Syria’s medical terrorism

Andrew Leber and Nicholas Morley explain in their article in The New Arab that “the norms of war codified in the Geneva Conventions have enshrined the notion that medical personnel be exempt from the grim logic of conflict.” However, they argue that “in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere, powerful nations, their regional proxies, and their allies have openly targeted medical professionals, undermining the core beliefs espoused at Geneva some hundred and fifty years ago.”

“The most blatant and appallingly systematic of these violations are those perpetrated by military forces loyal to the Assad regime in Syria,” they argue.

The writers explain that since 2011, “the Assad regime has refused to allow impartial medical treatment of civilians, forcing medical professionals operating in regime-controlled territory to either become complicit in regime torture, retire quietly, or escape to rebel territory,” adding that in 2012, the regime passed a law legalizing the targeting of medical facilities in rebel-held territories.

The writers then quote Physicians for Human Rights who reported that “over the course of the war there have been 382 attacks on healthcare facilities, 344 of which were carried out by pro-Assad or Russian forces.”

Even though “targeting healthcare in rebel territory is now an accepted strategy of war for the regime and its supporters,” but both the Assad regime and Russia steadfastly refuse to acknowledge their part in the attacks, the writers explain, pointing out that Russia “joined a May 2016 UN resolution that condemned attacks on healthcare workers.”

“The barefaced hypocrisy of such a gesture, while not particularly out of character, is barbaric and a black mark upon international law,” the writers state.