Syria accused of using hospitals for torture

Amnesty International says the Syrian regime has turned hospitals and medical staff into "instruments of repression" in its bloody crackdown on dissentby torturing prisoners and denying them treatment at the facilities.

The report releasedTuesday by the human rights groupsays government security forces in the city of Homshave obstructed ambulances on their way to pick up wounded people and when taking them to hospital, threatened Red Crescent workers with violence or detention and interrogated wounded patients while they were beingtransported in ambulances.

Those wounded with gunshots or with injuries deemed related to the unrest have been directed to the military hospital controlled by the Syrian Defence Ministry, where they are treated"effectively as detainees while in hospital and held incommunicado," Amnesty says.

As a consequence, many Syrians are now reportedly avoiding state-run hospitals if they or their relatives have been wounded during protests, instead turning to private or makeshiftfield hospitals. Those facilities have trouble obtaining adequate medical supplies such as blood for transfusions, which the Defence Ministry controls.

The report details the story ofa 28-year-oldman who showed up at the hospital in Homswith a gunshot wound to his foot. Doctors apparently told him they would not treat it, but would instead wait until it got infected, and then cut it off.

The doctors and nurses at the state-run hospitalsare mostly supporters of Assad's regime, said Amnesty International's Cilina Nasser, who did the research on these allegations.

"They are loyal to the government and angry at protesters and feel that the protesters are traitors, andtreat them very badly," she said.

'I cannot send them to torture'

One doctor employed at a state-run hospital in Damascus who also assisted as a volunteer in makeshift field hospitals, told Amnesty that he referred some patients to government-run hospitals at the early stage of the uprising.

"They were all detainedand we all know that theyd be subjected to harsh torture," Amnesty quoted the unidentified doctor as saying. "I cannot send them to torture."

Amnesty also released an amateur video it says shows a hospital worker in a white lab coat striking a patient believed to have been injured in a protest being brought out of an ambulance.

Amnesty said that its researchers conducted interviews with those wounded, relatives of the wounded and detained, as well as health professionals and medics, including surgeons, doctors, nurses and other hospital employees.

It said government surveillance and restrictions on communication presented obstacles to gathering information.

Since the violent crackdown on protests against Assad's rule began in mid-March, foreign reporters have been effectively barred from the country, making it almost impossible to verify reports of widespread killings and detentions by Syrian government forces.

Nasser said Amnesty doesn't believethe Defence Ministryand Health Ministry are instructing hospital staff to mistreat patients, but shesaid theyare reluctant to stop the abuses.

Amnesty said it sent numerous letters to the Syrian government asking for a response to the allegations but has so far received nothing.