Thread: U.N. Has Gathered Testimony Indicating That Syrian Rebels Have Used Sarin Gas

U.N. Has Gathered Testimony Indicating That Syrian Rebels Have Used Sarin Gas, Says Investigator

05/05/2013 9:11 pm EDT


GENEVA, May 5 (Reuters) - U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

"Our investigators have been in neighbouring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general who also served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, gave no details as to when or where sarin may have been used.

The Geneva-based inquiry into war crimes and other human rights violations is separate from an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria instigated by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which has since stalled.

President Bashar al-Assad's government and the rebels accuse each another of carrying out three chemical weapon attacks, one near Aleppo and another near Damascus, both in March, and another in Homs in December.

The civil war began with anti-government protests in March 2011. The conflict has now claimed an estimated 70,000 lives and forced 1.2 million Syrian refugees to flee.

The United States has said it has "varying degrees of confidence" that sarin has been used by Syria's government on its people.

President Barack Obama last year declared that the use or deployment of chemical weapons by Assad would cross a "red line". (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3220502.html

Update: Del Ponte's finding that Syria rebels have used sarin gas

By R. C. Camphausen
May 6, 2013 - 12 hours ago in World
27 comments

Geneva - Carla del Ponte, member of the UN Human Rights Commission, has unequivocally stated that chemical weapons have not been used by the Syrian army but by fighters among the rebels.

In an interview with a Swiss-Italian television station, Carla del Ponte used the following words; according to Reuters:

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated. This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities."

Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general, also made a point of saying that the 'United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria' has not seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons.

The news, only 11 hours old, has meanwhile spread far and wide, and one finds it on Iranian Press TV as well as on Russia Today.

This comes after a week of continuous media speculation which mainly accused the Syrian government of having introduced chemical weapons to the battlefield.

UPDATE:

Almost 24 hours later, the Washington Post relates that the White House expressed the opinion that the Del Ponte statement is not a game-changer. White House press secretary Jay Carney is quoted as saying “We are highly skeptical of suggestions that the opposition could have or did use chemical weapons. We find it highly likely that any chemical weapon use that has taken place in Syria was done by the Assad regime. And that remains our position.”Other U.S. officials, unnamed, did take the position that they do not believe the rebels could have obtained sarin or other such illicit agents.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/articl...#ixzz2SYJsJcC7


http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/349585

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