More than 6,400 claims have been submitted to a BD10 million ($26.52 million) fund set up by Bahrain’s government to compensate people affected by last year’s unrest, said a top official.

They include cases of murder, abduction, assault, sexual harassment, medical negligence and psychological trauma caused by illegal roadblocks.

The Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry only started accepting claims for the Civil Settlement Initiative (CSI) at its headquarters in the Diplomatic Area on Sunday.

'We have documented 6,415 human rights violations since February last year until this month,' said National Unity Assembly (NUA) human rights head Dr Mona Al Hijris.

She has already met Justice Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa and passed onto the compensation claims to him.

'It was a positive meeting and the minister praised our efforts in documenting all the violations and agreed to investigate each case to ensure compensation to the victims,' said Dr Al Hijris.

The list submitted to Shaikh Khalid included 6,415 claims. A total of 2,564 (39.9 per cent) involved complaints of psychological trauma as a result of the unrest.

Another 1,426 (22.2 per cent) said they were affected by illegal roadblocks set up by anti-government protesters.

Other claims listed included 649 (10 per cent) for educational negligence and 548 (8.5 per cent) related to businesses affected as a result of the unrest.

Medical negligence accounted for 512 (7.9 per cent) claims, 14 (0.2 per cent) each for murder and abduction and nine for sexual harassment nine (0.1 per cent).

Another 163 (2.5 per cent) were claims for physical assault, 231 (3.6 per cent) for damage to property and all other cases registered were 285 (4.4 per cent).

'We have seen that people were disappointed and did not come out to register their cases, but now with the compensation procedures the number of cases documented will increase,' said Dr Al Hijris.

She said during her meeting with Shaikh Khalid they discussed the difficulty of issuing compensation in cases of psychological trauma. 'We at the National Unity Assembly will continue to register these cases and urge those affected to visit our headquarters in Busaiteen (open daily from 10am-noon and 6pm-8pm, except Fridays).'

The CSI was proposed by the National Commission tasked with following up the implementation of recommendations included in the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI).

The Justice Minister told the Gulf Daily News 'hundreds' of people had visited the ministry's headquarters to benefit from the scheme.

National Commission member Dr Abdulla Al Deerazi said the main aim of the CSI was to expedite compensation cases, without prejudice to the rights of those who intend to resort to civil courts.

'Some non-governmental organisations have started registering cases, which will be dealt by special courts,' he said. 'There is a backlog of human rights cases which are sensitive and this process would facilitate the process.'

The NUA released a human rights report last November which included more than 7,400 complaints from Bahrainis and expatriates about violations during they allegedly suffered unrest.

It stated Syrians were the worst affected followed by Bangladeshis and Yemenis. Women and children were also singled out for becoming depressed as a result of the tension on the streets.

The report was handed to BICI officials as part of its mandate to probe last year's unrest. – TradeArabia News Service