shot at close range, as well as a tooth and pieces of human tissue still stuck to the wall and ceiling of the empty room, apparently the result of the velocity of the shots that maimed Jumah. “The sheer brutality of the attack on Hani Jumah demands an immediate independent investigation, and the officers responsible need to be held accountable,” Stork said. “Bahraini authorities have not even acknowledged his whereabouts, much less explained why he was lying there in a pool of blood.” Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that they rolled Jumah onto a carpet provided by a local resident and brought him by car to a nearby private hospital, where doctors struggled for nearly two hours to stabilize him after massive blood loss. Jumah’s father said that at about 9:20 p.m., an ambulance arrived from the Bahraini Defense Force (BDF) Hospital, accompanied by two masked police officers, and the officers announced they were transferring his son to that hospital. That was the last time Jumah’s family saw him. The father told Human Rights Watch that he called the BDF Hospital on both March 20 and March 21 requesting information on his son’s whereabouts and condition, but that hospital officials would give him no information. “I told them I know the BDF ambulance came and brought my son there, but the BDF Hospital keeps saying, ‘No, he is not here.’” The father said he said he told the officials that he and Jumah’s mother would come and look for him, but that they said, “No chance.” “Hani Jumah was last seen being taken away in a BDF Hospital ambulance, and we know from witnesses and medical experts that there was no way he could have walked away after being shot in the knees at close range,” Stork said. “The military runs the BDF Hospital and needs to tell Jumah’s family how and where he is.” As of March 23, Wefaq, a leading Bahraini political society, had documented 112 cases of people missing as well as dozens detained without charge since attacks on protesters resumed on March 15. Human Rights Watch has also documented a pattern over the past week of late-night raids on homes and arrests of people who have criticized the government, as well as prominent opposition figures and doctors. “Bahrain’s declaration of martial law on March 15 does not change the responsibility of the authorities and security forces to comply with their obligations under international human rights law.” Stork said. “They need to account for all those in state custody and investigate the apparent unlawful use of force against Hani Jumah.”
Syria, Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen News Roundup: March 24.
Syria:
20,000 mourners march as Syria toll rises | ABC News Australia
Human rights groups say that more than 100 people may have been killed in Daraa | Guardian
Assad forms team to improve incomes after protests | Reuters
Kurds in Syria ‘waiting to take to the streets,’ academic says | CNN
Can reforms appease protesters? | BBC
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad faces most serious unrest of his tenure | Washington Post
The Assad regime faces a new Arab uprising | Slate
U.S. issues Travel Alert for Syria
Statement by the White House Press Secretary on Violence in Syria | WhiteHouse.gov
Germany urges Syria to halt violence, launch talks | Reuters
France urges Syria to embrace dialogue, change | Reuters
Next on the List? | The Economist
Profile of Deraa and Hawran region | BBC
Algeria:
Algerian police clash with rioters in housing row | Reuters
In Algeria, Popular Protests Still Simmer Beneath Surface | VOA
Bahrain:
Protesters in Bahrain village stage a brief anti-government demonstration amid crackdown | AP
Bahraini activists plan Day of Rage on Friday | Reuters
Protests planned for Bahrain despite ban | LA Times
EU envoy defends Bahrain police amid unrest | BBC
Bahrain fends off charge of pressing crackdown | AFP
Bahrain unrest brings economy to standstill | Reuters
Bahrain’s Foreign Police Add to Tensions | WSJ (sub. req.)
Jordan:
Jordan students demand ‘regime’ reforms | AFP
Jordan reform talks slow amid ‘explosion’ warning | AFP
Yemen:
Yemen’s president says to transfer power peacefully | Reuters
Yemen’s president and top general ‘close to agreeing peace’ | Telegraph
Yemeni President Nears Deal to Resign | WSJ
Yemen president offers amnesty to defectors | AJE
Yemen’s Slide Toward Civil War | The Atlantic
Yemen shuts Al-Jazeera offices; journalists beaten | CPJ
Comment: Yemen and Syria pose a greater threat to us than Libya | Telegraph
Hear their screams, the victims of torture are calling you.
Our Fellow Citizens of the World,
In Bahrain*, the Monarchy imprisons and tortures those who speak out for people’s rights and against injustice. As you read this email there are human rights activists, bloggers, political figures, people with disabilities and children in Bahraini prisons being subjected to torture. There are currently 514 political prisoners in Bahrain, 116 of them are children. While our brothers, fathers and sons scream in their prison cells, we feel helpless.
This makes me so angry.
Bahrain destroys Pearl roundabout
The hub of Bahrain’s rebellion was destroyed as the country’s embattled leaders intensified moves to crush an implacable reformist movement rippling through the Gulf states.
The three-hour demolition was carried out as two demonstrators shot earlier in the week during clashes with police were buried in villages on the outskirts of the capital. By the time word had spread of the roundabout’s destruction, a curfew made it difficult for protesters to move on the site.
PressTV-Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:4AM
A Bahraini anti-government protester, injured in demonstrations, is being taken to a hospital.A political activist, who has been recently released from a jail in Bahrain and has travelled to Britain, has recounted the ordeal he faced in the Arab country.Jafar al-Hisabi told Press TV in an interview that “Bahrain’s ruthless regime” does not want any political activist, and that this was the only reason for his arrest.
He said that while in jail, he and other activists were “severely” tortured by various methods just like in the Middle Ages.
“They kept me in a basement, all alone in a cell, blind-folded. They left me standing for more than 20 days, beating me on my feet, hanging me between two poles and even tried to rape me,” he added.
He said there were 25 people around him all subjected to the same treatment.
Since the Saudi forces have entered Bahrain, “I am very afraid of my people” because they are being beaten, kicked, and shot at.
Al-Hisabi also noted that the Saudi snipers had killed a nurse in a village near the Bahraini capital, Manama, on Thursday.
At least seven Bahraini opposition leaders have been arrested in recent days amid the severe crackdown taking place to bring the situation under control.
Led by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain’s fellow members of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups Bahrain’s Arab neighbors, have dispatched armed forces to the Persian Gulf island to assist the crackdown on the anti-government uprising.
More than 12 people have been killed and about 1,000 injured during the anti-government protests in troubled Bahrain, inspired by the recent revolutions and uprisings across the Arab world.
Human Rights Watch, UN Human Rights, Amnesty International and other rights organizations have strongly condemned the military intervention and have called the action shocking and illegal.
FTP/MGH
Related Stories:activist, bahrain, recounts, torture
This entry was posted on March 18, 2011, 8:07 am and is filed under Bahrain. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
Guardian (Bahrain and Libya)
Blogs of War (realtime updates from Bahrain hashtags on Twitter)
16th March 2011
The Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Bahrain , appeal for help in face of mass systematic murder against the unarmed people of Bahrain, demanding legitimate rights for democratic system which respects its rights
Bahrain has been witnessing mass attacks by the riot police , armed militia, and lately Bahraini Armed forces and Saudi-Gulf Forces, against the protesters and civilian people and areas in the Shia area in the capital Manama, Muhraq , Sitra , Hamad Town most of Northern and Middle Region along Budia Road.
Bahrain TV anchor cries on air after caller asks for protection.
Oh my goodness, this is heartbreaking. It’s in Arabic.
PP: Even if you don’t speak Arabic (like me), you should watch this video for the footage.
We are not seeing this type of footage from the streets of Bahrain in the US.
Are folks interested in the translation? I can probably translate it, if there’s interest - tho it would take awhile, especially with the Gulf accent. I thought the footage with the images and his reaction is enough. The gist of it is she’s speaking from a hospital. People cannot leave their homes. Everyone is very afraid. People are afraid to move around. The hospitals are being filled, people are dying. She describes some of the wounds she’s seen. What particularly cut me up was when she would call his name, “Abu Salman, Abu Salman. We’re done. That’s it.” or in the end, when she started saying “haram, what they are doing to Bahrain. Haram.”
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Interzone Rebels YouTube account.
