Ghouta chemical attack
The Ghouta chemical attack was a chemical attack carried out by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in the early hours of 21 August 2013 in Ghouta, Syria during the Syrian civil war.[17] Two opposition-controlled areas in the suburbs around Damascus were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent sarin.[16] Estimates of the death toll range from at least 281 people[3] to 1,729.[15] The attack was the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran–Iraq War.[20][21]
Ghouta chemical attack
Ghouta, Syria
- Eastern Ghouta: 33°31′26″N 36°21′25″E / 33.524°N 36.357°E[1]
- Western Ghouta: 33°27′36″N 36°11′49″E / 33.460°N 36.197°E[1]
21 August 2013[2]
Bashar and Maher al-Assad and two other Syrian senior government officials charged with complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes[19]
French arrest warrants for the Assad brothers and the two other officials[19]
Evidence of the attack[edit]
Inspectors from the United Nations Mission already in Syria to investigate an earlier alleged chemical weapons attack[22]: 6 [23] requested access to sites in Ghouta the day after the attack[24][25][26][27] and called for a ceasefire to allow inspectors to visit the Ghouta sites.[24] The Syrian Ba'athist government granted the UN's request on 25 August,[28][29][30] and inspectors visited and investigated Moadamiyah in Western Ghouta the next day and Zamalka and Ein Tarma in Eastern Ghouta on 28 and 29 August.[22]: 6 [31][32]
The UN investigation team confirmed "clear and convincing evidence" of the use of sarin delivered by surface-to-surface rockets,[22][33] and a 2014 report by the UN Human Rights Council found that "significant quantities of sarin were used in a well-planned indiscriminate attack targeting civilian-inhabited areas, causing mass casualties. The evidence available concerning the nature, quality and quantity of the agents used on 21 August indicated that the perpetrators likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military, as well as the expertise and equipment necessary to safely manipulate large amount of chemical agents."[34] It also stated that the chemical agents used in the Khan al-Assal chemical attack earlier in 2013 "bore the same unique hallmarks as those used in Al-Ghouta".[35][34][36]
The Syrian opposition[37] as well as many governments, the Arab League and the European Union[38][39][40] stated the attack was carried out by forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.[41] The Syrian and Russian governments blamed the opposition for the attack,[37] the Russian government calling the attack a false flag operation by the opposition to draw foreign powers into the civil war on the rebels' side.[42] Åke Sellström, the leader of the UN Mission, characterized government explanations of rebel chemical weapons acquisition as unconvincing, resting in part upon "poor theories".[43]
Several countries including France, the United Kingdom and the United States debated whether to intervene militarily against Syrian Ba'athist government forces.[44][45][46][47] On 6 September 2013, the United States Senate filed a resolution to authorize use of military force against the Syrian military in response to the Ghouta attack.[48] On 10 September 2013, the military intervention was averted when the Syrian government accepted a US–Russian negotiated deal to turn over "every single bit" of its chemical weapons stockpiles for destruction and declared its intention to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.[49][50]
In June 2018 the OPCW noted with concern that the Syrian Arab Republic had in reality neither declared nor destroyed all of its chemical weapons and chemical weapons production facilities.[51]
Aftermath[edit]
The continuous fighting has severely limited the quality of medical care for injured survivors of the attack. A month after the attack, approximately 450 survivors still required medical attention for lingering symptoms such as respiratory and vision problems.[122] By early October 2013, the 13,000 residents of Moadhamiya, one of the places targeted in the August attack, had been surrounded by pro-government forces and under siege for five months. Severe malnourishment and medical emergencies become pressing as all supply lines had stopped.[123] Care for chronic symptoms of sarin exposure had become "just one among a sea of concerns".[122]
As countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom debated their response to the attacks, they encountered significant popular and legislative resistance to military intervention. In particular, British Prime Minister David Cameron's request to the House of Commons to use military force was declined by a 285–272 margin.[124][125] UK government policy subsequently focused on providing humanitarian assistance inside Syria and to refugees in neighboring countries.[126]
Within a month of the attacks, Syria agreed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and allow all its stockpiles to be destroyed.[127] The destruction began under OPCW supervision on 6 October 2013.[128] On 23 June 2014, the last shipment of Syria's declared chemical weapons was shipped out of the country for destruction.[129] By 18 August 2014, all toxic chemicals were destroyed aboard the US naval vessel MV Cape Ray.[130]
Nine months after the attack, there is evidence that mothers from the affected areas are giving birth to children with defects and as stillborn.[131][132]
Reactions[edit]
Domestic[edit]
Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi was quoted by the official state news agency, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), as saying that the government did not and would not use such weapons, if in fact they even existed. Al-Zoubi said, "everything that has been said is absurd, primitive, illogical and fabricated. What we say is what we mean: there is no use of such things (chemical weapons) at all, at least not by the Syrian army or the Syrian state, and it's easy to prove and it is not that complicated."[133] SANA called the reports of chemical attacks as "untrue and designed to derail the ongoing UN inquiry". A Syrian military official appeared on state television denouncing the reports as "a desperate opposition attempt to make up for rebel defeats on the ground".[75] Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad declared it a tactic by the rebels to turn around the civil war which he said "they were losing" and that, though the government had admitted to having stocks of chemical weapons, stated they would never be used "inside Syria".[134] Democratic Union Party leader Salih Muslim said he doubted that the Syrian government carried out the chemical attack.[135]
The National Coalition called the attack a "coup de grace that kills all hopes for a political solution in Syria".[136] In a statement on Facebook, the Coventry-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-government activist network, blamed the attack on the Syrian military and said of the incident that "we assure the world that silence and inaction in the face of such gross and large-scale war crimes, committed in this instance by the Syrian regime, will only embolden the criminals to continue in this path. The international community is thus complicit in these crimes because of its [polarisation], silence and inability to work on a settlement that would lead to the end of the daily bloodshed in Syria."[137]
Evidence[edit]
Witness statements and victim symptoms[edit]
Syrian human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh, who was present in Eastern Ghouta, stated, "Hours [after the shelling], we started to visit the medical points in Ghouta to where injured were removed, and we couldn't believe our eyes. I haven't seen such death in my whole life. People were lying on the ground in hallways, on roadsides, in hundreds."[174] Several medics working in Ghouta reported the administration of large quantities of atropine, a common antidote for nerve agent toxicity, to treat victims.[175][176]
Doctors Without Borders said the three hospitals it supports in Eastern Ghouta reported receiving roughly 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" over less than three hours during the early morning of 21 August. Of those, 355 died.[177] The Local Coordination Committees of Syria claimed that of the 1,338 victims, 1,000 were in Zamalka, of which 600 bodies were transferred to medical points in other towns and 400 remained at a Zamalka medical center.[11] Some of the fatalities were rebel fighters.[178] The deadliness of the attack is believed to have been increased due to civilians reacting to the chemical attack as if it was typical government bombardment. For conventional artillery and rocket attacks, residents usually went to the basements of buildings, where in this case the heavier-than-air sarin sank into these below-ground, poorly ventilated areas.[179] Some of the victims died while sleeping.[76]
Abu Omar of the Free Syrian Army told The Guardian that the rockets involved in the attack were unusual because "you could hear the sound of the rocket in the air but you could not hear any sound of explosion" and no obvious damage to buildings occurred.[180] Human Rights Watch's witnesses reported "symptoms and delivery methods consistent with the use of chemical nerve agents".[23] Activists and local residents contacted by The Guardian said that "the remains of 20 rockets [thought to have been carrying neurotoxic gas] were found in the affected areas. Many [remained] mostly intact, suggesting that they did not detonate on impact and potentially dispersed gas before hitting the ground."[181]
Legal status[edit]
Attack[edit]
At the time of the attack, Syria was not a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention. However, Human Rights Watch argues that the Ghouta chemical attack was illegal under a different international agreement: