Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): This report was not destined to complete. The verdict to arrest Dr. Ali Al-Ekri was faster than us. Wednesday 3rd October was scheduled to be our next meeting with Dr. Al-Ekri, however, the verdict of the Cassation court on 1st October to confirm his five years of imprisonment and

his arrest on 2nd October were faster than us.

We are publishing what had been gathered before he has turned into the torturers’ hands. We are writing the story as was narrated by Al-Erki himself.

We vow to you and to history, to be faithful in writing all the biographies that are shaping the national moments we live these days. 14 February chronicles is the sum total of all those biographies.

Up to the morning of 15 February, Al-Ekri was not part of the event, he was on the sideline. Why was he targeted more than the other doctors? What pain did he inflict on the regime? Why was that ferocious campaign against him? Why was that excessive retaliation against him? The next two parts will reveal that!

We are still in 15 February. As soon as the first martyr was buried another martyr fell down. People were angry and agitated. No one expected that two victims would be murdered in less than 24 hours. Things escalated, as well as the angry chants.

 

At noon, Al-Ekri and his friends went to the cemetery where the second martyr would be buried. There we heard a march had headed to the Roundabout. The march was big. “I went with my friend to watch. We parked the car at the Gufool crossroads. We waited. We saw the front of the march moving towards the Roundabout. No policeman confronted it. We moved along. We were among the first who arrived there.”

Once the demonstrators reached Gufool crossroads, their walk changed into running. The dozens of people turned into hundreds then into thousands. In the atmosphere there was the freshness of the weather and freedom. The picture of the Tahreer Square in Cairo motivated the demonstrators. Will the Pearl Roundabout be the Tahreer Square of Bahrain?

Al-Ekri recalled: “Soon Ebrahim Sharif Secretary General of Waad political society came. He was one of the first people of the political societies to reach there. The young men carried him on their shoulders close to the fountain (which was at the centre of the Pearl monument) . He gave a speech that can be summarized in: You young people are making history, this revolution is your revolution, this square is your square. Don’t let anyone hijack your revolution. We as political societies will support you.”

Al-Ekri continued: “The weather was warm, and sweat started to drip on Sharif’s forehead. I took my hat and placed it on his head. Sharif urged the young men to be peaceful and avoid sectarian chants. He urged them to avoid insulting chants. He urged them to be present at the Roundabout so that not to allow the police to break in and disperse the protesters. The atmosphere was enthusiastic and touching. ”

After Sharif had delivered his speech he met Al-Ekri who said to him: “I value that hat”, Sharif asked: “How?” Al-Ekri replied: “It went to Ghaza with me.” “So I’m keeping it” Sharif said smilingly.

Al-Ekri began to feel home. Tents started to mushroom. He went to his house in Sehla area that is relatively close to Pearl Roundabout. He took a small tent which was a promotion for 7-UP soft drink. He came back to the Roundabout carrying his tent. His friend chose a place opposite to the Lulu Towers and they set up the tent.

“I sat with a group of friends. I liked the place, the weather and the dream of change. I felt we had to be part of the event as citizens not as doctors. We considered sleeping overnight at the Roundabout” Al-Ekri said.

Al-Ekri left to his home to bring quilts for their overnight stay. When he returned people were pouring

 continuously. A podium was set up and the voices came loud from loudspeakers. The tents were everywhere and people prepared for the overnight stay. There were discussions about setting up a medical tent for emergency cases. That was one of the organizational issues of the highest priority. “I entered the 

medical tent, it was empty then. It had a table in the middle. There stood the paramedic Hassan Waethi, Dr. Nada Dhaif and a couple of volunteer young men.” He added: “I held a small meeting with fresh graduate doctors, and told them the work should not be based on haphazard volunteering, there must be work rotations. We gathered a list of names of the volunteering doctors, nurses, paramedics and logistic support people. We made lists of the requirements. Strangely, all the appliances were available the next day.”

That day passed and 16 February came. Al-Ekri who was consumed in both enthusiasm and the place decided to go the Roundabout after finishing work in the hospital. “I had my private clinic in the afternoon. I cancelled it. I went with my friend to Geant mall and bought a tent for BHD. 75  ($ 199). It was the last item they had. We went directly and set it up. We didn’t use its weak pegs. The young men brought small iron rods and they firmly secured it. There, you were not alone. Everyone wanted to help. The weather was fine as well as the social atmosphere. We set up the tent at a strategic point overlooking the podium. ”

We started to prepare for a medical tent and another for the lost children. The medical tent was in a place opposite to the Muntazah supermarket. The youths parked a SUV close to the tent for the emergency cases. It was for the regular emergency cases not for cases due to confrontations with the police.

The medical tent seemed to be organised like a small hospital. Many doctors were present. It was unprecedented presence of the volunteer doctors. The presence in the tent was organised. The doctors donated devices and equipment from their private clinics. Donations came from everywhere. It was said the tent had devices and medicines worth of BHD 9,000 ($24,000). Dr. Nada Dhaif asked: “What do you want of devices?” She went to pharmacies and collected them as donations and came back. He absolutely refused bringing anything from Salmaniya hospital, just to be on the safe side.

“Our first test, when a young man fell from one of the pillars of the Pearl monument. He fell from a height that was equivalent to one storey and a half from the side overlooking the sea. We heard a call over the loudspeaker asking urgently for a doctor. I went immediately and saw the young man lying on the ground. He was not severely injured; however, he had to be transferred to a safe place. I told them, I thought he had a vertebral column injury. In minutes the paramedics came, they carried him professionally and carefully. He was transported to hospital.”

Al-Ekri continued: “I had a sort of altercation with the supervisor of the medical tent. He was worried that the injured young man could be arrested. However, I was anxious to rescue him. A few simple cases came to us during the night. It was a trial night. At the same night we put beds for the sick and chairs, and divided the tent for males and females. We had a registration system. They asked me about my shift to confirm. I told them: Tonight. I took the graveyard shift. I was the shift supervisor that night and there was Dr. Sadeq Al-Ekri and 4 nurses.”

“I spent most of that night with my friends in my tent. We checked on the surrounding on and off and were consumed in feelings of freedom and the urge to embrace the dream of change. In general the present people were mostly families with their kids. At around one after midnight the Roundabout had turned quiet. It had got colder. Voices had hushed and begun to sleep. At 2 AM I said to the on-call doctor, this is my number, I’m going to my tent, it’s close; just call me if you need to!”

Al-Erki continued: “I sat with my friends chatting, later we began to feel tired. Sadeq Al-Erki had slept. At

 around 3AM I heard some noise. They attacked. I was awake with one of my friends. I heard a voice from the loudspeakers: Guys, please keep quiet, just chant peaceful, peaceful. The number of people was relatively few. I tried to wake up Sadeq. I said to him: They are attacking. I got out of the tent and looked towards the north. I was surprised to see the police lights. They were coming from the southern side as well. The police spread to every place quietly. I got a call from the on-call doctor: They seemed attacking. I headed to the medical tent that was close to my tent. I didn’t hear any call to disperse. It started to get chaotic. Chants of peaceful, were heard, the shooting started.”

In the medical tent, the nurses put on the masks. They handed Al-Ekri one to put on. “I looked outside, it was chaotic. Women and children were screaming. The shooting came from three directions. One direction was left. I closed the door to protect us from the gunshots that came from  Muntazah supermarket direction. I saw mothers and their kids screaming in terror. The policemen were advancing while firing their stun bombs, tear gas and rubber bullets. People started to come to the medical tent. It was full. We started to treat suffocation cases. The number grew. We weren’t able to cope with those numbers. During that we heard dense and continuous firing as if we had been in a war. I felt I was back in Ghaza were we had treated the wounded among the sounds of shelling and successive missile projectiles.  Everyone in the medical tent was scared. We didn’t know what would happen to us. The medical tent was the first one that might have been attacked by the police charging into the Roundabout. It was possible that they would attack us at any moment. The firing sound subdued a little and we heard the advancing forces. I went outside and held my hands up saying to them: I’m a doctor and this is a medical tent. One of them aimed his gun towards me. He said: Go inside. I returned immediately.”

Al-Ekri went on: “People left. We saw the police chasing the young men in the vicinity of the Roundabout. Groups of policemen entered the middle of the Roundabout. Some of them passed by the medical tent. We closed the second door. The power generator went off. Deliberately, one of them fired a stun bomb into the tent. We started to get suffocated. I said to the people who were with me: We will leave as a group, get ready. We opened the door that  was in the direction of Muntazah supermarket. We went out as one group passed through the policemen. We were around 10 people. Some of them tried to attack us, while some of them pointed to us to leave. We rode a protester’s car and left. The young men were running in front of us on the main road. The protester drove me home. I was suffocating I didn’t have my home keys. My wife and my kids were sleeping. I went to my house backyard, took a stick and threw it in the direction of our maid’s room. She got up scared and opened the door. I went immediately to wash my burning face.”

What did Al-Ekri do in the morning of 17 February who had witnessed what happened at the Roundabout? What happened to his cousin Sadeq Al-Ekri who was sleeping in the tent? How events escalated? Those will be in the next part.