Syria attacks hospitals, denies healthcare as "weapon of war" - UN

[Sand Wind]

Last edited Fri Sep 13, 2013, 06:01 PM - Edit history (3)

Source: Reuters

GENEVA, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Syrian government forces are bombing and shelling hospitals in rebel-held areas to stop sick and wounded getting treatment, acts which constitute war crimes, U.N. investigators said on Friday.

Fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad purposefully denied people medical care as a "weapon of war", they added in a report. They also had details of a smaller number of incidents when rebel forces attacked hospitals.

"The pattern of attacks indicates that government forces deliberately targeted hospitals and medical units to gain military advantage by depriving anti-government armed groups and their perceived supporters of medical assistance," the report said.

"Intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places containing the sick and the wounded and against medical units using the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem is a war crime in non-international armed conflict," the independent investigators said, referring to a legal term for civil war.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/13/us-syria-crisis-health-idUSBRE98C0NG20130913

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"HARROWING ACCOUNTS"


A must read

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/13/us-syria-crisis-health-idUSBRE98C0NG20130913

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Ethnic cleansing by Assad's Alawite ethno-religious sect (11 % of the population). nt

[joshcryer]

2. Russia increasingly boxed in.

Syria has not followed the rules of war. Neither have the rebels mind you, but who represents them? Anyone would disavow it.

[KamaAina]

3. Solution: Take Assad alive

and whisk him off to The Hague.

[Sand Wind]

4. I hope it will happen...

But if he don't want to come by itself, we send him a subpoena ?

[KansDem]

5. "...we send him a subpoena ?"

How about a drone?

[Sand Wind]

6. But, that is bad !

Drones are bad.

[ButterflyBlood]

29. Easier said than done

Who's going to arrest him? That's not happening unless the rebels fully topple his regime.

[joshcryer]

8. the website is citing reuters

[uppityperson]

9. I was wrong, the linked place is Thomas Reuters Foundation. I was wrong, so ignore me.

sorry

[Maedhros]

10. Clearly a matter for the UN. [n/t]

[bvar22]

11. I'm glad the UN is investigating and reporting this.

The WHOLE story is not near as one sided as what is presented in the OP.

#1) The UN Investigators are NOT On Site in Syria, but interviewing refugees as they flee Syria.

#2) This does NOT mean that we automatically need to help "The Rebels".

Although the scale of documented abuses by rebel forces appeared to be far smaller, there were increasing indications some armed groups failed to respect medical personnel and neutrality of health facilities, the report said.

The al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra group detained the head doctor of a field hospital in northern Aleppo city for several days in April 2013 after he refused to display their banner in the hospital, it said.

The Free Syrian Army attacked the National Hospital in Deraa in May 2013, apparently because 50 patients were believed to be linked to the government, according to the report.

This is a World Class HUMAN tragedy happening in Syria, for many reasons.
Adding our Bombs & Missiles to this cauldron of misery and destruction won't help at this point.
Lets do something that WILL help,
like sponsoring a World Effort to help the refugees.

[joshcryer]

18. I have no doubt that if the rebels had Russian bought heavy arms...

...it'd be lopsided in the other direction. This is a brutal civil war, like in the US Civil War, where entire churches were filled with civilians and burned to the ground. The only significant difference is that we have the Geneva Conventions and War Crimes are clearly laid out under the 4th Geneva Convention. As well as the Responsibility to Protect. So basically we're supposed to know better. Civilian protection should be paramount. If Assad wanted to be the good guy in this he'd use non-lethal means to go after the rebels up until the point they were positively seen as shooting back, then they get shot at. Indiscriminate shelling of areas where they are is just insanity.

If I'd wager a guess the civilian massacres were either rouges seeking vengeance or like US military personnel who have gone off the deep end, insane fuckers who just were out for blood (Robert Bales comes to mind). If they were ordered by the top that will come out.

[Ghost Dog]

12. "stop sick and wounded getting treatment, acts which constitute war crimes,"

Well. if they can't pay, that would be just like in USA, right? Wrong?

[djean111]

13. That was my thought - we deny health care cheerfully if there is no money.

I am NOT making light of Syria, I am saying that it should be a crime to deny health care here.

[Ghost Dog]

14. Indeed.

Although... There's always a price to pay. Better we all pay together, for that much sense of 'security'.

[Sand Wind]

16. you may have your answer here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017145459

[joshcryer]

20. This reminds me of the Bahrain medics who were arrested en masse.

They were helping protesters and then maligned as protesters themselves.

In other words, it's unclear whether the medical professionals here were against the rebels or making a show for the military bringing the rebels in. He doesn't want to wind up dead, most likely.

[Sand Wind]

21. Im mostly sure the doctor where doing this under constraint.nt

[joshcryer]

19. It is illegal to deny life threatening treatment to someone in the US.

Fact.

[Sand Wind]

22. Great ! Nt

[NickB79]

24. We deny it all the time though

We deny treatment to people with cancer or heart disease all the time when they're still treatable, until they're terminal. THEN we'll give token treatment in the ER to those patients when they finally come in with days or weeks left to live.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

26. Yes, our health care system in inadequate

But that's different than blowing up hospitals.

[warrant46]

15. You forgot about the incubators being overturned

And the occupants stomped into goo

[Wilms]

17. Well, this is a UN report.

Not Hill and Knowlton.

I agree there are a lot of salespeople pushing for international actions. But I'm OK with hearing from the UN.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

27. Doesn't Russia use Ketchum Public Relations?/nt

[EX500rider]

23. 1 manufactured atrocity does not mean all subsequent ones will be n/t

[daleo]

25. But it means any given one could be, so you have to be careful

In my life, I get awfully careful after I have the wool pulled over my eyes even once.

[Trillo]

28. Kinda interesting to compare denial of medical care as a weapon of war

to the inability, due to poverty, to afford medical care, to avoid the doctor because you can't make the copays. I guess War comes in all shapes and sizes, and rulers don't necessarily need physical bombs to conduct such a war.