SNHR: Starving to death ……………. Moadamyeh’s besiege of the Damascus countryside

Prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights

The report presents aspects of the besiege imposed by government forces on the town of Moadamyeh since 18 November 2013.  It also details how government forces have displaced, starved, and shelled civilians.

The report is based on six testimonies from Moadamyeh residents including a doctor, an eyewitnesses who saw or heard the government forces arrest relatives and then execute them.

This report has been prepared by SNHR  team in the Damascus countryside and logistics team outside Syria in cooperation with the residents and local activists in Moadamyeh.

Moadamyeh is located west of Damascus city in East Ghouta, and is administratively affiliated with the Darya district of  Damascus countryside.  The current population is 12,000 people.

The town is bounded to the North by three regiments of the 4th Division and from the South-East of the Palestinian organization’s camp of the regime’s army, from West officers’ housing, Saraya Al-Sira’ brigades and Yusuf al-‘Azma barracks of regime’s forces, and East Mezzeh military airport.

Location map:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.461127,36.19222&num=1&t=h&z=15

The siege began on 18 November 2012, when Government forces surrounded the city on all sides with military checkpoints and military armored vehicles, and surrounded the entrance of the city and main roads with about 20 checkpoints of 4th Division and Air Force Intelligence, backed by tanks t-72 and t-82, and ZSU-23-4 “Shilka.”

Testimony of Mahmoud Abo Ali resident in Moadamyeh:

“The city is suffering from scarcity of all food materials, medical, drugs, and fuel, in addition to the heavy and daily shelling on the city, the regime also used chemical weapons, the people of this city have been exposed to different type of death, even starvation, recently 7 children died as a result of hunger, adding to cut off electricity, water and connections.”

You can communicate with the witness through his Skype account:

mrkazmoadamiaalsham

Testimony of Amir Almoadamani ,resident in Moadamyeh:

“Hospitals and Dispensaries are totally destroyed, almost 80% of schools and mosques are destroyed, and some razed to the ground, houses have not been spared of shelling, where 75% of the city has destroyed, hunger totally dominate the area, regime’s forces prevented the entry of food, medicines and fuel, tragedies in Moadamyeh greater than from being counted in numbers.”

You can communicate with the witness through his Skype account:

adsport19821

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Many Governments, senior United Nations officials, and human rights groups including Syrian Network for Human Rights call on the Syrian Government to grant humanitarian access to Qusayer during fighting in May and June/2013.  But the Security Council did not issue a statement on the right of access until the end of fighting because of Russian obstructionism.

The Syrian Government has rejected international calls for the evacuation of civilians and has refused to grant access to independent observers who were able to facilitate evacuation operations.

On 2 June, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that Syria will not grant the International Committee of the Red Cross access right of entrance until the end of hostilities.

The Syrian Government has blocked the entry of food, bread and flour, medicine, baby milk, and fuel, in a policy to starve the residents.  The so-called “people’s committees (militiamen)” prevent the entrance of United Nations assistance to the region, leading to the fully closure of markets.

Syrian Network for Human Rights’ director Fadel Abdulghani said: “Syrian regime carries out systematic starvation and impoverishment operations to push the residents to compare their conditions before they rise up against the Syrian regime and after, and which to return to their old conditions, where they used to eat and drink regardless tyranny, oppression, gagged, and humiliation of dignity, they do so in the areas that out of their control, as example price of bread bag is 20 Syrian Pound, while in Damascus countryside reach to 300 Syrian pound if any.”

SNHR documented the murder of 11 residents, including 10 children, who were deprived of food and medical supplies.  SNHR’s director said “They didn’t kill because of shelling or executions, but starved to death.”

The following link contain names, photos, and other victim’s details:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bu2UHeQ4xly4cBdVWaF3id8Z3eDJv5gy9aQ4K7nArNE/edit?usp=sharing

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Testimony of Mr. Yasser who visited large number of families that left Moadamyeh told us:

” I visited large more than 8 families who could get out of Moadamyeh by the Red Crescent, and inquired about many things like military, service, medical , humanitarian, relief and even personal  subjects…

Dealing between people in Moadamyah is by barter, not sale and purchase, because there are no Currency in the city

There is no food in the city, people eat herbs, leaves of trees and plants

Of course people there are literally skeletons have souls, People dies cause of hunger, relief materials don’t reach the city because of the siege imposed by government forces.

There are no water, no electricity, no communications.

Most of the families lost many of their children.”

In addition to shutting off electricity, water, and connections in the city by Syrian Government, Government Forces also with its daily shelling use various types of weapons destroyed 60% of the residential buildings in full, shelling often targeted public facilities (hospitals, schools, mosques, and clinics).

In addition to shelling the city with chemical weapons on 21 August 2013.

Medical Situation:

All of the hospitals, dispensaries, and medical centers were shelled, and do not function anymore, except for two small medical centers with five doctors and 40 nurses, suffer from shortage in medical materials.  Because of this, some manufactured equipments meant to be used once, are used several times after sterilization, and this exacerbated  injured conditions, amputated infected parts, and stopped treating other wounded.

Testimony of Dr. Omar Alhakim, works in Moadamyeh medical centre:

“The city has been severely suppressed by the security forces and militiamen since the beginning of the peaceful protests, about 10 months after FSA fended off the regime’s forces repeated attempts to storm the town.  They imposed a severe siege, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated , where we suffer from running out the food supplies in the city; nothing lefts for the residents to eat only plants, the city is totally empty from food, there are approximately 12,000 civilians trapped since 10 months including 7 thousand children and women, Electricity cut off from 10 months, flour is missing from 7 months, dry bread missing from 5 months, and now all Foodstuffs run out.

In addition to losing the entire medical substances, treatment the injuries with primitive tools and materials intended for one use by using them for several times, Drugs are almost non-existent, and antibiotic medications are only given one pill to a patient in extreme necessity conditions, the city is now at the gates of a real humanitarian disaster ”

You can communicate with the witness through his Skype account:

mohanad198938

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Educational status:

In Moadamyah 22 schools are closed, 15 of them are totally destroyed from shelling by government forces, the rest are extensively damaged.  They are out of service and cannot function anymore.

Photo of school on 1/3/2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drt3lncQFuE

11 mosques in the city, large parts of them destroyed from shelling.

Photo of Omari mosque on 14/8/2013:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBWXJGUWhaellRMzA/edit?usp=sharing

Initiative to bring out the civilians

On Saturday 16 October 2013, Red Cross members provided help to the residents to display from the city, Government forces warned the families that they should evacuate the city, because it was announced by the official media as military zone, during displacement and at the western entrance of the city, government forces targeted them by heavy artillery led to kill 1 victim and almost 20 injuries:

Victim: Ziad Shihabi, Moadamyah of Damascus countryside:

http://youtu.be/WZozYcncQIM

Testimony of  media activist Murad Alshami, who was present while trying to evacuate the civilians:

You can communicate with the witness by Skype account:

Morad.773

“The city of Moadamyah have been besieged since the beginning of Daria battle, because of the very important location of the city, as it is between Mezzah military airport and Sumarieah housing and Eastern neighborhood, officers’ housing, Saraya Al-Sira’ brigades and Yusuf al-‘Azma suburb, 4th Division and their housings and regiment 100.

Moadamyah is military zone, there is no entrance or exist way since the beginning of Daria battle.

That’s mean there is no military barrier for inspection or otherwise…. snipers at all entrance, transit from and to the city is forbidden … that’s mean its prison anyone try to get out  immediately sniped, and targeted by Shilka armored , heavy machine guns, thermal scope snipers, and Alwite People’s committee barriers.

From four months ago, we have identified more than 10 dates for getting out the civilians with United Nation Commission.

There were many connections with Red Cross, where they pledged to enter the aids, but they didn’t enter foods or unwind siege.

Red cross and ministry of national reconciliation intervened in one thing which is city evacuation

Nun Fadia Allaham entered the city and asked for guarantees, I was one of those who helped her and secured her, as she can take out whomever she wants, we told her to act as she wants.

First day 13/10/2013, about 1000 civilians came out, the next day almost 2000 civilians gathered , but only 500 of them could leave and they told the rest for tomorrow .

when the people gathered, Fadia and her friends arrived, she told us that she prepared buses for men to go out not just women, they told her continue with children and women temporarily

After a while, almost 10 minutes, shelling on Free Syrian Army barriers, which was almost 200 miters away from regime’s barriers ,was started, then shelling on civilians who were trapped in the middle, victims were from FSA then women and children.

Thousands of civilians were trapped in the city.”
Testimony of one of the displaced, where she was there during the shelling, and refused to disclose her identity

“First thing the agreement became between day and night, no one knew about it ..

who arrange the agreement is two persons of Moadamyah ( Samir and Ali Ghandour ), for sure they lived outside Moadamyah, but they found that this is the best solution, the mediation between the regime and Moadamyah’s residents were Red Cross and Nun Fadia Allaham.

Indeed the first three days, many civilians have been evacuated

good number of them

who get out alone survived, but those who rode regime’s buses , they prevent them to get out the places where they kept them until they have someone out of Moadamyah to sign guarantee for them, ( that’s mean if he/she has someone to ensure they will let him out, if not he/she will stay )

When people get out of Moadamyah, security forces checked the ID’s to see if they have their names or not, many detention cases took place.

Of course who get out not only from Moadamyah, also from Daria

next day almost 3000 civilians tried to go out, and gathered at buses point.

Then shelling from 4th division started on this area, they were in, which is near Asia factories at Jdidt Artouz side ( the west side of the city ) , particularly Arbaeen highway.

First, the regime shelled by one mortar, amost 50 meter far away from civilians.

Team of Red Cross and Nun withdrew directly.

after their withdrawal, artillery shelling on civilians started, many of them fell between victims and injuries

Free Syrian Army intervened, and tried to evacuate civilians, ambulance injuries, and take victims.

Clashes between FSA and regime’s forces that tried to take civilians as humans shields, the civilians already are humans shields in this area, because it is occupied by the regime…

Two of the government forces were dead, and five get injured

FSA eventually could move civilians of Daria and Moadamyah to inside of Moadamyah via fields

Fields area usually one of the most targeted areas, because usually FSA holed there.

That’s mean they back again to worse besiege, shelling was continuing in that moment very badly.

Who went out by his car alone, he could get his relatives, people who went with regime, they took them to a school in Qudsia suburb.”

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Evidences:

Video shows civilians, children and women, used as human shields in Moadamyah during their displacement:

http://youtu.be/YBDPt_ZGGTg

Video shows injuries from shelling civilians gathering’s point during their displacement with Red Cross:

http://youtu.be/Am6QoYOQsNM

http://youtu.be/DQK-yNCX-Qw

Video shows shelling on displacements gathering point:

http://youtu.be/vpFjjg7ti8c

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Government forces imposed a severe besiege on these villages, which makes it extremely difficult to provide medical and food supplies, and deprived hundreds of families who now must leave and move to safe areas.  This is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law governing conflict in Syria, where they should allow the provision ofof food and medicine, and if there is a need to take the approval from the Syrian Government and also allow them to carry out inspections of those convoys, but it is illegal to prevent these convoys abusively as they are now, and are considered as a form of collective punishment of the civilians.  Here, the international community must intervene urgently to provide humanitarian relief in Moadamyah and save them from being starved to death.

Exert real pressure on the Syrian Government to give all medical and food aids and to allow civilians to leave.  They should pressure the Syrian Government to obey them and hand over its stock of chemical weapons under threat of force.

A Video Satire of Women’s Driving Restrictions in Saudi Arabia Goes Viral

Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi women campaigning for the right to drive in Saudi Arabia have received support from a group of Saudi comedians whose satirical view of the ban forbidding women in Saudi Arabia from getting behind the wheel of a car continues to draw international attention to the campaign for women’s rights.

“No Women, No Drive” has received more than 6 million views since it was posted to YouTube over the weekend (Photo courtesy of the New York Times)

Their video, No Woman, No Drive, is a satirical play on the Bob Marley classic song “No Woman, No Cry,” has gone viral YouTube, receiving more than 6.5 million views since it was posted on Saturday.

One of the video’s creators, Saudi Arabian performer Hisham Fageeh, is well known in the Arab-speaking world for his comic videos on YouTube, which often contain a social commentary.

The tune mocks the country’s ultraconservative restrictions that ban women from operating vehicle and require them to be in the company of a male guardian for several activities. The video also mocked the claim by one Saudi cleric that if women were allowed to operate a vehicle it could damage their ovaries and affect reproduction. Sheikh Saleh Al-Loheidan’s, a leading figure in Saudi Arabia, argued that “if a woman drives a car, it could have a negative physiological impact … Medical studies show that it would automatically affect a woman’s ovaries and that it pushes the pelvis upward.” He argued that the ban prevents reproductive problems.  Al-Loheidan said, “We find that for women who continuously drive cars, their children are born with varying degrees of clinical problems.”

Well known on the Arabic-speaking web for his funny YouTube videos, which often contain a degree of social commentary, Hisam Fageeh has posted a new video spoofing his country’s practice of forbidding women from attaining driver’s licenses. Fageeh parodies the Bob Marley song “No woman, no cry” with lyrics lampooning Saudi Arabia’s car-related gender restrictions, which Saudi women are challenging this week with a mass protest drive.

Fageeh continued to mock the country’s ban on Monday after at least 60 women took to the road in protest of the ban on over the weekend. In a post on Twitter, he jokingly suggested that young, unpredictable, teenage male drivers are more of a danger to the public than adult women drivers. He tweeted “Just got hit by another car driven by a teenage male while doing a phone interview about #NoWomanNoDrive” with the hashtags #NoTeenagerNoDrive, #Saudi and #Irony.

Tamador Alyami, an activist and blogger in the city of Jeddah, who drove last week, said she appreciated the video and appreciated the satirical comedy at this stressful time for the women’s rights movement. She said, “It cracked me up. I laughed, and I shared it with everybody. I wanted it to have the same effect on them because it eased up a lot of the tension I was feeling.”

For further information, please see:

CNN International – Saudi Cleric Warns Driving Could Damage Women’s Ovaries – 30 October 2013

Huffington Post UK – Saudi Comic’s ‘No Woman, No Drive’ Video Goes Viral – 30 October 2013

The New York Times – Saudi Men Sing ‘No Woman, No Drive’ In Mock Homage To Ban On Female Drivers – 30 October 2013

The Daily Beast – ‘No Woman, No Drive’: Behind the Viral Video – 28 October 2013

The Washington Post – ‘No Woman, No Drive’: Saudi Arabian music video spoofs ban on female drivers – 27 October 2013

 

 

 

Thousands Urgently Need Pain Relief in Senegal

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

DAKAR, Senegal – Human Rights Watch has released a report stating that thousands of patients in Senegal suffer from excruciating pain every year without any type of relief.  The reason is due to unnecessarily restrictive government regulations and poor training for healthcare workers, which impede their effective medical treatment.

Patient in Senegal suffering without any pain relief (photo courtesy of Angela Chung, HRW).

Patients are in need of pain relief to reduce suffering from prolonged illnesses, like cancer, but only a few hundred have access to medications, such as morphine.

Human Rights Watch says each year 70,000 people need this pain relief and that Senegal needs to integrate palliative care measures into its regular health care system.

This came from HRW’s 85-page report titled, “Abandoned in Agony: Cancer and the Struggle for Pain Treatment in Senegal.”

Morphine is an essential and inexpensive medication for treatment of severe pain, but Senegal only imports about one kilogram of morphine each year – enough to treat only 200 cancer patients. HRW also found that morphine is unavailable outside of Dakar, Senegal’s capital.

Frequent shortages limit access to the medication in the capital as well.

The reports also explain that an estimated 80 percent of patients with advanced HIV suffer from moderate to severe pain throughout the course of their illness.

Worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) claims that approximately 80 percent of people have no or insufficient access to treatment for such pain.

“Many thousands of cancer patients and other Senegalese suffer unnecessary agony because they can’t get morphine to treat their pain,” said Angela Chung, health and human rights fellow at Human Rights Watch.

“Senegalese officials should ask themselves whether they would want their own parents or children – or themselves – to suffer such pain when there is a cheap and effective way to relieve it.”

The Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance says the situation is particularly bad in sub-Saharan Arica, where only six countries – South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Swaziland – have made palliative care programs part of their national health plans.

“Palliative care in Senegal, and a lot of sub-Saharan countries in general, is very poorly developed because it’s not seen as a priority,” Chung said. “I think people might erroneously assume that cancer is something you get in a developed country, but it’s actually a huge problem in Africa and it’s increasing every year.”

People suffering from disease must often travel as much as 10 to 15 hours just for some pain relief.

HRW interviewed more than 170 patients, family members, medical personnel, and officials about the problem. Many patients, however, said they were in too much pain even to be interviewed.

“I am in pain 24 hours a day,” said a 47-year-old man in Dakar who has prostate cancer and suffers during morphine shortages.

“You cannot believe the pain I have all over my body. It is in my bones. I cannot have a real life without my medication. I try to bear the pain for 2 or 3 days, and when I cannot handle it I will take one pill . . . I went to all the pharmacies and they do not sell it.”

For more information, please visit: 

Human Rights Watch – Senegal: Thousands Urgently Need Pain Relief – 24 October 2013
Tolerance – Senegal: Thousands Urgently Need Pain Relief – 24 October 2013
Leuk Senegal – Senegal: Thousands Urgently Need Pain Relief – 70,000 a Year Suffer Torment for Lack of Treatment – 25 October 2013
RSS Pump News – Senegal – Thousands Urgently Need Pain Relief – 70000 a Year Suffer Torment – 24 October 2013
My Legal Right – Senegal: Thousands Urgently Need Pain Relief – 24 October 2013
allAfrica – Senegal: Rights Group Presses for Chronic Pain Care in Senegal – 25 October 2013

Lebanese Military Deployed to Tripoli Amid Rising Community Violence

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon–Two people were killed Monday in northern Lebanon in a fight that broke out between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime and the Lebanese military, which is struggling to control tensions and prevent outbreaks of violence stemming from the Syrian civil war.

Flag’s flown in pro-Assad demonstration by supporters of Hezbollah (Photo courtesy of The Jerusalem Post)

Monday’s violence was the latest in a series of clashes that have broken out since last Tuesday. 17 people have been killed and more than 100 people wounded since the violence began last week. The fighting broke out in the Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen districts of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city located about 30 miles from the Syrian border.

Communities in Lebanon are deeply divided between supporters and opponents of the Assad regime. Supporters of the Hezbollah movement within Lebanon have sent fighters and resources into Syria to support the Assad regime while Sunni organizations have also sent fighters and smuggled weapons and other resources into Syria to support Syrian Rebels.

Lebanon’s interim government deployed the Lebanese army to Tripoli on Monday in response to last week’s violence. The conflict in Syria has exacerbated tensions in Lebanese communities, supporters of Hezbollah and supporters of Sunni Organizations have accused each other of using the city of Tripoli as a base for organizing and sending, fighters, weapons and other resources across the border into Syria. Lebanon’s acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that “security forces will take every step to put an end to the violence and chaos.”

The sudden influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanese communities, including Tripoli, has raised community tensions and placed new strains on the state. Syrian refugees now make up a quarter of Lebanon’s population. The refugee crisis has spread the countries institutional systems thin and raised tensions in the region.

While Lebanon has remained in relative state of peace following the 2006 civil war the influx of Syrian refugees into the state since the start of the Syrian civil war has put new strains on state resources and has sparked a rise in tensions between communities.

By this time last year 300,000 Syrian Refugees has crossed the border into Lebanon. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expects that by early next year, two million refugees will have crossed into Lebanon. One in four people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee, the sudden influx of people into the Lebanon population has left rescues stretched thin in the state, and the crime rate has increased by 30% over the past year.

Lebanon is still struggling to support 400,000 Palestinian refugees who remain in the country, many of whom are livening in desperate poverty and in communities where violence is common. As a result of this bitter experience Lebanon has so far failed to provide basic services to Syrian refugees, unlike Jordan, which has accepted a large number so Syrian refugees, Lebanon has so far refused to provide refugee camps. Shelters cannot have more than a basic timber-and-plastic frame, so far the building of permanent and semi-permanent structures by refugees has been prohibited.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – Lebanon army deploys amid violence in Tripoli – 28 October 2013

Reuters – Two die in northern Lebanon in spillover from Syria war – 28 October 2013

The Guardian – Lebanon suffers under the strain of a refugee crisis now out of control – 26 October 2013

Jerusalem Post – Syrian civil war spreads to Lebanese city of Tripoli – 27 October 2013

Magnitsky’s Mother Sues Russian Prosecutor Who Organized the Cover-Up of Her Son’s Death

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Distribution

29 October 2013 – Nataliya Magnitskaya, the mother of the late whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, has sued Russian Deputy Prosecutor Victor Grin for his role in exonerating all Interior Ministry officials who falsely arrested and tortured her son in custody. The lawsuit will be heard on Wednesday, 30 October 2013, at 11 am at the Moscow City Court(http://www.mos–gorsud.ru/sudz/apellechionnaya_instance/ua/?pn=13).

“The conclusion by Deputy General Prosecutor of Russia …unquestionably violates the rights of Mr Magnitsky’s mother ..and is in deep contradiction with the conclusions by members of the President’s Council on Human Rights,” says the complaint filed by Mrs Magnitskaya’s lawyer.

In his own review of the case, Deputy General Prosecutor of Russia Victor Grin stated that no violations were found in the acts of Interior Ministry officials on the Magnitsky case. It was issued on the request of the Russian Investigative Committee in 2011 and was used by the Investigative Committee to justify not opening any criminal investigation into those officials.

A local district court in Moscow earlier refused Mrs Magnitskaya’sapplication. The refusal was issued by district court judge Igor Alisov, who also posthumously convicted the late Magnitsky in July in the first ever trial of a dead man in Russian history. Judge Alisov has since been promoted by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Moscow City Court.

The lawsuit filed by Mrs Magnitskaya’s lawyer also asserts that the decision by judge Alisov was backdated and that it was then covered up.

“The decree [by judge Alisov] is unlawful, there are signs of falsification in its issuance,” says the complaint filed with the Moscow City Court.

According to the complaint, judge Alisov told Mrs Magnitskaya’s lawyer on 17 April 2013 that he had not yet considered the complaint. A month later, judge Alisov sent a refusal to consider the complaint dated 27 March 2013, i.e. three weeks before the meeting with the lawyer.

A probe was then carried out by the Tverskoi district court chair Ms Solopova into this discrepancy which found “carelessness” in the acts of judge Alisov. The probe was based on the “oral conversation held with judge Alisov on 6 September 2013” in which judge Alisov explained the identified discrepancy by “the work overload, the lack of attention during the production of the court order.”

The challenge brought by Mrs Magnitskaya is one in a series of lawsuits in which she seeks to compel the Russian state to bring to justice those responsible for the arrest, torture and murder of her 37-year old son.

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia