Douma victims remember the horror, the coercion

DAMASCUS

Survivors of chemical weapons attacks in Douma, a town in the Eastern Ghouta region of Damascus, have accused the ousted regime of Bashar Assad of forcing them to lie to international authorities about the attacks.

The Assad regime’s widely condemned use of chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta in August 2013 led to global outrage and the US threat of military intervention.

Under pressure, the regime signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, allowing the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to operate in Syria, with Russian mediation.

Despite these measures, the regime continued to use chemical weapons, including an April 2018 attack in Douma during a siege of the city. According to UN figures, the attack claimed around 50 lives, mostly women and children, and left hundreds suffering from exposure to toxic gases.

Forced to survive underground

During the siege, Douma’s residents and opposition forces relied on a network of underground tunnels for survival. Makeshift shelters included a field hospital where doctors treated victims of the attacks.

Orthopedic surgeon dr. Mumtaz Al Hemesh, who worked at the hospital, told Anadolu that he faced immense pressure from the ousted regime’s secret services to change his testimony about the use of chemical weapons.

As civilians were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta in “green buses”, Al Hemesh said regime agents warned him not to leave or his family in Damascus would be in danger.

Al Hemesh said he was placed under house arrest in a Damascus hotel until the last evacuation buses left. Interviews he gave to the Russian regime and media were edited to deny the use of chemical weapons, he added.

“When we went to testify before the UN investigators, regime agents put listening devices in our pockets,” Al Hemesh said. He criticized the international community for ignoring the atrocities in the Eastern Ghouta region of Damascus and in Douma and focusing exclusively on the use of chemical weapons.

Abu Ali, a resident who lost his wife and four children in the 2018 attack, said the family had taken shelter in a basement when the chemical agent spread like powder throughout the area.

“I went out to get food for my family. When I returned, I saw people dying at the entrance to the shelter. Then I passed out.”

Ali said the regime forced him to deny the use of chemical weapons, prompting him to claim in Russian and Syrian media that his family had died in the bombings.

He also said he was imprisoned for 18 months in various detention centers, adding that he was tortured for six years by a regime-affiliated officer who tried to suppress the truth about the chemical attack.

“I want justice for my children,” Abu Ali said. His children, who were killed in the attack, were Omer, 12; Ali, 11; Muhammed, 10 years old; and Cudi, 8.

He continues to suffer from heart problems caused by chemical exposure.

Evidence destroyed

Residents of Douma have also accused the regime of erasing evidence of chemical weapons use.

Akram Killis, who was exposed to chemical agents and passed out near his home, said the regime used construction equipment to exhume bodies and landscaped the area to deceive international inspectors.

“They told the inspectors: “Look, there are no bodies here,” Killis said, adding that he suffers permanent health problems, including hair loss and skin conditions, from the attacks.

Residents also revealed that the regime planted fake chemical bombs at the site to frame opposition forces. Survivor accounts suggest that these stage props were presented to the media as part of the regime’s disinformation campaign.

Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups seized control of Damascus on December 8, ending the Baath Party regime that had been in power since 1963.

The takeover came after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters captured key cities in a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks.

* Written by Seda Sevencan

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