Commemoration of the Syrian Chemical Attacks of August 21, 2013 / Green Cross Calls for Immediate International Support of the Victims (FOTO)

Zurich, Switzerland (ots) -

- Cross reference: Picture is available at epa european
pressphoto agency (http://www.epa.eu) and
http://www.presseportal.de/pm/114333/ -

A year ago, on August 21, 2013, several residential areas of
Damascus, the Ghoutas, were hit by a mayor chemical weapons attack
causing the death of an estimated 1.400 civilians and injuring many
more. The world was shocked and under international pressure the
Syrian government joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and assented
to the OPCW-led destruction of its declared chemical weapons
arsenals. But one year after the attacks it seems that the
international furor over the use of toxic agents against civilians in
Syria has subsided. The still-besieged Ghoutas have not received any
substantial international aid and the survivors are still suffering
from heavy after-effects due to their exposure to toxic agents. Green
Cross is calling for immediate international support of the victims
and points out the necessity to strengthen international efforts to
ban all weapons of mass destruction from the region.

Green Cross has recently successfully implemented an emergency aid
project in Ghouta together with the Syrian partner organization,
Al-Seeraj. The project aimed at providing urgently needed medicine
against the further spread of diseases within the population already
weakened by the chemical attacks. But the ill and traumatized people
need much more support. "It is a real humanitarian disaster that is
taking place in the besieged areas", says K. A., a woman aged 27, who
has lost all her family members during the attack on Zamalka in
Eastern Ghouta. She stayed in her besieged neighborhood despite all
the horror and is devoting now all her strength as a medical
assistant to the suffering people.

Since early 2008, Green Cross has supported local social-medical
care projects in the Halabja Region in northern Iraq, infamous for
the deadly poison gas attacks ordered by the regime of Saddam Hussein
in 1988. These projects are focusing on the long-term sociological,
psychological and physical health effects of those chemical attacks
and show how important it is to support the victims even a long time
after the event.

Falah Muradkhin, survivor of the 1988 attacks and who is today
project coordinator of the local partner organization of Green Cross,
Wadi Iraq, mourns the victims of the Ghouta attacks and points out
that "25 years ago the technology was not available to send immediate
news and reports to the world about what happened in Halabja. Today,
however, the situation is different. The horrible pictures from the
Ghoutas were quickly disseminated and seen by many people. Yet no
action was taken to help the victims of the attacks and no adequate
response has been seen either from the United Nations or from
countries, also in Europe, which supposedly were involved in the
development of Syria's chemical weapon arsenals". Green Cross is
therefore calling on this day of commemoration for immediate
international support of the forgotten victims of the Ghouta-attacks.

Green Cross is also supporting actively the establishment of a
world truly free of chemical weapons and therefore calls on the
remaining six non-State Parties - Angola, Egypt, Israel, Myanmar,
North Korea and South Sudan - to join the CWC (Chemical Weapons
Convention). And in view of the close relationship between all three
classes of weapons of mass destruction - nuclear, chemical, and
biological - Green Cross calls for the establishment of a Weapons of
Mass Destruction (WMD)-free zone as a next step. "There will be no
real security for the people living in this politically tense region
as long as there are any weapons of mass destruction stockpiled",
concludes Dr. Stephan Robinson, Unit Manager (Water, Legacy) of Green
Cross.

For further information:

Dr. Stephan Robinson; Green Cross; Mobile: +41 79 625 64 67

Falah Muradkin; Wadi-Iraq; Tel.: +964 770 158 817; Email:
wadisul@yahoo.com

Hisham Faham; Al-Seeraj; Tel.: +1 612 224 1250; Email:
hisham@alseeraj.org; Skype: Amr AL-FA (contact person for interviews
with survivors of the chemical attacks on Ghouta)