August 14, 2012
IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights USA recently published a report on the use of chemical weapons by the Bahraini govenrment. For this report, more than 100 Bahraini citizens were interviewed.
The respondents include victims of civil rights violations, witnesses, civil society leaders and government officials. The report, Weaponizing Tear Gas: Bahrain’s Unprecedented Use of Toxic Chemical Agents Against Civilians, also draws from physical examinations and medical records. The authors conclude that the Bahrain government’s indiscriminate use of tear gas as a weapon has resulted in the maiming, blinding and even killing of civilian protesters.
One of the victims whose case has been documented is a teenage boy who was struck in his left eye by a tear gas canister fired at close range. The blow fractured his eye socket and ruptured his eyeball, leaving him blind in that eye. A man suffering from asthma died in a hospital of acute respiratory failure, after having been repeatedly exposed to tear gas.