Hundreds have been sacked from government jobs, rights and opposition groups say. Bahrain says it targets only those who committed crimes during the unrest in March.
London-based Amnesty International called on Bahrain’s Western partners to urge Manama to end arrests of medical staff and opposition activists.
It accused Western governments of staying silent because of Bahrain’s strategic location as home of the US Fifth Fleet and its importance as a Gulf trade partner.
“North American and European governments, so vocal recently in espousing the cause of human rights in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, need also to speak out loudly about what is going on in Bahrain,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Paris-based Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) on Friday said Bahrain had turned hospitals into “places to be feared,” where both doctors and patients suspected of having a role in the protests were detained.
“Wounds are used to identify demonstrators, restricted access to health care is being used to deter people from protesting, and those who dare to seek treatment in health facilities are being arrested,” the aid group said. Some doctors were too afraid to treat patients wounded during the unrest for fear of getting arrested, it said.
“The police, military and intelligence services must stop using the health system as a way to crack down on the protesters,” the group said in a statement.
It also called on the Bahraini opposition not to use the main Salmaniya hospital as a rallying point or political platform. Before the crackdown, many protesters had camped out outside the hospital.
Amnesty accused both the government and some protesters of violating Salmaniya’s medical neutrality during the protests.
Bahrain has accused doctors in the hospital of failing to treat patients during unrest. US-based rights group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said doctors were disappearing as part of systematic action.
Meanwhile, Iran said Friday it offers “moral support” for the demands of the people of Bahrain and denied having any role in the protests.
“In order to remove allegations... these nations chose the path of diversion and accusing others, who other than offering moral support to the legitimate and peaceful demands of the people have no role in the events,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said of protests in Bahrain.
His remarks came after a joint GCC-European Union statement issued after Wednesday’s meeting in Abu Dhabi backed the deployment of a Gulf force including UAE police who entered Bahrain on March 14. The move freed up Bahraini security forces to crush the protest movement.
Mehmanparast hit out at the European Union. “Doesn’t your silence in the face of these crimes show you taking sides in the situation and adopting double standard?” he asked.
