Syria: Medicine as a Weapon of Persecution, Doctor Testimony

TRANSCRIPT:"I'm a Syrian doctor. I was treating the wounded in Syria. At first, when the demonstrations started, we sent the injured to public hospitals. But then we were told that injured demonstrators were being tortured or left untreated. Many were even killed. Doctors are working in difficult security conditions and in tough medical conditions, too. Makeshift hospitals tend to be one or two rooms somewhere near a demonstration area. In addition to that, there's all the security pressure and difficulty in reaching certain areas. Doctors who treat the wounded are also being harassed by security forces. Security is what worries doctors most. It's difficult. The risk of being arrested is big. But despite that risk, many doctors are putting their lives in danger in order to fulfill their medical oath. It is difficult to find sterilized medical materials. Due to our limited means and the numbers of wounded, we have to resort to rudimentary medical practices. We are forced to use medical materials and perform medical acts that are far from the safe surgical procedures we would usually carry out. Activists and protestors don't really have any medical resources. They don't have ambulances, for example. The injured are transported by their friends and fellow protesters. When we receive serious casualties, a patient who needs to be hospitalized, we have two options: Either we let him die, or we send him to hospital not knowing what will become of him. Many hospitals are encircled and placed under tight control when security forces are informed that a casualty is due to arrive from a demonstration area."


Testimonies from injured people and doctors from across Syria were collected by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff between January 30 and February 6, 2012. MSF is not authorized to operate inside Syria at present and thus is unable to fully verify the information collected here. However, given the recurring nature, consistency, and severity of the acts described in these testimonies, MSF has decided to make them public. For security reasons, names and locations have been withheld. Read more - http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=5755&cat=press-...