Syria: Activists launch campaign for doctor accused of lying about chemical weapons

A solidarity campaign has been launched online in support of a Syrian doctor who was accused by her government of lying, after she submitted evidence about use of chemical weapons to the UN Security Council. 

Amani Ballour, a paediatrician, was accused of misrepresentating state attacks in Douma, northeast of Damascus, in a documentary broadcast by the Alikhbaria Syria news channel. 

Last month, Ballour submitted evidence on the humanitarian situation in Syria and attacks on hospitals to the security council. The briefing mentioned communities being hit by artillery shells and air strikes, and the targeting of hospitals with air-to-surface missiles.

In mid April, Alikhbaria Syria aired the documentary, From the Tunnel to the Light, alleging that the information about chemical attacks on Douma's Al-Kahf hospital was falsified.

The documentary also shows a doctor, identified as Khaled al-Dabbas, stating - despite the evidence - that Syrian forces did not use chemical weapons and that the images beamed around the world were staged.

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“I used to do everything at Al-Kahf hospital because we were short-staffed, and armed people and the media exploited this,” he says. 

“Dr Amani came and said that the army used chemicals and we should wear masks. After around an hour, a few families came and they made up a scenario, as if they had just suffered a chemical attack, and they were filmed... But to me, everything was normal, they just taught them how to act and told them what to do."

Al-Dabbas states that he discussed the alleged fabrication of events with Amani, and she told him: “It was not my business”. He also stated that Amani and her mentor Dr Saleem stole everything from the hospital, including salaries, and escaped. 

Solidarity campaign 

In response to the documentary, a number of social media users have taken to Twitter to highlight Ballour’s work and criticise the attempts to discredit her.

A number of hashtags were used to expose the misinformation and support the doctor, including the hashtag #أتضامن_مع_الدكتورة_أماني_بلور (Solidarity with Doctor Amani Ballour).

Translation: After the Syrian regime’s campaign against Dr Amani Ballour and the documentary The Cave, which exposed the regime and showed scenes of the chemical bombardment of eastern Ghouta, the doctor gave her testimony about the massacre she saw, in front of the security council and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Translation: Solidarity with doctor Amani Ballour after she shattered the skull of al-Assad and she destroyed his spine by testifying before the Security Council. The regime of treachery and criminality is launching a campaign against doctor Amani Ballour because she shamed them - such voices must be supported. May God protect you Dr Amani Ballour. 

Last year, Ballour was awarded the Council of Europe’s Raoul Wallenberg Prize for her personal courage, bravery and commitment to saving hundreds of lives during the Syrian war. 

Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the organisation's secretary general, praised Ballour for her efforts.

“Human rights and personal dignity are not a peacetime luxury. Dr Amani Ballour is a shining example of the empathy, virtue and honour that can flourish even in the worst circumstances: in the midst of war and suffering,” she said.

Translation: This doctor worked in besieged Douma for years, saving hundreds of lives and living through a siege, bombing and chemical attacks. After she left Syria in the green buses she testified in front of the Security Council. The Assad regime of treason has searched for her father and told him to disown her and accuse her of treason. 

Last month, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to strip Syria of its member rights, after a probe blamed Damascus for poison gas attacks - an unprecedented step for the global chemical weapons watchdog.

The measures were in response to an OPCW investigation last year that found the Syrian air force had used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine gas in three attacks on the village of al-Lataminah in March 2017.

In April 2020, an OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) also concluded that Syrian warplanes and a helicopter had dropped bombs containing chlorine and sarin nerve gas on a village in Syria's western Hama region in March 2017.