By Lloyd Mudiwa.
In support of their medical colleagues in Bahrain, medical students Adam Boissonneault and Megan Clary have jointly constructed a petition on the White House to “withdraw US support of the al-Khalifa regime, which continues to violate the human rights of its citizens”.
The Gulf state has previously rejected any claims of human rights abuses against its own citizens.
The petition by American Boissonneault, a third-year medical student at Trinity College Dublin, and Clary, a second-year medical student at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, can be found at http://wh.gov/vqfP.
Formed on February 18, the petition, seeking 100,000 signatures by March 20, had 113 signatures at the time of going to press.
The couple claimed the ruling al-Khalifa royal family continues to inflict human rights violations, yet the US government acknowledges Bahrain as an ally, and has supplied the regime with arms. “Such support cannot continue. We ask that the administration: withdraw US support of the al-Khalifa regime and halt all current and future arms sales to Bahrain while it remains under such rule; withdraw the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters from Bahrain and move it back on board a flagship; pressure for democratic reform and end the human rights violations in Bahrain; and demand the release of all doctors, nurses and paramedics who have injudiciously been imprisoned.”
Boissonneault said he had no understanding of the situation in Bahrain until a few weeks ago when Irish trauma surgeon Prof Damian McCormack addressed his class. “As any sceptical med student would, I went home and did a bit more research. I came out the other end even more disturbed, particularly by reports that the US had supplied the al-Khalifa regime with arms and continues to view it as an ally, for seemingly no other reason than it is a strategic location to station our Navy’s ships.
Boissonneault added: “I will confess I was somewhat inspired by Prof McCormack’s involvement in raising so much attention to the violation of human rights in Bahrain. I thought if a consultant orthopaedic surgeon with a family can find time to support colleagues abroad, then there is no excuse that medical students cannot do the same.”
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Source: http://www.imt.ie/news/latest-news/2...n-bahrain.html