NEWS
The world: Jackie Chan is producing a movie in Syria. Some Syrians are outraged.
Growing up in Syria, Mohammad al-Abdallah loved watching Jackie Chan movies. They were dubbed in Arabic, and Chan’s acrobatic style of martial arts just blew him away.
“Like, even in school, sometimes people tried to copy him. So, he was a legend to our generation,” Abdallah said.
Abdallah comes from a family of activists in Syria. He was jailed and tortured by the government, he said, and had to flee to the US. He now directs the Syria Justice and Accountability Center, a human rights organization in Washington.
Syria is home for Abdallah, but one that he can’t return to. At least not now. So, this past week, when he found out that Chan was producing a film in his home country, his ears perked up; but after he learned the details, he was disappointed.
Chan’s production team began filming “Home Operation,” in Syria this past week. The location is a city called Al-Hajar al-Aswad, outside of the capital, Damascus. The area was a stronghold for the opposition during the war. The news has outraged some Syrians like Abdallah, who say their destroyed homes are not props for foreign film productions.
Last week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, himself, strolled through the ruins of Aleppo, another city destroyed in the war. Photos posted online showed him and his family in casual summer linen, looking as if they are on a Mediterranean vacation.
“They walk around like, ‘Oh, where did this destruction come from?’ As if they didn’t have a hand in it,” Malek said.
For Syrian filmmaker Waad al-Kateab, influencers and artists flocking to Syria for content is just painful.
“It’s really difficult just to think about it,” she said.
Kateab made a documentary about the uprisings in Syria called “For Sama,” that was nominated for an Oscar in 2020. She fled her home in Aleppo and now lives in the UK.
She said that she’s also troubled about “Home Operation” being shot in Syria.
“We’re worried to see our own neighborhoods, where we grew up, our own houses, which were destroyed by the regime, [become] like a part of a film set,” she said.
Chan’s publicist didn’t respond to an interview request for this story.
Waad Al-Kateab at the UN: "This Council remains a spectator to the suffering of the Syrian people."
On November 29 2021, Waad al-Kateab spoke at the UN Security Council’s Arria Formula meeting on Accountability in Syria.
Joining fellow Syrian activist, Omar Alshogre, in New York City, along with representatives from IIIM and University of Cologne, Waad spoke of her frustration at the inaction of the UN and demanded that perpetrators of the war crimes committed in Syria, are held to account.
Watch Waad’s full speech and read the transcript below:
Waad’s Speech (English)
“Good afternoon,
I am expected to start this session today by telling you how it is an honour to be here. But I can’t. Not if I want to be genuine to the suffering of my people.
My biggest honour was, and still is, that I am part of the Syrian revolution. Which made me hold onto hope with my fellow Syrians - chanting in the streets, daring to dream of dignity, freedom, and a state of law.
I am known by Waad al-Kateab, which is not my name. A name I choose to hide my identity from the security forces’’ the same Mokhabrat that Omar just talked about, who arrested him and tortured him. Omar who survived today and who gives us so much courage and hope.
I talk to you today as an activist, who protested, who was beaten, who was shot at, demanding democracy for my country.
I talk to you as a mother, who gave birth to my first child in a makeshift hospital in East Aleppo where I was living with my husband Hamza. Hamza, who is here today, he was an emergency doctor managing the last remaining hospital, which was deliberately targeted many times by the Syrian regime, supported by Russia.
I am talking to you as a refugee who was forcibly displaced after the besiegement of Aleppo in 2016. And now, I’m hearing so many of your countries’ officials and media talking about how safe it is for us to be returned to Syria. Syria is not safe as long as Assad is still ruling.
And I talk to you as a filmmaker, who thought my mission was to deliver the injustice I documented to the world.
I and many Syrians, we used to have faith that the world won’t let us down - that you, the security council would do everything to stop the war crimes and the genocide in Syria.
One of the women I filmed while we were in besieged Aleppo, shouted to deliver this to you [referring to For Sama clip shown at the end of the speech]. She said, with a baby of 6 months old, “Film. Film - let the whole world see this.”
At that moment, I was worried that I would let her down. That I won’t be able to survive, and her message might die with me.
However, the major disappointment came after I shared her shouting out, to the world, and to you. You refused to acknowledge. And this council refused to act.
I talk to you today as one of millions of Syrian witnesses and survivors of what is defined as war crimes and crimes against humanity by laws that you states have created.
But where is the outrage when your laws are broken?
Where is the action?
This Council remains a spectator to the suffering of the Syrian people. And if you think I am angry - yes for sure, you are right. You have let us down.
Your council held countless meetings through all these events of my life. There are 42 reports only by the UN commission of inquiry - this does not include Amnesty, Physicians for Human Rights, OPCW and tens of Syrian organizations’ reports.
And yet, some of you now discuss renewing diplomatic relations with the Syrian regime and granting lucrative contracts to warlords to reconstruct the country that Asaad’s regime and what he has destroyed in our country.
Because this council has failed to hold those responsible to account, we Syrians, along with states and international lawyers, have been exploring alternative ways to do so ourselves.
For example, closely with the legal team at Guernica 37, we are working to hold Russia accountable for its targeting of hospitals and medical workers before the European Court of Human Rights, a court stemming out of a treaty that Russia agreed to.
The Russian State, the Russian judicial authorities have done nothing to investigate and prosecute such conduct into the intentional loss of life.
So we must now seek to hold the State accountable for its failures.
And we will do so.
We are also working, with some states present here, to establish collective international action against individuals responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The evidence is there, the perpetrators are known, all that remains is the will.
It is essential that there is a credible international process to investigate and prosecute the use of chemical, biological and other forms of prohibited weapons in Syria, and we have identified ways to do so.
I am here to ask you, how are you going to be part of the accountability efforts?
We are here today to seek accountability, not only to heal the past but also to protect the political hope for the future.
One day Syrians will go out into the street. They will shout again “الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام
It’s our responsibility to make sure they won’t face war crimes. It is your responsibly, in your power, to prevent genocide not only in Syria but in the whole world.
What messages are you sending to us, to your people, and to your children? What will the next conflict look like if impunity persists?
It’s OK to torture people? It’s OK to kill children? It’s OK to bomb hospitals?
What sort of legacy are you leaving behind for the next generation?
Today, as we speak, there’s over 3 million civilians still living in IDLIB, facing the daily threat of their schools and hospitals being targeted, their villages of being bombed.
We don’t want them, we don’t want one of them to be sitting in my place next year briefing you again about what happened in the next year. We want you all to do your part to save them all.
I’m copying what Omar asked for, what Catherine and Professor Klaus said. You have to save them all.
Sama, my 6 year old daughter, asked me before I come here, why I have to go to New York City. I said, do you remember the kids in Idlib? Who the monster just killed? I have to go to speak about them.
She sadly said, “But they are already dead? Why do you need to go?”
For a second I didn’t know what to say, then I told her, I’m trying to do my part so other children won’t be killed.
So I leave you today with this question and adding another one to what Omar asked:
If your children asked you the same thing. Will you be able to look them into the eyes and say that you as state members of the security council are able to do your part?
Thank you Mr President.
Waad
Waad’s further comments to the Council:
From here, the term Veto which I heard several time now might seem like a mere technicality. However, it wasn’t. On the 5th of December 2016 Russia and China Vetoed this council’s resolution for a 7 days truce in Aleppo.
7 Days only for safety and allowing aid for me, my family and the people back in Aleppo. I join the member states who asked for limiting the veto power regarding mass human rights atrocities. So 7 days of peace won’t be such a difficult task to achieve. A second point, according to the Physicians for human rights report, more than 90% of the attacks on hospitals in Syria are the responsibility of the Syrian regime and its allies Russia and Iran.
Those who are demanding accountability, we’re demanding it for all attacks. We are not the ones who are blocking international justice to the 90% of these attacks. Finally, Syria was not a civil war, it’s not a civil war. So please stop referring to this in your statements. It was peaceful demonstration, the whole world witnessed this and it’ll always be.
We’re not the ones protecting criminals. And one day, as I see you all here, I’m sure that we, the survivors of Syria will be joining these meetings as a free country. As people who respect human rights, who respect a future for all of us.
شكراً لك السيد رئيس الجلسة
عمتم مساءً
من المتوقع أن أبدأ حديثي اليوم بالقول بأني أتشرّف بوجودي هنا
ولكني لا أستطيع قول هذا
ليس إن أردت أن أكون صادقة حيال المعاناة التي عاشها شعبي
شرفي الأكبر كان ولازال هو مشاركتي في الثورة السورية
التي منحتني القدرة على التمسك بالأمل مع الشعب السوري
حيث صرخنا في الشوارع, متجرّئين أن نحلم بالكرامة ، الحرية ، وبدولة يسودها القانون
أنا أُعرف باسم وعد الخطيب ، وهو ليس اسمي الحقيقي
وإنما اسم اخترته لنفسي لأخفي هويتي من قوات الأمن
المخابرات ذاتها التي تحدث عنها عمر منذ قليل
المخابرات ذاتها التي اعتقلته وعذبته
عمر الناجي الموجود معنا اليوم ، والذي أمدّنا بالشجاعة ، والأمل
أجلس أمامكم اليوم كناشطة تظاهرت ، تعرضت للضرب ، وتم استهدافها بالرصاص
بينما كنت أطالب بالديمقراطية من أجل بلدي
أتحدث إليكم كأم
ولدتُ طفلتي الأولى في مشفى ميداني في حلب الشرقية
حيث كنت أعيش مع زوجي حمزة
حمزة الذي يجلس معنا اليوم ، كان آنذاك طبيب طوارئ يدير المشفى الأخير هناك
المشفى ذاته الذي تم إستهدافه من قبل النظام السوري المدعوم من قبل روسيا
أتحدث إليكم كلاجئة ، تمّ تهجيرها قسرياً بعد حصار مدينة حلب في عام ٢٠١٦
واليوم, أستمع إلى تصريحات العديد من مسؤولي دولكم وصحافتكم
وهي تتحدث أنّ سوريا آمنة لنا كي نعود إليها
سوريا ليست آمنة ما دام الأسد في السلطة
أتحدث إليكم كصانعة أفلام
أعتقدت أن دوري يقتصر فقط على توثيق الظلم وإيصاله للعالم
كنت أؤمن أنا والكثير من السوريين بأنّ العالم لن يخذلنا
بأنكم بصفتكم مجلس الأمن سوف تفعلون كل ما هو ممكن لمنع جرائم الحرب والمجازر في سوريا
أحد النساء الذين قمت بتصويرهم أثناء الحصار في حلب صرخت لتوصل لكم هذه الرسالة
قالت ويظهر بجانبها طفلها ذو ال6 أشهر: صوّري ، صوّري كي يرى العالم ما يحدث
في تلك اللحظة ، كنت قلقة بأنني سوف أخذلها
بأني لن أنجو ، وأن رسالتها ستموت معي
ولكن ، هذه لم تكن الخيبة الأكبر ، كانت الخيبة الأكبر بعد مشاركتي لصرختها معكم ومع العالم
ترفضون الإقرار بما حصل ، ويرفض هذا المجلس أن يتحرّك ويفعل شيئاً
أتحدث إليكم اليوم وأنا واحدة من ملايين الشهود والناجين السوريين
من ما يعرف بقوانينكم كدول أعضاء بجرائم حرب وجرائم ضد الإنسانية
ولكن أين غضبكم عندما يتم خرق هذه القوانين؟
أين تحرككم وأفعالكم؟
يقف هذا المجلس كمتفرجٍ سلبيّ على الشعب السوري
وإن كنتم تعتقدون بأني غاضبة ، فأنتم محقون تماماً
لقد خذلتمونا
قام مجلسكم بعقد جلسات لا تحصى أثناء الأهوال التي عشتها في حياتي
صدر عن لجنة التحقيق وبعثة تقصي الحقائق التابعة للأمم المتحدة وحدها ٤٢ تقريراً
هذا العدد لا يتضمن تقارير منظمة العفو الدولية ، منظمة أطباء من أجل حقوق الإنسان ، منظمة حظر الأسلحة الكيميائية ، وعشرات المنظمات السورية
مع كل هذا ، يتحدث بعضكم عن إعادة العلاقات الدبلوماسية مع النظام السوري
و عن تقديم عقود تعود بأرباح طائلة على أمراء الحرب لإعادة إعمار النظام السوري وما دمّره في بلادنا
بسبب فشل هذا المجلس بمحاسبة المسؤولين عن الجرائم
نقوم نحن كسوريين بالبحث بأنفسنا عن بديل لمحاسبة المجرمين بالتعاون مع بعض الدول وبعض المحاميين الدوليين
على سبيل المثال ، نعمل بالتعاون مع الفريق القانوني في منظمة (جيرنيكا ٣٧)
لمحاسبة روسيا على استهدافها المباشر للمشافي وللعاملين في القطاع الصحي
وذلك في المحكمة الأوروبية لحقوق الإنسان ، محكمة تم إيجادها بناءً على إتفاقية كانت روسيا جزءًا منها
لم تقم روسيا ، ولا النظام القضائي الروسي بعمل أي تحقيقات أو محاكمات تجاه الخسائر الدولية للأرواح
لذلك علينا العمل الآن لنحاسب الدولة الروسية على فشلها ، وسوف نقوم بذلك
نعمل أيضاً مع بعض الدول الأخرى الموجودة هنا ، للتحرك بشكل جماعي ودولي
ضد أشخاص مسؤولين عن إستخدام السلاح الكيميائي في سوريا
الدليل موجود ، والمجرمون أيضاً موجودون ، الشيء الوحيد المفقود هو الرغبة في التحرك
من المهم جداً إيجاد آلية تحقيق ومحاكمة دوليين في شأن إستخدام الأسلحة الكيميائية ، البيولوجية ، وغيرها من الأسلحة المحرّمة دولياً في سوريا
وقد قمنا بتحديد خطوات للقيام بذلك
أنا هنا اليوم لأسألكم ، كيف ستأخذون دوركم في الجهود المبذولة من أجل المحاسبة والمسؤولية؟
نحنا هنا اليوم للوصول إلى المحاسبة ، ليس فقط كي نتعافى من الماضي
وإنما لحماية الأمل السياسي من أجل المستقبل
في يوم من الأيام ، سيخرج السوريون إلى الشوارع مجدداََ
كي يصرخوا مرة أخرى: الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام
إنها مسؤوليتنا اليوم ، أن نضمن بألا يواجهوا جرائم حرب حينها
إنها مسؤوليتكم من حيث موقعكم في السلطة ، أن تمنعوا المجازر لا في سوريا فقط وإنما في العالم كاملاً
ما هي الرسائل التي تريدون إيصالها لنا ، لشعوب العالم ، ولأطفالكم؟
كيف سيكون شكل الصراع القادم إن لم نضع حداً للإفلات من العقاب
هل سيكون مسموحاً تعذيب الناس؟ قتل الأطفال؟ قصف المشافي؟
أي إرث هذا الذي سوف تتركونه للجيل الذي سيأتي بعدكم
اليوم ، وأثناء حديثنا هناك ٣ ملايين مدني يعيشون في إدلب
يواجهون بشكل يومي خطر استهداف مشافيهم ومدارسهم
خطر أن تقصف قراهم
لا نريد أن يأتي أحدهم في العام المقبل ويجلس في مقعدي هذا ليحدثكم عن الجرائم التي ارتكبت خلال هذه الفترة!
نريد منكم أن تقوموا جميعاً بدوركم لإنقاذهم
أوافق وأكرر ما قاله عمر ، ما قالته كاثرين ، وما قاله بروفيسور كلاوس
يجب عليكم إنقاذهم جميعاً
سما ، طفلتي ذات ال٦ أعوام سألتني قبل قدومي إلى هنا: لماذا عليكِ الذهاب إلى نيويورك؟
أجبتها ، هل تذكرين الأطفال في إدلب الذين قتلهم الوحش منذ فترة قريبة؟
عليّ أن أذهب لأتحدث عنهم
أجابتني بحزن: لكنهم لقد ماتوا بالفعل ، لماذا يجب عليكِ الذهاب؟
لوهلة ، لم تسعفني كلماتي بإجابة
ثمّ قلت لها: أنا أحاول جاهدةََ أن أعمل كل ما بوسعي كي لا يتم قتل أطفال آخرين
لذا أترككم اليوم عند هذا السؤال ، كسؤالٍ إضافي لما قاله عمر
إن قام أطفالكم بسؤالكم السؤال نفسه
هل ستستطيعون النظر في أعينهم
والقول بأنكم كدول أعضاء في مجلس الأمن قد كنتم قادرين على عمل دوركم على أكمل وجه؟
شكراً لك السيد رئيس الجلسة
…
هنا في هذا المكان, مصطلح "فيتو" الذي سمعته إلى الآن في مناسبات كثيرة
يبدو وكأنه شيء تقني للغاية
ولكنه لم يكن كذلك
في الخامس كانون الأول (ديسيمبر) عام ٢٠١٦ قامت روسيا والصين باستخدام الفيتو ضد قرار هذا المجلس من أجل هدنة لمدة ٧ أيام
٧ أيام فقط من الأمان ولضمان دخول مساعدات لي ولعائلتي وللمدنيين المتواجدين في حلب حينها
أشارك الدول الأعضاء التي اقترحت تحديد السلطة التي يملكها حق الفيتو فيما يخص الفظائع الجماعية المتعلقة بحقوق الإنسان
وذلك كي لا تكون ٧ أيام من السلام مهمة صعبة الإنجاز لهذه الدرجة
النقطة الثانية ، بحسب تقارير منظمة أطباء من أجل حقوق الإنسان
أكثر من ٩٠% من الهجمات على المشافي في سوريا
كان المسؤول عنها النظام السوري وحلفائه روسيا وإيران
نحن كأشخاص نطالب بالمحاسبة ، نطالب بالمحاسبة على كل الهجمات
لسنا نحن من يمنع نظام العدالة الدولية من محاسبة مرتكبي ٩٠% من هذه الهجمات
في النهاية أريد أن أقول أن ما حدث في سوريا ليس حرباً أهلية
أرجوا منكم التوقف عن استخدام هذا المصطلح في بياناتكم
لقد كانت مظاهرات سلمية شهدها العالم بأكمله
وسوف تبقى كذلك
لسنا نحن الجهة التي تحاول حماية المجرمين
وأنا متأكدة تماماََ ، كما أستطيع الآن رؤيتكم أمامي
أننا كناجين سوريين ، سوف نشارك يوماً ما في هذه الجلسات كبلد حر
كشعب يحترم حقوق الإنسان ، ويحترم مستقبلاً مشتركاً لنا جميعاً
ولن نقوم حينها بحماية المجرمين
Meet Dr.Ahmad, one of the medical professionals fighting on the COVID-19 front in Syria
My name is Ahmad Sayeyd Yusef, I live in Idlib in the northwest of Syria. I graduated medical school and I used to be an orthopedics surgery resident. Currently I’m working as an Internist and on the frontlines of COVID-19 in Syria.
I’ll start by introducing the idea of the isolation centers. Each center consists of four female and four male nurses, infection control officers, janitors, a manager, and an on call doctor. We are three doctors, each one of us takes two 24-hours shifts to cover the isolation center for the whole week. We start everyday by the morning rounds, we check up on the patients and conduct a clinical examination for each one of them, and then we update their meds list in accordance with test and examination results.
Here’s how the morning rounds usually go, we start by wearing a protective suit and a N95 mask suitable for the pandemic. We start from the area designated for the people suspecting a COVID-19 infection, and then we move on to the area of the confirmed cases. During this time, one of the nurses keeps registering new patients. We accept patients or refuse to do so depending on the center’s capacity as well as the severity of each case.
We accept the cases that we can handle. We start by clinically examining the patient and then performing a PCR test. If the result is positive we give the people a choice, they can either isolate themselves at the center, or at home if possible. Most people prefer to isolate themselves at the center, only a few expressed their ability to do self-isolation at home. When they choose to do so and prove that their home is suitable for isolation, we provide the needed instructions and we let them sign a pledge to complete all of the isolation days at home.
Generally, we only accept non-critical and moderate cases of COVID to our center. We don’t accept critical cases in an isolation center as these kinds of cases need a hospital to get the proper care. According to WHO’s protocols critical cases should be treated in a hospital and not in an isolation center. Though we do follow those protocols, one day a patient came to our center. He was an elderly with blood pressure problems and an oxygenation level below 50. He had roamed all the hospitals and isolation centers with no luck of finding an available bed. We didn’t even have any oxygen cylinders at the time, but we had to accept him and do whatever we could to save his life. The whole center started working to acquire an oxygen cylinder at any cost, and we stayed all night providing care for him until we were able to find a slot for him in a hospital the next morning. This was one of the hardest days for us as a team, full of pressure, stress and heroic efforts. It was an example of how we sometimes have to do things we don’t do under normal circumstances. Thankfully, that patient recovered completely, Abu Ramiz is now back to his little shop.
We faced a lot of difficulties while responding to the COVID-19 crisis. For example, some lockdown rules should’ve been deployed in the area to slow down the spread, but that didn’t happen. At first COVID started spreading quickly among the youth filling the isolation centers with patients, but then COVID made its way to the elderly which was a huge disaster. During that period, as the number of deaths started to fly we started to feel helpless and guilty. There were some attempts to hide the number of deaths at first, but after a short period of time the correct numbers started to show.
I can summarize a part of the challenges we faced as follows: The insufficient number of beds in hospitals in general and more especially ICU beds. The lack of enough oxygen sources. The lack of enough medicine. Insufficient resources in general was one of the hardest challenges. At one point it was difficult to get our hands on protective suits to protect ourselves while treating patients. Some of the challenges were even more basic, like the lack of proper heating in the medical centers. Something as fundamental as food was even a problem during the pandemic as all patients were eating the same meals. Normally, you’d have special meals for each patient depending on their medical status, so you’d have a meal specially prepared for cardiac patients, one that’s specially prepared for diabetic patients and so on. In our case during the pandemic we offered the same meals to all patients no.
Here’s how all our week looks like: At the end of the week all of Idlib’s hospitals, isolation centers, and ICUs get packed with patients. Then someone brings a member of their families as they are in the jaws of death with an oxygen level in the 50s, and asks us to accept them into the center. We don’t have the capacity to handle such cases, we don’t have the needed equipment. That patient gets stuck between packed hospitals where there are no available beds, and isolation centers that can’t provide them with the proper care.
Note: We had this conversation with Dr Ahmad at the beginning of 2021, COVID had recently made its way into Syria back then. We tried to get a new update about the current situation from Dr Ahmad, but he’s very busy dealing with a huge surge in cases in Syria as the Delta variant started spreading in Syria worsening the situation dramatically. We’ll try to get as many updates as we can about the matter and share them with our audience soon.
We met Dr.Ahmad through our friends at Violet as he works in one of their isolation centers. Huge thanks to all of the health workers in Syria and around the world for their huge efforts in fighting the pandemic.
Meet Dr. Abo Saad, the surgeon you watched in For Sama as he was saving a pregnant woman and her infant
I’m Dr. Abo Saad. I have been a general surgeon since 1993 and I have now been living in both Idlib and Aleppo’s countryside since we were forcibly displaced from Aleppo. This is my story over the course of ten years of the revolution.
Since day one of the revolution, I provided free urgent medical attention to the wounded, both in my personal clinic and private hospitals. Once an operation finished, we used to transfer the patients to private apartments to protect them from the regime forces.
As the situation developed and Eastern Aleppo got out of the regime’s control, I kept working for free in my personal clinic and East Aleppo’s public hospital alongside Dr. Abdulsalam Al-daeef and Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hariri, who were both doing amazing work at the time. The regime used to mercilessly bomb civilian areas all the time. We did dozens of operations with little to no capacity. Resources and equipment were low - we had to use whatever we could find in the hospital to do the procedures as safely as possible.
I remember that in the first Ramadan of the revolution, I was the only surgeon doctor in the hospital and we received more than 40 injuries in one wave. We worked painfully hard, for too long. It almost felt like dying. One day, I was doing an open abdominal operation for a young man and during the operation, someone came to us terrified, saying. “Doctor, wrap up quickly! The regime forces will be in the hospital in an hour”. It was a very difficult situation. I turned to my surgical assistant and the anesthetic technician and said, “Will you continue this operation with me?” They said, “We’re with you no matter what”. We continued the operation and the young man survived. We had been lucky that time - that day, the regime forces fell back and were unable to enter Eastern Aleppo.
As the regime’s attack on civilians escalated, people were in even more need of medical attention. I founded the first clinic in eastern Aleppo along with a dentist, internal doctor and gynecologist to provide medical care for people, and later we added a team for vaccinating children. I used to frequently go to Al-Quds hospital, it was a small clinic at that time, but then it was expanded into a hospital by Dr. Hamzah and Dr. Abdulsalam Al-Daeef. It was then that I transferred there to open the surgery department and start working at Al-Quds hospital.
I still remember a man in his sixties who had been shot in the chest by a sniper from the regime’s forces. He was barely able to walk when he arrived at the hospital. That morning, the generator was broken and I did a chest operation for him without any light, except small lighters and flashes! Fortunately, the man was discharged to return home once he was doing better.
What made the people feel even more desperate, were all the tortured and killed detainees that the regime sent to us by the river. A lot of the people who had worked on pulling the bodies from the river came to me with nervous breakdowns.
I used to do normal routine surgeries in Al-Quds hospital but when the shelling got more intense and the regime used barrel bombs on civilians we had massacre after massacre. There was a river of blood belonging to children, women, and the elderly.
I always felt like the staff at Al-Quds hospital were like my children and my siblings - I was the one who fixed the disputes among staff members or between the staff and management.
When the hospitals in the countryside needed a surgeon, I was always there, because saving lives in Aleppo or anywhere else is both my professional and moral responsibility. We used to go to the countryside through a road named “Alcastelo,” which means, ‘The road of death’. I remember one day I went with Dr. Hamza and Waad to support one hospital with their surgeries. We went through that road in the middle of the night - bombs were landing everywhere around us, and we were unable to turn on the car’s lights fearing the regime’s warplanes. We reached our destination and once I completed the surgeries, we returned to Aleppo the next day.
Our staff did not only operate inside the hospital, they also used to respond to the areas that were hit and pull people from under the rubble. Al-Quds hospital was targeted more than once and we almost died on top of each other in the corners of the hospital. The hospital was targeted horrifically, the massacre of Al-Quds. Nurses, doctors, and staffers were martyred. One neighborhood was targeted heavily and after a few moments, a child named “Sahad” got to the hospital with a critical injury. We did an urgent operation and she survived, but she lost her mother and brother.
After the regime intensified its shelling on the area even more, I founded a hospital in a garage along the road in Aleppo’s southern countryside. I did some surgeries there, but after a couple of months the hospital was targeted, so we evacuated it.
Aleppo was then besieged, and I hadn’t seen my family for six months. I spoke to them through the internet, I sent pictures of chocolate to my younger son - I sent roses to my wife and children.
As she was on the road towards Al-Quds hospital to give birth, Maisaa, a woman in her 9th month of pregnancy, was hit by warplanes and injured in her abdomen, head, and limbs. I did an emergency operation to save her and her child, and the results were great. Not too long ago, a woman came to me at Al-Quds hospital in Idlib, with a five-year old child. It was Maisaa with her child. She was pregnant again and asking for advice that has nothing to do with the previous surgery, thank god.
After we’d been displaced from Aleppo, I went to support the surgery department in Aleppo’s western countryside hospital. We were hit by the Russian and regime warplanes and the whole hospital collapsed over us, there were three injuries and one martyr, and I only got some minor burns.
I helped the NGO Syria Relief and Development to create a hospital in a village in Idlib. Staff from Al-Quds hospital joined that hospital and started working until a separate place was provided for Al-Quds hospital to start again. After a few months, Al-Quds hospital was standing again in Al-Dana, Idlib and its staff transferred there.
My only concern was always to look after Al-Quds hospital’s patients, and to serve the staff, help them, defend them, and make things better for them.
The new Arab: Besieged and starved: How 'the wheel of life' has stopped in Syria's Daraa
As the people of Daraa al-Balad area remain at loggerheads with the Syrian regime and Russian forces, the residents are being starved of food and medicine while also deprived of education and other basic amenities over their refusal to participate in Assad’s “farce” elections.
Since May, Daraa has been under siege by the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Daraa al-Balad consists of several neighbourhoods, Palestinian refugee camps as well as camps for those displaced in the occupied Syrian Golan. There are also agricultural farms within the two to the three-kilometre area, but many have moved their operations, fearing bombardment by regime forces.
No access to medicine or care
Blocked off from medical attention, the elderly and children faint from the heat, as access to treatment for serious illnesses is barred.
“A woman passed away while she was giving birth because she was prevented from entering the hospital,” local businessman and family man Mohamed Zatima tells The New Arab.
He says that the Russians even go as far as to block off veterinary supplies to the area. “A siege by the Russians and the regime on Daraa al-Balad is not limited to humans, but even to animals,” he comments.
Coronavirus is also a cause for alarm, as cases are rising and victims of the deadly disease cannot enter the hospital in the city centre.
Local father-of-six Abu Abdullah, 55, who is now out of work due to poor health, describes life in besieged Daraa as tragic and difficult under a “suffocating blockade”.
Having undergone an open-heart surgery eight months ago, he needs access to hard-to-get medicine, which is now impossible. “There is medicine I will have to cut out due to the lack of it, no presence of doctors, and my inability to buy it on the black market,” he says.
He continues: “There is no water, no electricity, no way to go to hospitals and doctors in the regime’s area from medical laboratories, radiology or service centres.”
"A woman passed away while she was giving birth because she was prevented from entering the hospital"
The Syrian regime and Russian planes fly low over the neighbourhoods, frightening children, causing great anxiety, and making it impossible for them to continue their education.
“I have four children who were prevented from entering schools and practising their hobbies," says Mohamed Zatima. "Due to the Russian jets which fly over the neighbourhoods at a low level, the children suffer from anxiety which has affected their behaviour.”
Abu Abdullah says his daughters are unable to complete their education, due to the fact they are blocked off from schools in regime territory, and his other children are unable to work. “My children are deprived of their human rights, they have neither work nor study,” he says.
"My children are deprived of their human rights, they have neither work nor study"
Protests continue
Despite the besiegement, local activists continue to protest against the regime’s blockade, and the presidential elections, known as “the farce”. Untrusting the Russians, the local governing bodies have rejected the most recent deal put forward.
Local activist Loranc Alakrad explains, “Russia asked us to hand over light weapons, 200 Kalashnikov rifles and 20 machine guns, but the response of the civil committee was that we do not have these weapons, and it cannot be delivered – this request was completely rejected.”
Local protests demand the release of detainees, and the implementation of certain clauses in the July 2018 agreement that have not yet materialised, including the removal of militias and the return of the army – which has taken up residents in civilian homes and shops – to its barracks, the return of students to their schools and universities, and employees to their jobs.
رغم الحصار الخانق
— لورنس أبو آدم (@lornce_adm) July 3, 2021
رغم التهديدات الروسية
رغم تآمر الجميع
على مهد الثورة #درعا_البلد
يخرح الأهالي ويصدحون بأعلى صوتهم سوف نبقى
تحدي وصمود
صبر وتحمل
لتبقى مهد الثورة القلعة الصامدة
بثلة من شبابها الصابرين الثابتين#فكوا_الحصار_عن_درعا_البلد#تضامن_مع_مهد_الثورة#الحرية_لدرعا pic.twitter.com/AtjvDrV1Rt
What next?
As the siege continues on the city, the residents can only speculate what will happen next. Will the regime launch a brutal offensive? Or will it simply continue its siege until the locals are starved out?
“The regime and the Russians are still besieging the neighbourhoods of Daraa al-Balad, and in light of the arrival of new reinforcements, this suggests the possibility of a storming and massacre against us,” Mohamed Zatima explains.
He fears an offensive against the people of Daraa, however, others don’t.
“We are almost dead and there is no deterrent to him after the world abandoned us and his possession to all kinds of power and with the support of regional and global powers,” Abu Abdullah says. “This is a method of starvation and siege… and punishing a people for just an opinion.”
Mohamed Zatima says if Assad stood in front of him, he would call him a child killer and a war criminal.
He dreams of a better Syria, and rather than migrate to Europe, he has hope that Syria can achieve democracy: “I do not want to emigrate, but I want my country to become like the countries of Europe in terms of respect for human beings and appreciation of humanity. Syria is our country and the country of our ancestors.”
Abu Abdullah on the other hand would want to migrate, striving for a decent future for his children. He would tell Assad to leave them in peace: “Leave and let us heal our wounds, for we have been exhausted by the war.”
The Authors:
Amy Addison-Dunne is a freelance digital journalist with an interest in the Middle East and British politics. She has written for the Daily Mirror, Morning Star.
Marwa Koçak is a journalist and translator with an interest in politics and human rights in the Middle East. She speaks Arabic, English and Turkish. She has written for Middle East Eye, Al-Jazeera.
COVID-19 IN SYRIA: The number of vaccine doses that were provided for northern Syria is incredibly low compared to the population.
My name is Noor Asidi, I studied nursing and midwifery. I currently work at Early Warning, Alert and Response Network (EWARN), where I take swabs and conduct COVID-19 tests.
First we prepare the testing devices and the necessary forms, then we start reaching out to isolation centers as well as individual patients who were showing symptoms but were not admitted to a healthcare center.
Noor Asidi at the COVID-19 testing center in Idlib / Abdullah Hammam
We health workers fighting COVID are in immediate danger, so we have to take all possible precautions. That’s why I put on all my protective gear before I begin taking swabs. After I take a swab from the patient, our team provides the patient with information about the virus, how it spreads, how they can isolate themselves, and we advise them to stay in isolation until the swab results come back. If the swab is positive, we tell them to self- isolate either at home, without coming in contact with anyone, or at one of the available isolation centers. We also explain to COVID-19 positive patients how important it is to wear a mask and take the prescribed medication.
Noor Asidi taking nose swab from a patient in Idlib / Abdullah Hammam
One of the biggest issues we face in northern Syria is the lack of oxygen supplies in the isolation centers. If an elderly person or someone with chronic illness comes to us, there would still be no possibility of admitting them into the center due to either the lack of doctors or the lack of enough oxygen.
What I think people can do is collaborate and work towards expanding the oxygen capacity that our isolation centers have. This could perhaps be done by providing small mobile oxygenating devices or by supporting oxygen-generating plant projects in the area.
The number of vaccine doses that were provided for northern Syria is incredibly low compared to the population.
When the vaccine was first announced, most people had their doubts about it, some people even refused to take it. Now, after we have seen the positive effects the vaccine has carried with it to other countries, and as studies keep confirming that the vaccines are created in accordance with WHO, we’re changing our minds and leaning more towards having the vaccine.
Personally, I took the first dose of the vaccine about four weeks ago, I didn’t get any of the side effects or symptoms that some people are spreading fear about. I plan on taking the second dose, of course, to achieve the best protection possible, and I do advise everyone to comply with their healthcare provider and take the vaccine if they’ve been advised to.
Photos credit: Abdullah Hammam
Covid-19 in Syria: Marwan’s message from the frontline of the pandemic response
My name is Marwan Durra, I’m a high school graduate and I’m planning on continuing my education. Right now, I am a volunteer with Violet Organisation. Here’s my story from Idlib, as we try to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic.
My work with Violet Organisation involves transporting patients, which means I am in direct contact with people who have been diagnosed with Coronavirus. I also help with coordination. I receive word about Covid-19 patients - some that need to be transferred from a hospital to an isolation centre or some patients in isolation centres who need to get to the hospital as they have deteriorated. I obtain all of the necessary information and send it out to the team.
The idea behind the isolation centres is to assist the hospitals and reduce the pressure on them. In each isolation centre there is an on-call doctor, nurses, and infection control officers. The centres’ main purpose is to receive the mild and non-critical cases of Covid-19; for example, a patient with non-dangerously low oxygen levels, or a patient with fatigue. By providing care for these cases, the hospitals can be dedicated to the critical ones that need ventilators or intensive care. One of the other roles these centre play is providing a place for Covid-19 patients to isolate themselves at these centres if they can’t isolate themselves at home for whatever reason.
On one very difficult day, we received word about a patient showing symptoms of Covid-19. He needed a swab test and then to be admitted to an isolation centre, so after coordinating with Violet’s isolation centre and communicating all of the information, we transferred the patient there. After a couple of days the results came in confirming he has Covid-19. He started to deteriorate quickly, which left him in need for a ventilator and better care. We needed to transfer him to a hospital. Usually, we don’t transfer patients without coordinating, but this time we had to make an exception. The situation was urgent. During that period of time hospitals were full of patients, so started wandering with the patient from one hospital to another, hoping that one would be able to take him. Because there were no empty beds in any hospital, we had to keep moving the patient in the ambulance for about two hours until one hospital made ends meet and accepted him. This situation caused the patient’s health to deteriorate.
At one point during the Covid-19 crisis the daily infected cases were around 500, and if only half of that number needed hospital care, the hospitals would get completely swamped and become unable to provide care for any more people. So many loved ones - so many elderly people - have been lost due to the lack of available ventilators. This is a huge difference between us and other countries, where the medical capacity is a lot higher.
In general, the aid that was provided for northern parts of Syria to fight Covid-19 haven’t covered the needs. Not only that but some countries have already been able to acquire the vaccine that has a 98% success rate. We know that it is going to take a long time to reach us.
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The situation in Syria is shocking. Lack of medical care, equipment and space is creating an almost impossible task for the responders on the pandemic frontline.
Please follow our friends at Violet Organisation, read about the life-saving work they do and make a donation if you can.
Violet Team - you have our support, always.
___
VIOLET ORGANISATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA
'Watching Covid-19 footage from the hospitals reminds me of Aleppo'
There are many individuals - friends and colleagues of Waad and Hamza - that you will recognise from For Sama. Here is an update from Abd, who shares his reflections from his time in Aleppo in light of the recent Coronavirus situation…
There are multiple ways to die, but the result is always the same. From inside Syria - from what’s left of areas not controlled by the terrorist regime of Al-Assad - I wish for this terrible period to end without you losing a loved one.
I’ve been following the news about the Coronavirus and how it’s affecting the whole world - the panic and fear, how everyone could lose a loved one and how the whole world is sharing the same suffering, even if the danger depends on their living situation and age.
It may be hard for you to imagine the crimes the regime committed in Syria, but it’s very similar to what Corona is doing now - separating loved ones from one another. The difference is that the Assad and Russian regimes are only attacking Syrian people, while the virus is attacking the whole world.
The warplanes fly over us in the evening, warnings come from walkie talkies to clear the streets and the markets, and move towards basements and shelters. Some seconds later, you hear a big bomb. The warplanes hit yet another civilian area. The first responders, along with a group of civilians, move quickly towards the hit site to save whoever they can. The lucky ones from the injured people are the ones that get to the hospital first, because as a couple of minutes pass, the hospital wards are drawn completely with injured people. The race with time begins to save as many people as possible. The ER team works relentlessly for long hours after the massacre; strained eyes, bloodied hands, and tired faces. Nothing is heard except for medical devices and procedures’ names as well as the screams of the injureds’ families. Some people lose their lives before reaching the hospital because it can take the civil defense too much time to remove people from under the rubble of their houses.
On the 18th of November and due to the heavy airstrikes on the city, as well as the shelling particularly on the hospitals, only one hospital remained taking care of the injured. All the medical staffers gathered in that hospital. I was passing a friend in the ER corridor and he shouted at me. I felt like he had someone injured in the hospital and he told me his mother had died. I told him may she rest in peace and kept going. Even though I’m not a medical staffer, I was hoping to lend a hand and help to save people. There was no time to give condolences to my friend at that moment. It’s very hard to lose someone we love but what’s even harder is watching someone we love die without being able to help them at all.
As I’m watching the footage from the hospitals in the countries that have the most cases of Coronavirus, it reminds me of what was happening in Aleppo years ago. The doctors’ faces that have medical mask scars carved into them reminds me of the medical staffers’ faces as they’re trying to save lives after every massacre. The news about cases among the medical staffers reminds me of all the doctors, first responders, and civil defense members that we lost because the airstrikes targeted them while they were trying to save lives.
In the last days of the siege in Aleppo, some friends created a WhatsApp group and it was named, “The same fate holders,” because we were in the same city and we were going to share the same fate that is going to hit the city. We lost some of the friends who were in the group due to the airstrikes or the snipers’ bullets from the regime forces. Today, everyone is in “The same fate holders” because we’re all humans, we’re all being attacked by a virus, we’re all watching social media and following the news closely, and we’re all wishing for the moment that we hear a vaccine or medicine is found. Someday, we still hope to hear the international community will make a stand and take action to stop the regime’s crimes; to help us reach our dreams as free people.
My friends, I wish for you to stay safe and that the virus doesn’t find its way to you. I look forward to the day that Social media and TV programs will announce the virus’s defeat. Everyone on this planet deserves to live safely without any virus, and the people of Syria deserve to live safely without the dictator and criminal regime over them.
Abd
Why coronavirus is a ticking bomb in war-ravaged northern Syria
ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: As the coronavirus pandemic cuts a wide and deadly swathe through the Middle East and Asia, people in war-torn areas are pretty much sitting ducks, waiting to contract the infection.
Nowhere are crisis-ravaged communities more exposed to the deadly virus than in large expanses of Syria, especially in the country’s northwest and northeast.
Northern Syria is particularly vulnerable owing to dire humanitarian conditions and the risk of further conflict, analysts told Arab News.
The northwestern governorate of Idlib and the mostly Kurdish-controlled northeast, the two remaining areas outside the Syrian regime’s control, now face an invisible enemy.
Syria confirmed its first case on March 23, after insisting for weeks that the virus had not reached the country.
The regime had been waging an aggressive military campaign to retake territory in Idlib. For the past several weeks fighting has abated, especially after Turkey, which backs several rebel groups, reached a cease-fire deal with Russia, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s main military backer.
The hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting have sought shelter in already overcrowded displacement camps, where conditions make it impossible for residents to practice social distancing or self-isolation.
Out of Idlib’s 2 million-plus population, at least 900,000 were displaced by the latest round of fighting between the regime and rebels.
Furthermore, many people in Idlib have no access to clean or hot water, or necessities such as soap that can help prevent the spread of the virus.
To compound the crisis, the regime’s Russian-backed air campaign in Idlib saw repeated bombing of hospitals and health facilities, which has crippled the local health infrastructure and rendered it incapable of handling any outbreak.
When it comes to a COVID-19 outbreak, Idlib’s fears and vulnerabilities are mirrored by those of northeast Syria, most of which is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The news of the first death here — in a hospital in the city of Qamishli, which is under the regime’s authority — drew a strong reaction from the Kurdish Red Crescent and the SDF-backed Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) on Friday.
