British doctors leave for Syria despite Abbas Khan death

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/21/british-doctors-syria-abbas-khan

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A convoy of British doctors left the UK for Syria this weekend as aid groups vowed not to be deterred by the death last week of Dr Abbas Khan in a Syrian prison cell.

On Saturday Khan's body was being transported by the Red Cross into Lebanon, where it will be handed over to the British embassy. Meanwhile, a fleet of more than 40 ambulances carrying medical volunteers and supplies left on an eight-day journey to the war-torn country. Several had "RIP Dr Abbas Khan" emblazoned on the side. The vehicles will be driven into Syria and left there for local medics to use as makeshift health clinics and ambulances.

"It's really tragic that we lost Dr Khan, but even his family have said there are hundreds dying in Syria every day and so many doctors and medical staff just want to help," said Dr Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar, from Manchester. "People have been asking, 'why are we going?' The question is why aren't we doing more? The work of UK charities is a drop in the ocean, but I'd rather be part of that than do nothing. The timing of Dr Khan's death is very deliberate by the regime. They know the holiday season means the aid convoys will be coming and it was a very symbolic act – don't come or look what we will do." She will be on board the convoy, which is funded by the Worcester-based charity Al Fatiha Global and the Aid4Syria campaign.

"We are minimising our own risk as much as we can. We're no good to anyone dead, but the need is just overwhelming. Doctors and hospitals are being targeted. I was in Aleppo with another convoy eight weeks ago where there used to be 2,000 doctors. Now there are 35."

Khan, a surgeon at London's Royal National Orthopaedic hospital, was among dozens of medical staff from around the UK who have been going in and out of Syria since the conflict began in March 2011. He was picked up by Syrian authorities and held captive, being frequently tortured, for over a year.

Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, said that Khan, 32, took his own life in an interrogation cell, a claim dismissed by the British government and rejected as "utter nonsense" by Khan's brother, Shah Nawaz, who blame the Assad regime.

The father of two had been promised imminent release. Respect MP George Galloway, who had been preparing to fly out to collect him, said: "The idea of a man taking his own life four days before he was to be released is impossible to believe. We need an explanation."

On Saturday another Manchester doctor, who did not want to be named and is travelling as part of a second convoy, told the <em>Observer</em> he was on his fifth mission into Syria. "My wife is very upset, but we cannot watch these scenes from Syria on our TV screens night after night and not try to do anything to help. We haven't told the children what I'm doing and I think this could be my last trip for a while, as really the things you see there are quite unbearable. I cannot begin to explain how people are suffering."

The forecast is for one of the coldest winters in Syria for 100 years, with more than four million people displaced inside the country and an estimated two million who have fled into neighbouring countries, facing an increasingly bleak existence. There have already been reports of at least six children and dozens of elderly people freezing to death.

The humanitarian crisis and the scale of the violence in Syria has led to criticism of Britain's position on refugees by the UN refugees agency (UNHCR), which has called this the worst refugee disaster since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The UK has refused to join 16 other major nations, including France, Germany, the US, Canada and Australia, which have pledged a limited number of extra resettlement places to some of the most vulnerable refugees.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said she would be lobbying the coalition government to respond to the UNCHR appeal and allow Syrian refugees into Britain.

Britain currently holds a position of accepting 750 UNHCR-recognised refugees a year, but has not yet responded to the UN call. Pledges from other countries include Sweden for 400 and Germany for 5,000. Cooper is calling for Britain to take at least 500, matching Finland and France, to help ease the crisis. "It is our moral duty to help in the Syrian humanitarian catastrophe," she said. "Britain must not turn its back on the most vulnerable who need help."

Chuka Umunna, the Labour MP for Streatham, said he was aware of the family's frustrations at the handling of the case and has asked foreign secretary William Hague to meet them. The Foreign Office insisted it had been working hard to secure Khan's release, but had been "consistently ignored" by the Syrian authorities.

In a UN report earlier this year, Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro stated that the deliberate targeting of healthcare facilities in Syria was being used as a "weapon of war". Her report said: "The pattern of attacks indicates that government forces deliberately targeted hospitals and medical units to gain military advantage by depriving anti-government armed groups and their perceived supporters of medical assistance."

Directing attacks against hospital facilities or against entities carrying the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblems is a war crime.

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