Residents of Syrian Ghouta need new investigation into chemical assaults

Tawfiq Diam is emotional as a result of that is the primary time he can communicate freely about what occurred to his household in 2018, in Douma, a suburb of Japanese Ghouta in Damascus.

“If I had spoken earlier than, Bashar al-Assad’s forces would have lower out my tongue. They’d have slit my throat. We weren’t allowed to speak about it,” he mentioned.

Tawfiq’s spouse and 4 kids aged eight to 12 – Joudy, Mohammed, Ali and Qamar – have been killed in a chemical assault on April 7, 2018.

The Group for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a worldwide watchdog, mentioned in a report final yr that it believed a Syrian air drive helicopter took off from the close by Dumayr Air Base shortly after 7 p.m. that day and had dropped two yellow cylinders which hit two house buildings, releasing extremely concentrated chlorine fuel.

Tawfiq mentioned his household was simply outdoors his home on the bottom ground when the bombs hit.

“I heard an explosion and other people have been shouting within the streets ‘chemical substances, chemical substances’. I ran out. There was a foul odor. I noticed yellow foam popping out of individuals’s mouths. My kids may now not breathe, they have been choking. I noticed folks mendacity on the street,” he says.

The OPCW says a minimum of 43 folks have been killed. Tawfiq says there have been greater than 100 deaths.

“Even I nearly died. I used to be hospitalized for 10 days. Solely 5 or 6 males survived in that compound,” he mentioned.

Assad’s authorities has denied ever utilizing chemical weapons. And its ally Russia mentioned the Douma assault was “staged.”

Japanese Ghouta was one of the vital bitterly contested areas for 5 lengthy years through the Syrian civil warfare.

The regime finally besieged it and, together with its ally Russia, indiscriminately bombed the realm because it sought to wrest management from insurgent fighters led by the Jaish al-Islam group.

As we move by way of it now, the destruction wrought there’s throughout us. It is onerous to discover a single constructing that does not bear the scars of warfare, lots of which have been bombed so badly that they’re little greater than shells of buildings.

On a number of events in Japanese Ghouta, chemical weapons – prohibited by the Geneva Protocol and the Chemical Weapons Conference – have been used to assault Douma.

Bashar al-Assad’s forces captured Douma shortly after the chlorine assault, and the victims’ tales have been by no means absolutely heard.

“Not a day goes by with out me fascinated about my kids,” Tawfiq says, pulling out the one picture he has of them, their eyes crammed with tears.

As we speak with Tawfiq, increasingly more folks come to us to inform us their tales.

Khalid Naseer claims his granddaughter Nour, two-year-old son Omar, and pregnant spouse Fatima have been additionally killed within the 2018 chlorine assault.

“Those that have been killed have been largely kids and ladies.”

The anger he needed to suppress for six years comes out.

“The entire world is aware of that Bashar al-Assad is an oppressor and a liar, and that he killed his personal folks. My spouse was killed two days earlier than her due date,” he cries, moved .

The chlorine fuel assault was not the one time chemical weapons have been used within the area.

In 2013, rockets containing the nerve agent sarin have been fired at a number of rebel-held suburbs in Japanese and Western Ghouta, killing lots of of individuals. UN specialists confirmed the usage of sarin fuel, however weren’t requested to attribute accountability.

Assad has denied that his forces fired rockets, however he agreed to signal the Chemical Weapons Conference and destroy Syria’s declared chemical arsenal.

Between 2013 and 2018, Human Rights Watch documented a minimum of 85 chemical weapons assaults in Syria, accusing the Syrian authorities of being accountable for almost all of them.

Along with Douma in 2018, the OPCW investigation and identification staff recognized the Syrian military because the perpetrator of 4 different circumstances of chemical weapons use in 2017 and 2018. A fact-finding mission earlier, which had no mandate to establish perpetrators, discovered chemical weapons have been utilized in 20 circumstances.

Khalid and Tawfiq took us to a mound on the facet of a street, a brief drive away. They imagine that is the place the regime took their household’s our bodies and buried them in a mass grave.

Trying down on the floor, among the many gravel, mud and stones, items of bone are seen, though it’s not potential to inform if they’re human stays.

“That is the primary time I set foot right here, I swear to God. If I had tried to return right here earlier, they (the regime) would have executed me,” Tawfiq mentioned.

“On Eid, once I was lacking my household, I’d drive to the facet of this street and rapidly look in direction of it (the mound). It made me cry.”

Tawfiq needs the graves to be dug up in order that he may give his household a dignified funeral.

“We would like additional investigations into the assault,” says Khalid. He claims that the testimonies given by many individuals through the OPCW fact-finding mission in 2019 have been unreliable.

This can be a declare corroborated by Abdul Rahman Hijazi, one of many eyewitnesses who testified earlier than the mission, who claims to have been compelled to present the regime’s model of occasions.

“Intelligence brokers stopped me and informed me to lie. They informed me to say that the folks have been killed due to inhaling mud and never chemical substances. They threatened me, that if I didn’t settle for, my household wouldn’t be secure. They informed me that my home was surrounded by the lads of the regime,” he mentioned.

One of many findings of the 2019 OPCW report on Douma states: “Some witnesses mentioned that many individuals died in hospital on April 7 on account of the extreme bombardment and/or from suffocation because of the inhalation of smoke and dirt. »

Abdul Rahman claims he and his household have been shunned by the neighborhood for years after his testimony. He had problem discovering a job.

Now he additionally needs a brand new investigation.

“I need the reality to return out. I am unable to sleep. I need justice for all of the dad and mom.”

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