Joint public letter from medical, human rights, and relief organizations to:
Russian Medical Society \ Российскому медицинскому обществу
Union Pediatricians of Russia \ Союзу педиатров России
Russian Medical Association \ Российской медицинской ассоциации
Russian Red Cross Society \ Российскому Красному кресту
Union of Medical Workers of Russia \ Профсоюзу работников здравоохранения Российской Федерации
December 09, 2016
Dear members of the Russian medical community,
We write to you today as fellow medical professionals from several humanitarian and human rights organizations providing healthcare or documenting violations in Syria. We appeal to you, our colleagues in medicine, to join us in urgently addressing the healthcare crisis in Syria, especially in Aleppo. Healthcare continues to be used as a weapon of war in Syria, and civilians are paying the price.
On November 13 and 14, four hospitals west of Aleppo city were hit by airstrikes. They all suffered damage and were forced to suspend services. All were within 20 miles of each other, thus the region was left without a single functioning hospital. That same week, the few hospitals remaining in besieged eastern Aleppo city were also hit by airstrikes and forced to close. The lack of accountability for attacks on healthcare in Syria has created a dangerous new normal, yet heroic medical personnel continue to risk their safety to save the lives of others. Two weeks ago, all remaining hospitals in besieged eastern Aleppo City were forced to either close or operate at very low capacity after days of intensive targeted bombing. One of these hospitals, the Children’s Hospital, was treating children suffocating from a nearby chemical attack, only to be bombed while patients were still inside. The targeting of these hospitals, which treat women, children, and families, has left nearly 300,000 people trapped, among them 100,000 children and 151,000 women, and without access to healthcare, a human right.
Despite efforts to fortify facilities to safeguard medical staff and patients, Syrians continue to be illegally targeted and killed where they are seeking care. Physicians for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 757 health workers and 382 attacks on medical facilities throughout the conflict in Syria. Each of these attacks is a war crime, and together they amount to crimes against humanity. More than 90% of these attacks were carried out by Syrian government and Russian forces. Our medical doctors and surgeons have witnessed and treated those victims in their medical mission to Aleppo. They have testified about their findings to the United Nations Security Council in the presence of your country representative.
Eastern Aleppo city has become the modern Stalingrad. Stalingrad was under siege by the Nazi’s for 160 days. Its conditions were described as being worse than hell. The people in besieged eastern Aleppo city have been living in similar conditions. They have been under siege for over 140 days, and are running drastically low on baby formula, food, fuel, medical supplies, and essential items for survival. Children and patients are dying because of extreme cold. Their last remaining stockpile of UN food rations was completely exhausted on November 13, there is no fully functioning hospital, and 31,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the past week. There is the potential that hostilities will significantly worsen due to aerial bombardments by Russia and the Syrian government, as well as ground attacks by the government and its allied militias. Yet aid convoys have been continually blocked from entering the city by the Syrian government. Eastern Aleppo city is only one of the nearly 40 communities under siege in Syria, where basic essentials, including medical care, are being denied to over one million Syrians. These sieges must end and immediate humanitarian access must be provided. In the past few weeks, due to the siege and intensified bombing, the humanitarian situation in eastern Aleppo city is beyond description.
The health workers who continue to prioritize the lives of others above their own must be protected. As physicians, we have taken an oath to protect and preserve life. We appeal to you as medical colleagues, who can understand the dire circumstances of living without healthcare. These attacks on civilians, healthcare, and civilian infrastructure must end. We cannot stand by while war crimes are allowed to continue with impunity.
We ask you to urge your government to allow humanitarian aid into besieged eastern Aleppo city, to allow medical evacuation of the sick and injured and secure humanitarian corridors from eastern Aleppo city under the oversight of ICRC and UN, to pressure the Syrian government to allow delivery of aid to other besieged cities in Syria, and to end both indiscriminate and targeted attacks on civilians, hospitals and schools across Syria.
We urge you to exert your moral influence and discharge your humanitarian duty.
Thank you.
Signatories:
Dr. Ahmad Tarakji, President, Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)
Dr. Majd Isreb, Foundation Chairman, Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)
Dr. Samer Attar, Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)
Dr. John Kahler, Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)
Dr. Kerry J. Sulkowicz, Chair of the Board of Directors, Physicians for Human Rights
Donna McKay, Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights
Ran Goldstein, Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel
Dr. Ketan Desai, President, World Medical Association
Dr. Otmar Kloiber, Secretary General, World Medical Association
Dr. Ardis Hoven, Chair of Council, World Medical Association
Dr. Holly Atkinson, Assistant Clinical Professor, Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai & Distinguished Medical Lecturer, CUNY School of Medicine
Dr. Satchit Balsari, Fellow, Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Chief, Weill Cornell Global Emergency Medicine Division
Darren Barber, Project Manager, A Light for Aleppo
Dr. Michele Barry, Professor of Medicine and Tropical Diseases, Director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health, Stanford University
Imam Yahya Barry, Edinburgh Central Mosque
Dr. Frederick M. Burkle, Jr., Senior Fellow & Scientist, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Dr. Gilbert Burnham, Professor of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Professor Charlotte Clarke, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Hilarie Cranmer, Harvard University
Dr. Patricia Davidson, Johns Hopkins University
Professor Francesco Della Corte, MD, Hon. Fellow EuSEM, Director, Dept. of Emergency Medicine, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Maggiore della Carità
Dr. Dabney P. Evans, Emory University Center for Humanitarian Emergencies
Dr. Conrad Fischer, Associate Chief of Medicine for Educational and Academic Activities at SUNY Downstate School of Medicine
Dr. Eric Goosby, Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, United Nations Special Envoy on Tuberculosis
Reverend Dr. Harriet Harris, University Chaplain, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Kirsten Johnson, McGill University
Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, Dean, Stony Brook University School of Medicine
Hon. Dr. Keith Martin, Executive Director, Consortium of Universities for Global Health
Dr. Therese McGinn, Professor of Population and Family Health at CUMC, Director, RAISE Initiative, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Dr. Rachel T. Moresky, Director of the sidHARTe Program, Population and Family Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Director of International Emergency Medicine Fellowship, Emergency Medicine Department, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Dr. Hani Mowafi, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Chief, Section of Global Health & International Emergency Medicine, Director, GHIEM Fellowship, Department of Emergency Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. Ronak B. Patel, Stanford University
Les Roberts, Professor, Program on Forced Migration and Health, Columbia University
Leonard S. Rubenstein, Director, Program on Human Rights, Health and Conflict, Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health
Father Raphael Pavouris, Honorary Chaplain at the University of Edinburgh
Dr. Mark J. Sedler, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health, Stony Brook University
Dr. Annie Sparrow, Assistant Professor Global Health, Deputy Director Human Rights, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Paul Spiegel, Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Johan von Schreeb, Associate Professor, Specialist in General Surgery and Disaster Medicine, Centre for Research on Health Care in Disasters, Global Health, Health System and Policy, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet
Dr. Muhammad H. Zaman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and International Health, Boston University
Alseeraj for Development and Healthcare
Canadian International Medical Relief Organization (CIMRO)
Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Doctors Under Fire
Independent Doctors Association (IDA)
Medact
Syrian NGO Alliance:
Big Heart
Binaa Organization for Development
Ghiras Al Nahda
Ghiras Foundation for Child Care
Hand in Hand for Aid and Development
Ihsan for Relief and Development
Masrat – The Syrian Establishment for Human Care & Enhancement
Orient
Physicians Across Continents (PAC)
Social Development International (SDI)
Syrian Expatriate Medical Association (SEMA)
Sham Humanitarian Foundation
Syria Relief
Dr. Abdulsalam Daeif, Turkey Country Director, Syria Relief and Development (SRD)
Takaful Alsham Organization
Union of Relief and Medical Care Organizations (UOSSM)
