U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels used sarin gas: investigator

[mohsen]

GENEVA (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 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," 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)
U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels used sarin gas: investigator - chicagotribune.com
PressTV - Syrian militants used chemical weapons: UN investigators

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

@mohsen
Do you believe that both side used Chemos?

 

[mohsen]

@mohsen
Do you believe that both side used Chemos?

No. all evidences are against F$A.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

No. all evidences are against F$A.

Point taken. Also, do u believe that Al-Nusrah front could have done this to delegitimize the Syrian regime, on the international stage? :/

 

[Abii]

@mohsen
Do you believe that both side used Chemos?

absolutely not

It's always the weakest party that uses chemical weapons.

Using these weapons is a measure of last resort because even if you end up winning, you lose the political battle. Saddam used chemical weapons and ended up paying for it heavily when the Americans used it as an excuse to invade Iraq and destroy the entire family and his regime. In the war saddam was losing bad in the Kurdistan region and the army couldn't win anything in the mountains so they resorted to the last possible measure. In the end they paid for it. Now we have the rebels using it. This is a sign of desperation.

 

[mohsen]

Point taken. Also, do u believe that Al-Nusrah front could have done this to delegitimize the Syrian regime, on the international stage? :/

No, Al-Nusra has no knowledge to do it, some external agencies like CIA are behind this, but in the down level which one of groups inside F$A has used it? I don't know.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

I don't share the same opinion.
No, Sadam didn't use the Chemos on the Kurds only ,but you folks ,which is a crime too.

absolutely not

It's always the weakest party that uses chemical weapons.

Using these weapons is a measure of last resort because even if you end up winning, you lose the political battle. Saddam used chemical weapons and ended up paying for it heavily when the Americans used it as an excuse to invade Iraq and destroy the entire family and his regime. In the war saddam was losing bad in the Kurdistan region and the army couldn't win anything in the mountains so they resorted to the last possible measure. In the end they paid for it. Now we have the rebels using it. This is a sign of desperation.

 

[Abii]

I don't share the same opinion.
No, Sadam didn't use the Chemos on the Kurds only ,but you folks ,which is a crime too.

Well yeah, he was losing the North to not just the Kurds, but Iranian forces as well. Iraqi forces had no answer to either side in the North so they used chemical weapons as a last measure.

 

[Syrian Lion]

nothing new, those terrorists could have obtained chemical from Turkey or from the Libyan depot.. of course with the CIA helping the transfer...

 

[Hack-Hook]

No, Al-Nusra has no knowledge to do it, some external agencies like CIA are behind this, but in the down level which one of groups inside F$A has used it? I don't know.

they could have help , but on other hand if some Japanese terrorist group could do such attack on Tokyo , then F$A can do that.

 

[bdslph]

ASSAD has kept his promise that it won't use
and
FSA / terrorist also kept it promise that it will use this weapons and it did

this is part i am shocked that UN said something honest this time that it is the opposition

well where is Uncle Sam now uncle sam uncle sam where r u

I THANK PRESIDENT ASSAD not to use this weapons

 

[Hussein]

Carla Del Ponte is someone honest . she does a great job.

just check her wiki page which says a lot about her honesty:
Carla Del Ponte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(check for NATO for exemple

 

[mohsen]

Carla Del Ponte is someone honest . she does a great job.

just check her wiki page which says a lot about her honesty:
Carla Del Ponte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(check for NATO for exemple

at least she tried and talked about it personally, we all know that Western countries wont allow any court against them, we saw what they did to David Kelly.

 

[BDforever]

Syria crisis: UN's Del Ponte says evidence rebels 'used sarin'

Testimony from victims of the conflict in Syria suggests rebels have used the nerve agent, sarin, a leading member of a UN commission of inquiry has said.
Carla Del Ponte told Swiss TV that there were "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof".

Ms Del Ponte did not rule out the possibility that government forces might also have used chemical weapons.

Later, the commission stressed that it had "not reached conclusive findings" as to their use by any parties.

"As a result, the commission is not in a position to further comment on the allegations at this time," a statement added.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the statement was terse and shows that the UN was taken by surprise at Ms Del Ponte's remarks.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria on was established in August 2011 to examine alleged violations of human rights in the Syrian uprising. It is due to issue its latest report next month.
'Stupefied'

In an interview with Swiss-Italian TV on Sunday, Ms Del Ponte, who serves as a commissioner on the panel, said: "Our investigators have been in neighbouring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals. "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."

Sarin, a colourless, odourless gas which can cause respiratory arrest and death, is classed as a weapon of mass destruction and is banned under international law.

Ms Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general and prosecutor with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), did not rule out the possibility that troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad might also have used chemical weapons, but said further investigation was needed.

"I was a little bit stupefied by the first indications we got... they were about the use of nerve gas by the opposition," she said.

Ms Del Ponte gave no details of when or where sarin may have been used.

The US and UK have said their own investigations suggest government forces have used chemical weapons, including sarin.

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the evidence was quite compelling last week, but that it would need to be incontrovertible before the case for an international response could be made at the UN.

On Monday, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said it was "deeply concerned by signs that world public opinion is being prepared for possible military intervention" in Syria.

On the question of whether chemical weapons had been used, he called for an "end to the politicisation of this issue" and to the "whipping up of an anti-Syrian atmosphere".

Ms Del Ponte's comments might therefore complicate matters for the US Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of his visit to Moscow this week, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall.

If Mr Kerry was hoping to cite fears that the Assad regime was now using chemical warfare as a reason why the Russians should shift their position, that argument will not be so easy to make, our correspondent adds.
Mutual accusations

A separate United Nations team was established to look specifically into the issue of chemical weapons.

It is ready to go to Syria but wants unconditional access with the right to inquire into all credible allegations.Both the Syrian government and the rebels have in the past accused each other using chemical weapons.

The US and the UK have said there is emerging evidence of Syrian government forces having used sarin, with Washington saying it had "varying degrees of confidence" that chemical weapons had been deployed.

President Barack Obama called in April for a "vigorous investigation", saying the use of such weapons would be a "game changer" if verified.

President Assad's government says the claims do not have any credibility, denouncing them as "lies".
source: BBC News - Syria crisis: UN's Del Ponte says evidence rebels 'used sarin'

 

[Hack-Hook]

I like to see how US and English diplomatic system gonna react to this news as last week they had a competition with each other to accuse Syria on using chemical weapons.