Medicine used as a weapon of persecution in Syria -MSF - Reuters

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Paris - International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) on Wednesday accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime of using medicine as a 'weapon of persecution' in its bloody crackdown on the opposition.

MSF said that testimony gathered from doctors in Syria and wounded patients treated outside the country pointed to a crackdown by the regime on the provision of urgent medical care.

'In Syria today, wounded patients and doctors are pursued and risk torture and arrest at the hands of the security services,' MSF president Marie-Pierre Allie said in a statement. 'Medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution,' she charged.

Many of the wounded did not dare seek treatment in public hospitals, for fear of being arrested or tortured by security forces, who comb hospitals looking for people with injuries suffered during demonstrations, MSF said.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1689863.php/SIDEBAR-MSF-Syria-using-medicine-as-weapon-of-persecution

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1. Medicine used as a weapon of persecution in Syria -MSF - Reuters

February 8, 2012 – The Syrian regime is conducting a campaign of unrelenting repression against people wounded in demonstrations and the medical workers trying to treat them, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières MSF (Doctors Without Borders) said today.

While MSF cannot work directly in Syria, it has collected testimonies from wounded patients treated outside the country and from doctors inside Syria. The testimonies, collected from several people from various parts of the country, point to a crackdown on the provision of urgent medical care for people wounded in the ongoing violence in Syria.

"In Syria today, wounded patients and doctors are pursued and risk torture and arrest at the hands of the security services," said Marie-Pierre Allié, MSF president. "Medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution."

Most of the wounded do not go to public hospitals for fear of being tortured or arrested. When a wounded person is admitted to a hospital, a false name is sometimes used to hide his or her identity. Doctors sometimes provide a false diagnosis to help patients elude security forces, who search for patients with wounds consistent with those sustained in protests and demonstrations. People have suffered grievous injuries, including from shrapnel and from bullets that apparently explode on impact. The testimonies recount instances of people shot by snipers.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/syria-medicine-used-as-weapon-of-persecution

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2. Syrian regime persecuting doctors treating wounded: NGO

PARIS: The Syrian regime is persecuting the doctors and health workers treating wounded demonstrators and denying medical care to its opponents, aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday.

"In Syria today, wounded patients and doctors are pursued and risk torture and arrest at the hands of the security services," MSF president Marie-Pierre Allie said. "Medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution."

The agency said it was not able to work inside Syria, where Bashar al-Assad's forces are brutally suppressing a revolt, but had interviewed witnesses who escaped to seek treatment in neighboring states.

"Most of the wounded do not go to public hospitals, for fear of being tortured or arrested. When a wounded person is admitted to a hospital, a false name is sometimes used to hide his or her identity," the group said.


Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Feb-08/162638-syrian-regime-persecuting-doctors-treating-wounded-ngo.ashx#ixzz1loHOjdwR
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)