Syria: Medicine Used As Weapon Of Persecution

9 February 2012 – The Syrian regime is conducting a campaign of unrelenting
repression against people wounded in demonstrations and the medical workers
trying to treat them, the international medical humanitarian organisation
Médecins Sans Frontières said today.

While Médecins Sans Frontières cannot work directly in Syria, it has
collected testimonies from wounded patients treated outside the country and
from doctors inside Syria. The testimonies, collected from several people
from various parts of the country, point to a crackdown on the provision of
urgent medical care for people wounded in the ongoing violence in Syria.

"In Syria today, wounded patients and doctors are pursued and risk torture
and arrest at the hands of the security services," said Marie-Pierre Allié,
Médecins Sans Frontières president. "Medicine is being used as a weapon of
persecution."

Most of the wounded do not go to public hospitals, for fear of being
tortured or arrested. When a wounded person is admitted to a hospital, a
false name is sometimes used to hide his or her identity. Doctors
sometimes provide a false diagnosis to help patients elude security forces,
which search for patients with wounds consistent with those sustained in
protests and demonstrations.

"It is critical that the Syrian authorities reestablish the neutrality of
healthcare facilities," said Marie-Pierre Allié. "Hospitals must be
protected areas, where wounded patients are treated without discrimination
and are safe from abuse and torture, and where medical workers do not risk
their lives by choosing to comply with their professional code of ethics."

The injured are largely treated in clandestine treatment facilities by
doctors trying to fulfill their commitment and duty to provide medical
assistance. Improvised health clinics have been established in apartments,
on farms, and elsewhere. Simple rooms outfitted as makeshift operating
theatres, known as "mobile hospitals," are used for surgical procedures.
Hygiene and sterilisation conditions are rudimentary and anesthesia is in
short supply. Furthermore, the mere possession of drugs and basic medical
materials, such as gauze, is considered a crime.

"The security services attack and destroy the mobile hospitals," said a
doctor who requested anonymity. "They enter houses looking for drugs and
medical supplies."

Security is the key concern for doctors working in the parallel underground
networks. In the prevailing climate of terror, treatment must be provided
rapidly since medical workers and patients must constantly change location
to avoid detection.

"We are constantly being pursued by the security forces," said another
physician. "Many doctors who treated wounded patients in their private
hospitals have been arrested and tortured."

It is extremely difficult to treat major trauma cases and provide
post-operative care. Furthermore, the clandestine health workers cannot
obtain blood from the central blood bank, which is controlled by Syria’s
Ministry of Defence -- the only blood supplier in the country.

Only a few wounded patients have managed to find refuge in neighbouring
countries, where they can receive proper—albeit delayed—medical care.

"I was wounded in the thigh and the soldiers caught me,” recounted a
patient treated by MSF. “They beat me on the head and on my wound, but I
managed to get away with help from people in the neighbourhood. In the end,
I found someone who could treat me -- a nurse, not a doctor. He didn't even
have anesthetic."

Under the current circumstances, Médecins Sans Frontières’ assistance to
Syrians requiring medical care is limited. For months, Médecins Sans
Frontières has been seeking official authorisation to aid the wounded in
Syria, so far without success. The organisation is treating patients
outside Syria and is supporting doctors' networks inside the country,
through the provision of medicine, medical supplies, and surgical and
transfusion kits.

ENDS

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