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| This photo released by the United Nations shows professor Ake Sellstrom, head of the chemical weapons team working in Syria, handing over the report on the Al-Ghouta massacre to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Sunday Sept. 15, 2013. |
UNITED NATIONS
(AP) -- U.N. inspectors said Monday there is "clear and convincing
evidence" that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in
an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people.
The
findings represent the first official confirmation by scientific
experts that chemical weapons were used in Syria's civil war, but the
report left the key question of who launched the attack unanswered.
The
rebels and their U.S. and Western supporters have said the regime of
President Bashar Assad was behind the Aug. 21 attack, while the Syrian
government and its closest ally, Russia, blame the rebels.
U.S.,
British and French diplomats said the findings of the U.N. inspectors
supported their conclusion that Assad regime was to blame. Russia
disagreed.
Secretary of State John Kerry
briefed U.S. allies on a broad agreement reached over the weekend with
Russia to end Syria's chemical weapons program, pressing for broad
support for the plan that averted U.S. military strikes. Kerry met in
Paris with his counterparts from France, Britain, Turkey and Saudi
Arabia before seeking a U.N. resolution that would detail how the
international community can secure and destroy Syria's stockpile and
precursor chemicals.
As a sign of possible
difficulties ahead, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
sparred Monday over possible military action if Syria doesn't abandon
its chemical weapons.
And in Geneva, the
chairman of a U.N. war crimes panel said it is investigating 14
suspected chemical attacks in Syria, dramatically escalating the stakes.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the panel had not pinpointed the chemical
used or who is responsible.
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon presented the U.N. inspectors' report to a closed meeting of
the U.N. Security Council before its release.
"This
is a war crime and a grave violation of ... international law," Ban
told the council in remarks distributed to the press. "The results are
overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves. ... The
international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators
accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an
instrument of warfare."
The inspectors' report
said "the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected
provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets
containing the nerve agent sarin were used ... in the Ghouta area of
Damascus" on Aug. 21.
"The conclusion is that
chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the
parties in the Syrian Arab Republic, also against civilians, including
children, on a relatively large scale," the inspectors said in their
report to Ban.
"This result leaves us with the deepest concern," they added.
Syria
initially called for a U.N. investigation of an alleged chemical attack
on Khan Al-Assal near Aleppo on March 19, which it blamed on the
rebels. But when the U.S., Britain and France reported other alleged
attacks, the secretary-general insisted on broadening the investigation,
which the Syrians opposed.
After months of
negotiations, an agreement was reached in August for U.N. inspectors to
go to the sites of Khan Al-Assal and two other alleged attacks. But its
mandate was limited, reportedly at Syria's insistence, to report on
whether chemical weapons were used and if so which ones - not on who was
responsible.
The rebels and their Western and
Arab supporters blame President Bashar Assad's regime for the attack in
the rebel-controlled area of Ghouta. The Assad regime insists that the
attack was carried out by rebels. The U.N. report mentions the Ghouta
areas of Ein Tarma, Moadamiyeh and Zamalka, all of which were featured
in the videos of victims that emerged shortly after the attack.
The report cited a number of facts supporting its conclusion:
- Rocket fragments were found to contain sarin.
-
Close to the impact sites, in the area were people were affected,
inspectors collected 30 soil and environmental samples - far more than
any previous U.N. investigation - and "the environment was found to be
contaminated by sarin."
- Blood, urine and
hair samples from 34 patients who had signs of poisoning by a chemical
compound provided "definitive evidence of exposure to sarin by almost
all of the survivors assessed."
- More than 50
interviews with survivors and health care workers "provided ample
corroboration of the medical and scientific results."
The
inspectors described the rockets used to disperse the sarin as a
variant of an M14 artillery rocket, with either an original or an
improvised warhead. The report said the rockets that hit two of the
suburbs, Zamalka and Ein Tarma, were fired from the northwest but didn't
identify the perpetrator.
The inspectors did
not provide an exact location on the rockets' launch site, but Qassioun
Mountain, where the Syrian military is known to have bases, is roughly
northwest of both suburbs.
The U.S., Britain and France said the findings point to the Assad government as the perpetrator of the attack.
"When
you look at the findings carefully, the quantities of toxic gas used,
the complexity of the mixes, the nature, and the trajectory of the (gas)
carriers, it leaves absolutely no doubt as to the origin of the
attack," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told RTL radio Monday
evening. "It reinforces the position of those that have said the regime
is guilty."
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power
said "only the regime could have carried out this large-scale attack."
She said the quality of the sarin was higher than that used by Iraq's
Saddam Hussein against Iran and there is no evidence the rebels possess
the nerve agent.
The inspectors cautioned that
the five sites they investigated had been "well traveled by other
individuals prior to the arrival of the mission."
"During
the time spent at these locations, individuals arrived carrying other
suspected munitions indicating that such potential evidence is being
moved and possibly manipulated," the report said. The areas were under
rebel control, but the report did not elaborate on who the individuals
were.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin
called the investigators' conclusion "deeply disturbing" but stressed
that it was too early to jump to conclusions.
"Allegations
that in fact it was the opposition who used chemical weapons cannot be
simply shrugged off," he said. "Those allegations also need to be very
seriously investigated."
Churkin wondered why
there were no reports of casualties among opposition fighters if
government forces fired rockets filled with sarin to try to oust
opposition groups from the area. "Is it theoretically possible to fire
five or six rockets and miss your opponent?" he asked.
The
Aug. 21 chemical attack unfolded as the U.N. inspection team was in
Syria to investigate earlier reported attacks. After days of delays, the
inspectors were allowed access to victims, doctors and others in the
Damascus suburbs.
In the report, chief weapons
inspector Ake Sellstrom said the team was issuing the findings on the
Ghouta attacks "without prejudice" to its continuing investigation and
final report on the alleged use of chemical weapons in three other
areas. The letter said it hoped to produce that report as soon as
possible.
Under an Aug. 13 agreement between
the U.N. and the Syrian government, Sellstrom's team was scheduled to
investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack on March 19 on the
village of Khan al Assal outside Aleppo and alleged attacks on two other
sites which were kept secret for security reasons.
The inspectors' report for the first time identified the two sites still to be investigated as Sheik Maqsood and Saraqueb.
The
report also thanked the four laboratories designated by the Office for
the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to examine the samples from
Syria, disclosing their locations for the first time - in Finland,
Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.
Kerry and his
French and British counterparts worked on a two-pronged approach to
Syria. They called for enforceable U.N. benchmarks for eradicating the
chemical weapons program and an international conference bolstering the
moderate opposition.
An ambitious agreement
reached with the Russians calls for an inventory of Syria's chemical
weapons program within one week, with all components of the program out
of the country or destroyed by mid-2014.
France
and the U.S. insisted that a military response to the Aug. 21 attack
remained on the table, and were pressing for a U.N. resolution
reflecting that in coming days.
"It has to be
strong, it has to be forceful, it has to be real, it has to be
accountable, it has to be transparent, it has to be timely. All of those
things are critical. And it has to be enforced," Kerry said. "We will
not tolerate avoidance or anything less than full compliance by the
Assad regime."
Kerry said the agreement "fully
commits the United States and Russia to impose measures under Chapter 7
of the U.N. Charter in the event of non-compliance." Chapter 7
resolutions allow for military enforcement.
Russia's
Lavrov said Chapter 7 was the subject of "fierce debate" during the
U.S.-Russia talks but stressed that "the final document ... doesn't
mention it" and that the Security Council resolution being negotiated
will not be under Chapter 7. He said if Syria fails to cooperate, the
Security Council can pass an entirely different resolution "which may
employ Chapter 7."
Lavrov stressed that
ongoing attempts to threaten the use of force against Syria would
provoke the opposition and disrupt a chance for peace negotiations in
Geneva that the U.S. and Russia have been trying to organize.
Ban
urged the Security Council - which has been paralyzed over Syria - to
unite and ensure enforcement and compliance with the U.S.-Russia plan.
In
London, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said Syria will
comply with all Security Council resolutions and will facilitate the
mission of the U.N. inspectors in line with the Russian-U.S. agreement.
The comments were carried by state-run SANA news agency, which said
al-Zoubi made the comments in an interview with Britain-based ITN TV on
Sunday.
Meanwhile, invitations were going out
Monday to top members of the Syrian National Coalition - the main
umbrella opposition group - for an international conference in New York
timed to coincide with next week's U.N. General Assembly meeting, French
officials said.
