The hospitals in Syria were targeted even after the UN shared their locations with the Syrian regime to ensure their safety. A Syrian doctor explains why he still keeps documenting and reporting war crimes to the UN
Mohammed Katoub, a former dentist, has been documenting the human rights violations in Syria religiously for seven years. When one of the most brutal chemical attacks of the Syrian war hit his hometown eastern Ghouta on July 21, 2013, it was his wife’s birthday. He spent it documenting every single detail for a local human rights organisation in Ghouta, contacting the UN’s Damascus office, and repeating what happened to journalists on the phone over and over again.
Condemnations of attacks by the UN have largely avoided pointing the finger at the Syrian regime, Katoub says. So he and the other advocates discussed options with the local medical staff and decided to share the locations of some medical facilities with the UN -- a risky move that could either bring protection, or result badly.
But Katoub remembers one medical primary health facility in the southern countryside of Aleppo was being hit after sharing its location, despite it could not be found by following the ambulances. A Syrian doctor on the other side of the line, Doctor Tarraf al Tarraf, a urologist, no longer trusts the UN.
It is not the first time that hospitals have been targeted after sharing the coordinates with the UN, so Katoub says the medical community decided to keep their location secret when using a new facility as they have long since lost hope that this approach will work.
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