Syrian doctors tortured by government forces

Syrian hospitals are carefully controlled by the military, armed to the teeth their presents make proper care of the civil war victims impossible and secret military hospitals have been set up by volunteer doctors. Yet doctors working in these hospitals have been detained, tortured, and even murdered by government forces, Amnesty International reports.

Amnesty International observed protests in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, and witnessed that every protest ended with security forces opening fire to protestors. Altogether, at least 10 000 people have been killed since the start of the Syrian conflict 17 months ago.

Protestors still fly into the face of danger, on May 25 alone, 10 young people and children were killed and dozens injured when security forces and plain-clothes militia fired Kalashnikov rifles and shotguns at demonstrators. Families of demonstrators and bystanders shot dead by security forces have been pressured to sign statements saying that their loved ones were killed by “armed terrorist gangs”.
Aleppo’s hospitals arrest or physically torture doctors who try to treat injured protestors.

Makeshift hospitals

Many of the wounded protesters are evacuated or choose not to go to hospitals and instead rely on a network of volunteer doctors, nurses and first-aiders who have been providing life-saving emergency treatment to the wounded in secret safe houses.

These hospitals are often a long journey away from the city and are constantly moved to avoid detection by the authorities. “Being caught with medical supplies or treating injured protesters is worse than being caught with weapons”, one doctor told Amnesty.

Meanwhile, the annual Medicare & health Scientific Conference held in Syria invites investors and participants to invest in Syrian health care. Its website introduces health ministries negotiations with the European Investment Bank EIB to provide funding to equip over 10 new projects between 2011-2015 with a cost of about 300 million dollars. Yet EU has banned access to EIB funds in November 2011.

No man, no problem – Stalin

Syrian law does not provide protection from torture, as required under Article 1 of the Convention against Torture, although it contains some provisions for protection from torture or other ill-treatment.

In most cases agents of the state refuse to acknowledge the detention or conceal the fate or whereabouts of the person thus placing the person outside the protection of the law. As tyrant Joseph Stalin once concluded, death solves all problems.

Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law and can constitute a crime against humanity if carried out systematically. Joseph Stalin continues, ‘death of a one man is a strategy, deaths of millions – that’s statistics.

Links between Russian tyrants and Syrian government are not just literature related. Russia has entered into contract with Syria to sell arms to Damascus, both those signed and under negotiation in total of 5 billion dollars and has vetoed 3 UN resolutions to stop the blood shed.

According to Professor Daniel Treisman of the Department of Political Science in UCLA, „If they alienate al-Assad’s successors, the very interests they seek to protect could be in jeopardy, In Tartus, Syria hosts the sole remaining Russian naval base on the Mediterranean, currently being refurbished by 600 Russian technicians after long disuse. To have to give up this Middle Eastern beachhead would be a shame, as far as the Russians are concerned.“ he said. According to him Russians do not want to end up on the losing side.

He believes that if Bashar al-Assad’s changes of survival dim Russia might come on board and vote for UN resolutions. Syria regime might be on the brick of collapse by now, the former prime minister Riad Hijab who fled the country said Syria is morally an financially on the brick of collapse Hijab has called the government opposition to take the side of the people.

Tagged health care, Syria