Health Care Workers Under Attack in Syria, Doctors Say
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Version 0 of 1. Syrian government forces in the country’s civil war have systematically attacked doctors and other medical workers in rebel-held areas and are responsible for 90percent of the confirmed assaults on health care facilities in the country, Physicians for Human Rights, a leading advocacy group, said in a report released on Wednesday. While the United Nations and a number of rights organizations have documented the collapse of Syria’s health care system because of the war — which has led to an acute shortage of doctors and an increase in preventable diseases, including the reappearance of scourges like polio — the report, which is essentially an annotated map, represents what its creators called the most comprehensive look at attacks on medical-aid providers, hospitals and clinics since the war began. Such violence, when carried out in a widespread and organized way, can constitute a crime against humanity under international law. “Syria is among the worst examples of targeting medical care as a weapon of war, and we must not allow these rampant abuses to become the new norm in conflict,” Donna McKay, the executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement. There was no immediate reaction from the Syrian government, but it has repeatedly rejected criticism from rights groups about abuses in the war and has asserted that most of the violence has been carried out by members of the armed opposition, who are routinely described as terrorists in Syria’s official news media. The Physicians for Human Rights map covers March 2011 to March 2014, and will be regularly updated. It provides links, with videos and photographs, that corroborate where attacks took place and who was responsible. |