Aug. 21 marked the one-year anniversary of the chemical weapon attack [6] on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, found by international investigations [7] to have been the work of the Bashar Assad regime. The Syrian diaspora around the world held protests and vigils marking the event, the one in New York's Times Square the evening of Aug. 22 drawing some 200 wearing matching t-shirts reading "CHEMICAL MASSACRE IN SYRIA: WE WILL NEVER FORGET." Amid Syrian flags (the pre-Assad version used by the rebel forces [8]), protesters laid white-shrouded effigies representing the dead, and as the sun set lit rows of small candles that formed the number 1,476—the sum of those killed in the attack. At the climax of the ceremony, hundreds of the victims' names were read aloud. The protest, co-organized by Save Syrian Children [9], was dubbed One Year of Breathing Death [10], in recognition of the fact that chemical attacks in Syria have continued [11]. Organizers said activists have confirmed 27 separate cases of chemical gas use since the UN Security Council passed UNSCR 2118 [12], calling for the destruction of all chemical weapons and chemical weapons facilities in Syria. (WW4R on the scene)
The commemoration comes as the UN has arrived at a new figure for the total killed in Syrian conflict since it began three years ago—191,000, nearly double the figure from a year ago. "It is a real indictment of the age we live in that not only has this been allowed to continue so long, but it is also now impacting horrendously on hundreds of thousands of other people across the border in northern Iraq," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement. "The killers, destroyers and torturers in Syria have been empowered and emboldened by the international paralysis." (Bloomberg [13])
