One Year of Breathing Death

Aug. 21 marked the one-year anniversary of the chemical weapon attack [1] on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, found by international investigations [2] 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 that is used by the rebel forces [3]), 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 [4], was dubbed One Year of Breathing Death [5], in recognition of the fact that chemical attacks in Syria have continued [6]. Organizers said activists have confirmed 27 separate cases of chemical gas use since the UN Security Council passed UNSCR 2118 [7], calling for the destruction of all chemical weapons and chemical weapons facilities in Syria.