Syria Ghouta residents want chemical attacks re-investigated | Global News Avenue

Tawfiq Diam became emotional because for the first time he could speak freely about what happened to his family in 2018 in Douma, a suburb of Eastern Ghouta, Damascus.

“If I had spoken out before, Bashar al-Assad’s troops would have cut out my tongue. They would have cut my throat. We are not allowed to talk about it,” he said.

Tawfiq’s wife and four children aged between 8 and 12 – Joudy, Mohammed, Ali and Qamar – were killed in the chemical attack on April 7, 2018.

The global watchdog Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a report last year that a Syrian Air Force helicopter was believed to have taken off from nearby Dumail Air Base shortly after 19:00 that day and dropped two yellow gas cylinders. . It hit two apartment buildings and released high concentrations of chlorine gas.

Tawfiq said his family was outside his first-floor home when the bomb struck.

“I heard explosions and people shouting ‘chemicals, chemicals’ in the street. I ran outside. There was a bad smell. I saw yellow foam coming out of people’s mouths. My children couldn’t breathe , they were suffocating. I saw people lying in the street,” he said.

The OPCW said at least 43 people died. Tawfiq said more than 100 people died.

“Even I almost died. I was in the hospital for ten days. Only five or six people in this compound survived,” he said.

Assad’s government denies using chemical weapons. Its ally Russia said the Douma attack was “well-planned”.

Eastern Ghouta has been one of the most hotly contested areas in Syria’s five-year civil war.

The regime eventually laid siege to the area and, along with its ally Russia, bombed the area indiscriminately in an attempt to wrest control of the area from rebels led by the Islamic Army.

Driving through it now, the devastation it has suffered is all around us. It is difficult to find a building that does not bear the scars of the war, many were so heavily bombed that only the shells of the buildings remain.

In Eastern Ghouta, Douma was attacked on more than one occasion using chemical weapons prohibited by the Geneva Protocol and the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Bashar Assad’s forces captured Douma shortly after the chlorine attack, and the victims’ stories were never fully heard.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my children,” Tawfik said, tears filling his eyes as he held out the only photo of his children.

As we spoke to Tawfiq, more and more people told us their stories.

Khalid Naseer said his youngest daughter Nour, two-year-old son Omar and pregnant wife Fatima were also killed in the 2018 chlorine attack.

“Most of those killed were children and women.”

The anger that had been suppressed for six years finally broke out.

“The whole world knows Bashar al-Assad is an oppressor and a liar who kills his own people. My wife was killed two days before her due date,” he shouted, emotions running high.

The chlorine attack was not the only time chemical weapons were used in the region.

In 2013, rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were fired at several rebel-held suburbs in Eastern and Western Ghouta, killing hundreds. U.N. experts confirmed the use of sarin gas but stopped short of assigning any blame.

Assad has denied that his forces fired rockets, but he has agreed to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention and destroy Syria’s declared chemical weapons stockpile.

Human Rights Watch documented at least 85 chemical weapons attacks in Syria between 2013 and 2018 and blamed the Syrian government for most of them.

In addition to the 2018 Douma incident, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team identified the Syrian military as the perpetrators of four other cases of chemical weapons use in 2017 and 2018. A previous fact-finding mission (which was not authorized to identify the perpetrators) found 20 incidents in which chemical weapons were used.

Khalid and Tawfiq took us to a mound on the side of the road, a short drive from the hotel. It was here, they believed, that the regime collected the bodies of their families and buried them in mass graves.

Looking down at the ground, among the gravel, dirt and stones, you can see bone fragments, but it’s impossible to tell whether they are human remains.

“This is my first time here, I swear to God. If I had come here earlier, they (the regime) would have executed me,” Tawfik said.

“On Eid, when I missed my family, I would ride on the side of the road and take a quick look at this (mound). It made me cry.”

Tawfik wants the grave dug so he can give his family a dignified burial.

“We want a new investigation into this attack,” Khalid said. He said that the testimony provided by many people to the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in 2019 was unreliable.

This account was corroborated by Abdul Rahman Hijazi, one of the witnesses who testified before the mission, who said he was pressured to provide the regime’s version of events.

“Intelligence officers detained me and asked me to lie. They asked me to say that people were dying from inhaling dust rather than chemicals. They threatened me that my family would not be safe if I did not agree. They told me that I The family will not be safe. “The house is surrounded by people from the regime,” he said.

A finding in the OPCW’s 2019 report on Douma stated: “Some witnesses stated that on April 7, many people died in hospital as a result of asphyxiation from heavy shelling and/or inhalation of smoke and dust. “

Abdulrahman said he and his family were shunned by the community for years after he testified. He found it difficult to find a job.

Now he also wants a new investigation.

“I want the truth to come out. I can’t sleep. I want justice for every parent.”

Additional reporting by Aamir Peerzada, Sanjay Ganguly and Leen Al Saadi