Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on March 1st, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Levitt]

Welcome, colleagues, to the 97th meeting of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights.

Today we are holding a session on the dire situation in eastern Ghouta in Syria. Over the past two weeks, the Syrian regime, backed by Russia and Iran, has killed hundreds of civilians in eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, where 400,000 civilians have been under siege since 2013. The most recent crisis is part of the consistent targeting of civilians and humanitarian aid, including medical facilities, carried out by the Assad regime over the course of the Syrian civil war.

While I think we all held out some hope for the success of the UN Security Council's recent resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire and the end of all sieges across Syria, including in eastern Ghouta, the Assad regime's latest atrocities are another sign of its complete disregard for fundamental human rights.

Before us today, by video conference, we have Dr. Hussam Al Fakir and Dr. Anas Al-Kassem from the Union of Medical Relief Organizations Canada. In person, we have Ms. Muzna Dureid, co-founder and board member of Urnammu for Justice and Human Rights.

I would like to thank you all for making yourselves available to the committee on such short notice. We consider this to be an emergency situation. I invite you to make your opening remarks, beginning with Dr. Al-Kassem and Dr. Al Fakir. I will ask you to divide up the 10 minutes among yourselves however you see fit. Then we'll have Ms. Dureid, after which we'll proceed to questions from the members.

Thank you very much. I turn the floor over to you.

[Dr. Hussam Alfakir, Board Member, Union of Medical Relief Organizations-Canada (UOSSM)]

Thank you all for having us.

I will start by giving you a brief description of the situation on the ground, and then Dr. Al-Kassem will talk about some testimonies from the ground.

To give you a geographic description of the area, Ghouta is a suburb of Damascus. It's about 30 kilometres in diameter, with a population of almost 400,000. Eastern Ghouta has been under siege for the last four and a half years, with about 13,000 civilians killed since the uprising started in Syria. The death toll has increased sharply in the last 10 days, since the chemical attacks on Ghouta. In the last 10 days, we have seen about 600 people killed. Today, as we speak, I got the message that about 20 people have been killed up until now.

We have about 2,300 people injured. The weapons that have been used on those people range from shelling with missiles to some prohibited weapons like napalm, and chemical weapons were used once a couple of days ago.

From a medical perspective, since February 19, there have been about 33 attacks on 30 medical facilities. I provided earlier a couple of pages of documents with the names of the facilities that have been hit. Some of those facilities have been hit twice. We have had about 33 attacks on those facilities. We have at least six medical workers who have been killed in those attacks, and about 15 others injured.

To give you another description of the medical situation on the ground, we have only 110 doctors left. Among those are 40 medical students. Some of them are doctors, dentists, or nurses performing surgeries on people. We have only one neurosurgeon left, and only two vascular surgeons in the region. Again, as a reminder, they are serving about 400,000 people.

For the last 14 months at least, no medical supplies have entered Ghouta at all. We currently have about 1,200 cancer patients who have no medications, and there is no way of treating those patients.

I want to bring to your attention one important fact about the situation and how the civilians have been hit in this area. If you look at the tables I provided earlier, you'll see that the first table is from the Syrian interim government. It shows the deaths divided by gender and by age. For gender, we can see that the number of deaths for women and kids combined is about 270. It's almost equal to the number for men. If the government forces claim that they are hitting militants on the ground, there is no reason to see so many kids and women being killed. It has been consistent that the regime's way of dealing with the situation is capital punishment, punishing families and hitting civilians in their homes.

With the amount of shelling that has happened in the last 10 days, we should see a higher number of deaths. However, it has been a little less because of people taking shelter underground, basically in dungeons or basements, trying to hide from the shelling. With people hiding in those areas, there are inhumane conditions, high humidity and insufficient air ventilation. They have been suffering and having a hard time getting food and water into those areas.

I have talked to many people on the ground there. What they need is for this shelling or bombing of their homes to stop and for access to open for humanitarian aid to start accessing the area.

I want to conclude with one statement. What is unique about the situation in Syria, Ghouta specifically, is that we're witnessing a live genocide. It is happening live, with video images, with testimonies. The whole world is watching and not able to do anything. What is also unique about this genocide is that it is not an ethnic genocide; it is more of an ideological genocide. People have been punished and killed because they oppose the government and they are not really listening to it.

Again, we call for protection. There are no foreign fighters there. I know for a fact, from talking to medical staff on the ground, that it is more local people on the ground there.

I will now give the mike to Dr. Al-Kassem to get some personal testimonies from people on the record.

[Dr. Anas Al-Kassem, Board Member, Union of Medical Relief Organizations-Canada (UOSSM)]

Thank you very much, Dr. Al Fakir.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for this opportunity, and thank you to the members of Parliament on this very essential Subcommittee on International Human Rights.

I want to give you some perspective in terms of the current medical crisis in eastern Ghouta. Our organization has been communicating with people on the ground, with the doctors and our medical staff, who unfortunately don't have electricity or connections. They can't communicate with you directly, so we will be speaking on their behalf.

Currently in Ghouta, there are 1,200 cancer cases for which there is no medical treatment. Chemotherapy and many medications do not exist. I heard recently that a 22-year-old gentleman with rectal cancer died because there was no chemotherapy to treat him with, before or after the surgery. There is only one neurosurgeon left for a population of 400,000, despite the ongoing destruction and ongoing air strikes by Russia and the Syrian regime. There is only one neurosurgeon to take care of all the head injuries, with very limited medical supplies available. There are very limited supplies—of anaesthesia drugs, of painkillers, of antibiotics, of sutures—because over the last 14 months, the Syrian regime has not allowed any medical supplies, any kind of essential medical aid, to enter Ghouta. The people just have to work with whatever they had before the last 14 months.

I have to mention that in the last 10 days, in addition to what my colleague mentioned in terms of the total deaths, 50% of the deaths and injuries were to women and children. This is just to confirm that this is a systematic destruction of the city, which is highly populated at 400,000 civilians. There are about 2,300 injuries now, and the number is set to increase. From talking to the people on the ground, we know that they don't even have diesel to operate the hospitals. They are using plastic bags to try to operate the generators for the hospitals.

I want to reiterate what my colleague concluded. One, the physicians, medical staff, and humanitarian aid workers are asking for protection for the hospitals and for the health care workers, which is assured by many resolutions, including UN Resolution 2286. Two, they are asking to evacuate the critically ill patients. There are more than 500 critically ill patients who need emergency surgeries and evacuation from Ghouta to a safe place.

Thank you very much for hearing from us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Levitt]

Thank you very much.

Please go ahead, Ms. Dureid.

[Muzna Dureid, Co-founder and board member, Canada, Urnammu for Justice and Human Rights]

Good morning. Thank you for this invitation. We are addressing Canada's role in stopping this massacre in Syria. I will talk personally about my family in eastern Ghouta. Just yesterday, my uncle sent me a photo of dried bread from there, to eat with his family.

We urge Canada to push Resolution 2401 of the Security Council to stop this bombing and shelling in Syria.

If the situation continues like this, we will see the same scenario we saw in Aleppo in both Ghouta and Idlib. Also, Jaafari from the Assad regime said in the last session of the Security Council that they would continue the scenario of Aleppo in Idlib and in Ghouta.

We urge Canada and its allies to put pressure at the international level to stop this massacre. In the 72 hours following the adoption of Resolution 2401, there were 107 people killed by bombing, including 34 children. There was also a chlorine attack in eastern Ghouta last week.

We see that when Russia decides to do a ceasefire, they do it. From 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., there is a daily ceasefire. We need to press for the implementation of the ceasefire or truce in eastern Ghouta, and an evacuation.

We don't need human train corridors for a humanitarian evacuation from Ghouta because there is no safe way to exit from Ghouta to Damascus. There is a recruitment with the army for men, and we would not have any idea about the situation of civilians if they are evacuated from Ghouta, as was happening in Aleppo. If there is no plan for evacuation, we'll put the civilians in a situation where we won't know where they will arrive. We are talking about the children and the women.

The media talks about the basements in Syria, in Ghouta especially. There are no shelters in Ghouta, just the basements of the residential buildings. There is no equipment for staying there. Two weeks have already passed in this situation. If the situation continues like this, we will lose all the civilians there.

It is estimated that eastern Ghouta has the same number of civilians as the city of Manchester. It's a big number. If we stay silent in the face of this massacre, we will see one of the biggest crises in the world.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Levitt]

Thank you very much to all of you for your testimony.

We're now going to begin with the first round of questioning and we'll begin with MP Sweet.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

It's a devastating situation. I would just like to be clear so that we have some things on the record and so that we can make a clear statement.

Presently, the siege is tight enough that there is absolutely no capability for anyone in Ghouta to flee. Is that correct?

[Dr. Hussam Alfakir]

That is correct.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

You said that in the last 14 months, no medicines have arrived in Ghouta. What about other humanitarian aid? What has been the flow of that in the last year?

[Dr. Anas Al-Kassem]

Thank you, sir.

In the last 14 months, there have been no medical supplies, no humanitarian aid, no food whatsoever being allowed by the regime to enter Ghouta. Everything they are living on, including for the basic needs of children and medical supplies for hospitals, is whatever they had in storage before the last 14 months. Even before that, for five years there have been interruptions on and off by the regime in allowing supplies into Ghouta. In the last 14 months, there have been no humanitarian aid, no food, and no medical supplies allowed whatsoever.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

This is a residential area. There is no place for crops or anything. This means that, within virtually days or weeks, there could be absolutely nothing left for all these people.

[Dr. Anas Al-Kassem]

Correct. Most of the time, sir, the people are eating whatever comes from the land. There is some agriculture despite the ongoing destruction, despite the ongoing air strikes. Eastern Ghouta is known for its farms, and agriculture in the area is rich, but because of the ongoing air strikes, that will be challenging as well.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Is the siege tightening? You say there is agricultural land. Is there a risk that the siege will be tightened and that will be eliminated as well?

[Dr. Anas Al-Kassem]

Yes, 100%. The destruction affected even the farmers. In the last week specifically, there have been no farmers working, no agricultural activities at all. If that continues, we won't be seeing any kind of local products being produced.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Again, just to be clear, the 30,000, the number of people who have been killed, is strictly from the area of Ghouta. Is that correct?

[Dr. Hussam Alfakir]

Sorry, what's the number?

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

In your testimony you mentioned 30,000 casualties. Is that correct?

[Dr. Hussam Alfakir]

No, it's 13,000 since the uprising started, and 600 only in the last 10 days.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Six hundred people in the last 10 days but 13,000 total.

[Dr. Hussam Alfakir]

Yes.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

And is that for the area of Ghouta alone?

[Dr. Hussam Alfakir]

Yes, that's just for Eastern Ghouta.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Finally, are there any talks happening presently between the Assad regime and the residents of Ghouta to try to end this?

[Dr. Hussam Alfakir]

As far as I know, there are no talks. Again, we're more involved in the medical field, but what we hear from the people on the ground is that no talks are happening. The problem is that there is really no trust. So even if there were talks, the people there cannot trust the Syrian government at all with any promise of anything. I think the trust has been broken many times, so they have no trust.

[Dr. Anas Al-Kassem]

If I can add something.... You know, the local people want the UN to implement the resolution and to be involved in the talks, and this hasn't happened. They have no trust whatsoever in the Syrian authority or Russia.