Syria Chemical Attack Victims Speak Out for the First Time, Seeking Justice

Tawfiq Diam expresses strong feelings as he discusses, for the first time without fear, the events that affected his family in 2018 in Douma, a Damascus suburb located in Eastern Ghouta. “If I’d spoken out before, Bashar al-Assad’s forces would have cut off my tongue. They would have slit my throat. We were not allowed to talk about it,” he states. On April 7, 2018, a chemical attack claimed the lives of Tawfiq’s wife and his four children—Joudy, Mohammed, Ali, and Qamar—who were between the ages of eight and 12. In a report issued last year, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international monitoring body, stated its belief that a Syrian air force helicopter took off from the adjacent Dumayr air base just after 7:00 PM on the day of the attack. This helicopter reportedly deployed two yellow cylinders, which struck two apartment complexes and discharged highly concentrated chlorine gas. Tawfiq recounted that his family was positioned directly outside his ground-floor residence when the explosives detonated. “I heard an explosion and people shouted on the streets ‘chemicals, chemicals’. I came running out. There was a foul smell. I saw yellow foam coming out of people’s mouths. My children were not able to breathe, they were choking. I saw people lying in the street,” he recounts. While the OPCW reports a minimum of 43 fatalities, Tawfiq asserts that over 100 individuals perished. “Even I almost died. I was in hospital for 10 days. Just five or six men in this compound survived,” he adds. The government led by Assad has consistently denied employing chemical weapons. Furthermore, its ally, Russia, claimed the Douma attack was “staged.” For a duration of five years during Syria’s civil conflict, Eastern Ghouta represented one of the most intensely disputed regions. The regime ultimately imposed a siege on the area and, in conjunction with its ally Russia, carried out indiscriminate bombing campaigns in an effort to seize control from rebel combatants affiliated with Jaish al-Islam. Currently, traversing the area reveals widespread destruction. It is challenging to locate any structure untouched by the marks of conflict, with numerous buildings so severely damaged by bombing that only their skeletal remains persist. Chemical weapons, which are prohibited under both the Geneva Protocol and the Chemical Weapons Convention, were employed in attacks on Douma on multiple occasions within Eastern Ghouta. Soon after the chlorine assault, Bashar al-Assad’s forces took control of Douma, and the narratives of those affected were never completely brought to light. “Not a day goes by when I don’t think of my children,” Tawfiq states, producing the sole photograph he possesses of them, his eyes filling with tears. While conversing with Tawfiq, additional individuals approached to share their experiences. Khalid Naseer reported that his infant daughter Nour, his two-year-old son Omar, and his pregnant wife Fatima also perished in the chlorine attack of 2018. “Those who were killed were mostly children and women.” The resentment he had been forced to contain for six years now surfaced. “The whole world knows Bashar al-Assad is an oppressor and a liar, and that he killed his own people. My wife was killed two days before she was due to deliver our baby,” he exclaims, his emotions clearly heightened. The use of chlorine gas was not the sole instance of chemical weapons deployment in this region. During 2013, rockets loaded with the nerve agent sarin were launched against multiple rebel-controlled suburbs in Eastern and Western Ghouta, resulting in hundreds of deaths. While UN experts verified the application of sarin, they were not tasked with assigning responsibility. Assad refuted claims that his forces discharged the rockets; however, he consented to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention and dismantle Syria’s officially declared chemical weapons stockpile. From 2013 through 2018, Human Rights Watch recorded a minimum of 85 chemical weapons assaults in Syria, attributing responsibility for most of these incidents to the Syrian government. Beyond the 2018 Douma incident, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team has pinpointed the Syrian military as the party responsible for four additional instances of chemical weapons deployment in 2017 and 2018. A prior fact-finding mission, which lacked the authority to name perpetrators, determined that chemical weapons had been utilized in 20 separate cases. Khalid and Tawfiq guided us to a roadside mound, located a brief distance away by car. They suspect this site is where the regime transported and interred their family members’ remains in a mass grave. Upon observing the ground, amidst gravel, mud, and stones, fragments of bones could be seen, though it was not ascertainable whether they were human remains. “This is the first time I have set foot here, I swear to God. If I had tried to come here earlier, they [the regime] would have executed me”, Tawfiq states. “On Eid, when I used to miss my family, I would ride by the side of this road and quickly glance towards this [the mound]. It made me cry.” Tawfiq desires the exhumation of the graves to provide his family with a respectful funeral. “We want fresh investigations into the attack,” Khalid declares. He contends that the testimonies provided by numerous individuals to the OPCW fact-finding mission in 2019 lacked credibility. This assertion is supported by Abdul Rahman Hijazi, an eyewitness who gave testimony to the mission and claims he was compelled to present the regime’s account of events. “Intelligence officers detained me and told me to lie. They told me to say that people were killed because of dust inhalation not chemicals. They threatened me, that if I didn’t agree, my family will not be safe. They told me my house was surrounded by the regime’s men,” he recounted. A particular finding within the 2019 OPCW report concerning Douma indicates: “Some witnesses stated that many people died in the hospital on 7 April as result of the heavy shelling and/or suffocation due to inhalation of smoke and dust.” Abdul Rahman states that he and his family faced ostracization from their community for years following his testimony. He encountered significant difficulty in securing employment. He now also advocates for a new investigation. “I want the truth to come out. I’m unable to sleep. I want justice for every parent.” Reporting contributions were also made by Aamir Peerzada, Sanjay Ganguly, and Leen Al Saadi. Copyright © 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the material found on external websites. Information regarding our policy on external links is available.