Russia accused of ‘obscene masquerade’ of Douma family
NETHERLANDS: Western diplomats accused Russia and Syria of an ‘‘obscene masquerade’’ yesterday after the countries presented an 11-year-old Syrian boy at a press conference in an attempt to disprove claims of a chemical attack by the Assad regime.
Three children took part in the briefing at The Hague in the Netherlands, during which Syrians brought there by Russia said there was no chemical attack in the city of Douma this month.
The briefing, arranged by Russian diplomats, was held at the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international watchdog investigating claims that dozens were killed in the attack on April 7.
Alexander Shulgin, Russia’s ambassador to the Netherlands and to the OPCW, said the press conference had been called to ‘‘prove that the footage of the White Helmets is a crude staged action’’, referring to footage taken by a Syrian opposition rescue force that showed people allegedly suffering after the attack.
A group of about 15 Syrians at the briefing who said they had been present at the time of the attack claimed they had not smelled chemicals, and that it was debris from a bombardment that had caused people to choke.
One of those present was Hassan Diab, 11, who was seen in footage being doused with water after the attack, apparently to mitigate the effect of chemicals. He and his father were later shown on Russian TV claiming the video was staged and there was no gas.
Britain, the United States and France condemned the briefing and refused to attend. They accuse Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s regime of carrying out the attack in a rebel-held area of Douma, causing numerous civilian casualties.
Philippe Lalliot, France’s ambassador to the Netherlands, said: ‘‘This obscene masquerade does not come as a surprise from the Syrian government, which has massacred and gassed its own people for the last seven years.’’
Peter Wilson, Britain’s envoy to the OPCW, said the watchdog was ‘‘not a theatre’’.
Inspectors from the OPCW made a second visit to Douma on Thursday and collected samples. It is unclear when the group will produce a report.
Shulgin criticised Western representatives for not attending the Hague briefing. ‘‘Probably, the truth stings the eyes,’’ he said. ‘‘They are afraid to look the truth in the face. They are afraid to look into the eyes of little Hassan.’’
The US, France and Britain fired missiles at suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria on April 14 in response to the Douma attack. UNITED STATES: Tears and expressions of grief met the opening of the nation’s first memorial to the victims of lynching yesterday in Alabama.
Hundreds lined up in the rain to get a first look at the memorial and museum in Montgomery.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice commemorates 4400 black people who were slain in lynchings and other racial killings between 1877 and 1950. Their names, where known, are engraved on 800 dark, rectangular steel columns, one for each US county where lynchings occurred.
A related museum, called The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, is opening in Montgomery.
Many visitors shed tears and stared intently at the commemorative columns, many of which are suspended in the air from above.
Toni Battle drove from San Francisco to attend. ‘‘I’m a descendant of three lynching victims,’’ Battle said, her face wet with tears.
‘‘I wanted to come and honour them and also those in my family that couldn’t be here.’’
Ava DuVernay, the Oscarnominated film director, told several thousand people at a conference marking the memorial’s launch ‘‘to be evangelists and say what you saw and what you experienced here’’.
‘‘Every American who believes in justice and dignity must come here,’’ she said. ‘‘Don’t just leave feeling like, ‘That was amazing. I cried’ saw.’’
As for her own reaction, DuVernay said: ‘‘This place has scratched a scab. It’s really open for me right now.’’
Angel Smith Dixon, who is biracial, came from Lawrenceville, Georgia to see the memorial.
‘‘We’re publicly grieving this atrocity for the first time as a nation . . . You can’t grieve something you can’t see, something you don’t acknowledge,’’ she said.
‘‘Part of the healing process, the first step is to acknowledge it.’’
The Rev Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights activist, told reporters after visiting the memorial that it would help to dispel America’s silence on lynching. ‘‘Whites wouldn’t talk about it because of shame. Blacks wouldn’t talk about it because of fear,’’ he said.
The crowd included white and black visitors. Mary Ann Braubach, who is white, came from Los Angeles to attend. ‘‘As an American, I feel this is a past we have to confront,’’ she said as she choked back tears.
Launch events include a ‘‘Peace and Justice Summit’’ featuring activists like Marian Wright Edelman and Gloria Steinem in addition to DuVernay.
The summit, museum and memorial are projects of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomerybased legal advocacy group founded by attorney Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson won a MacArthur ‘‘genius’’ award for his human rights work. –AP . . . Go out and tell what you