By Lea Wind-Friis

The first thing that met Human Rights Watch Researcher Ole Solvang when he arrived at an Aleppo hospital that had been bombed, was shards of glass and a brick-strewn street.

The sight surprised him somewhat as the attack that he had been sent to investigate had taken place several days previously.

“We thought the mess was the result of the attack a couple of days previously and that they simply hadn’t managed to clear it up yet,” Solvang says by telephone from Aleppo. In fact, the rubble was the result of an air attack an hour before he arrived on the scene, which wounded a further two civilians. The previous attack killed four people and wounded a further three.

A researcher for Human Rights Watch who has been in Aleppo several times recently, Ole Solvang’s job is to investigate and document human rights abuses in the Syrian conflict.

Based on his reports, Human Rights Watch has made it clear that the attacks targeting a hospital ae clear breaches of international law.

Based on interviews with the hospital’s head doctor, several nurses and others, Solvang was given indications of what had happened.

“They told us that at about 3 p.m. in the afternoon aircraft had flown over and fired at a school near the hospital and the hospital itself. Four missiles had hit the top floors (of the building) and caused serious damage to wards on the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh floors,” Solvang says, adding that due to the dangers of air attack, personnel currently only use the two lower floors of the seven-storey building.

Here, medical personnel are still operating and looking after patients. When Solvang arrived at the scene he saw a dead man in the street who had been taken to the hospital after a previous attack elsewhere and ‘a couple’ of wounded were being taken into the building for treatment.

Solvang says that from the outside the hospital does not seem particularly damaged. But pictures taken by Rachel Beth Anderson, who visited the hospital with Solvang, clearly show hospital corridors and wards severely damaged as a result of missile attacks.

Chaos  on the upper floors of the Dar al Shifaa hospital in Aleppo.

“The missiles, which we believe are between 55mm and 57mm go through the walls and cause damage inside. So from the outside the building is still standing and doesn’t immediately seem to be particularly damaged as you can only see the holes the missiles made on their way through. But inside there is serious damage, rubble everywhere and damaged equipment,” Solvang says.

Solvang says that working to investigate human rights issues in Syria is difficult, but experience from the Dar al Shifaa hospital provides an indication of the situation in Aleppo in which the government is not good at ensuring that civilians are not affected.

We also hear that the rebels treat their prisoners badly. Is that something that Human Rights Watch investigates?

“Absolutely. That is one of the reasons why we are here now,” Solvang says.

In March this year, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Syrian opposition saying it was concerned at reports of the treatment of prisoners-of-war.

“We have spoken to prisoners who say they have been beaten, kicked and tortured while being prisoners of Free Syrian Army forces, and we have documented executions without trial,” Solvang says.

“At the moment this is not systematic and widespread in the same way as torture in government army prisons – where it is quite widespread. But we are concerned and have approached opposition leaders who have said they will do something to stop it going on,” Solvang says.

How do you document prisoner abuse?

“It’s difficult. The situation on the ground is quite chaotic because there are battles going on in different places in Aleppo. At the same time there is no united opposition,” Solvang says, but adds that the opposition leaders he has interviewed are open and say they want to cooperate.

“So they allow us to interview prisoners in private, and many are willing to listen to our recommendations,” he says.

Solvang is primarily involved in documenting abuse in Aleppo and Idlib, but Human Rights Watch also has researchers in Damascus and other areas of Syria.

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