{"id":76609,"date":"2018-04-19T16:19:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T23:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=76609"},"modified":"2018-04-19T16:19:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T23:19:35","slug":"staged-suffering-interview-with-boy-in-douma-video-raises-more-doubts-over-chem-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/04\/19\/staged-suffering-interview-with-boy-in-douma-video-raises-more-doubts-over-chem-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Staged suffering? Interview with boy in Douma video raises more doubts over \u2018chem attack\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"article__date\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Courtesy RT<\/time><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"article__date\"><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Published time: 19 Apr, 2018 10:47<\/time><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Edited time: 19 Apr, 2018 12:40<\/time><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__cover\">\n<div class=\"media__footer media__footer_bottom \">\n<div class=\"media__title media__title_arcticle\">Hassan Diab (left) featured in the video of the alleged chemical attack in Douma -CAPTION \/ RT<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article__summary summary \">The boy portrayed as a \u2018victim\u2019 in a video of the alleged chemical attack in Douma has told a Russian TV crew that he was asked to go to hospital, where people grabbed\u201d him and started pouring water\u201d over his head.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Full Report<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/424563-douma-boy-chemical-video\/\">https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/424563-douma-boy-chemical-video\/<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__text text \">\n<p>Panic, fear, screaming adults and frightened children featured in the purported footage of the aftermath following the alleged chemical attack in the Eastern Ghouta city. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Douma.Revolution.2011\/videos\/1739271562820418\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">video\u00a0<\/a>has been circulated by mainstream media since April 7 after being posted by the so-called Douma Revolution group.<\/p>\n<p>The group is one of the organizations, along with the notorious rebel-linked White Helmets, that has claimed government troops were the culprits behind the reported chemical attack.<\/p>\n<p>One of the main \u2018characters\u2019 in the footage is a soaked boy, who is seen being sprayed with water by people who claim to be \u2018rescue workers.\u2019 It\u2019s not clear whether they are doctors from the hospital, human rights activists, or White Helmets members. The latter usually make such videos and send them to news agencies, including Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Russian broadcaster VGTRK\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vesti.ru\/doc.html?id=3008643&amp;3008643#\/video\/https%3A%2F%2Fplayer.vgtrk.com%2Fiframe%2Fvideo%2Fid%2F1779975%2Fstart_zoom%2Ftrue%2FshowZoomBtn%2Ffalse%2Fsid%2Fvesti%2FisPlay%2Ftrue%2F%3Facc_video_id%3D751695\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>\u00a0it found the boy in the video, who appeared to be 11-year-old Hassan Diab. His story differed from the one presented by the activists and later propagated by the mainstream media. He was in the basement with his mother, who said they ran out of food, when they heard some noise outside.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/423968-douma-gas-attack-aftermath-footage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">READ MORE: Douma \u2018gas attack\u2019 aftermath footage shows opposition groups moving victims\u2019 bodies (GRAPHIC VIDEOS)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Somebody was shouting that we had to go to the hospital, so we went there. When I came in, some people grabbed me and started pouring water over my head,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he told Evgeny Poddubny, a war correspondent from Russian broadcaster VGTRK. Hassan confirmed that he was the boy in the video, and was very scared when the whole situation unfolded. He is now fine and shows no symptoms of having experienced a chemical attack two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>He was eventually found by his father, who said he didn\u2019t hear about any chemical attack that day.\u00a0<em>I went to the hospital, walked upstairs, and found my wife and children. I asked them what had happened, and they said people outside were shouting about some smell, and told them to go to the hospital. At the hospital, they gave dates and cookies to the kids,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n<p>One of the medical workers, who was reportedly on shift at the time, said he was surprised by the sudden influx.\u00a0<em>Some people came here and washed people. They said: \u2018Chemical attack. Chemical attack.\u2019 We didn\u2019t see any chemical attack symptoms,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he added. He did, however, say that there were many people with respiratory problems as a result of dust from recent bombings in the city.<\/p>\n<p>Social media posts and the White Helmets\u2019 report were enough for the US, UK and France to launch a series of strikes on Syria on April 14. The announcement of the strikes came hours before the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) team was scheduled to arrive in Douma to determine whether chemical weapons had been used there.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/424280-russia-evidence-chemical-attack-staged\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">READ MORE: Moscow has \u2018irrefutable\u2019 evidence chem attack in Syria\u2019s Douma was staged \u2013 Russia\u2019s envoy to OPCW<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The boy agreed to play this role for food. Then the video was circulated across the globe and became the \u2018evidence\u2019 which served as an excuse for the US, the UK and French airstrikes [against Syria],\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow is planning to show the video about Hassan at the next meeting of the UN Security Council, Russia\u2019s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tass.ru\/politika\/5140156?utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=smm_social_share&amp;utm_content=18840265\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told\u00a0<\/a>Rossiya 1 on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editorial note: The headline and introduction to this story have been changed to better reflect the statements of the boy interviewed by the Russian TV crew.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy RT Published time: 19 Apr, 2018 10:47Edited time: 19 Apr, 2018 12:40 Hassan Diab (left) featured in the video of the alleged chemical attack in Douma -CAPTION \/ RT The boy portrayed as a \u2018victim\u2019 in a video of the alleged chemical attack in Douma has told a Russian TV crew that he was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}