Yes, minister, you are wrong!
By Dr Hsu Dar Ren
Article 18, Part II of the Fourth Geneva Convention (August 12, 1949) states clearly that:
” Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.”
Hospitals are sanctuaries that should be respected and avoided by all warring sides. One of the reasons is that the injured and wounded are unable to defend themselves, and any honourable being will never attack or fight with anyone who is disabled or ill. The patients are also unable to run or seek shelter elsewhere.
There are many videos and photos showing that during the rally on 709, Tung Shin Hospital, or more specifically, the front compound of Tung Shin hospital, was hit by water cannons and tear gas .
It is understandable that in the heat of flexing their muscles against unarmed civilians , some of the personnel might have forgotten that hospitals are sanctuaries to be avoided. I suspect some may not even have heard of the Geneva Convention, given the state of our education system. So it was actually understandable that some might have been so caught up that they fired their gas canisters and water cannons into the compound of the hospital.
Afterall, humans are fallible, we are not God. But when a person has erred, he must be prepared to learn from his mistakes and apologise for his error, and accept any punishment for making the error if it is serious enough to warrant such punishment.
The correct response from the powers that be, including the ‘honourable’ Home and Health Ministers, should be the acknowledgement of such attacks in the presence of irrefutable evidence and issuing a sincere apology to the patients, staff and management of the Hospital, and a promise that such nonsense would never happen again.
