UN 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 inspectors 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 report mentioned the areas of Ein
Tarma, Moadamiyeh and Zamalka.
"The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in
the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale," the
inspectors said on the first page of their report to Secretary-General Ban
Ki-Moon.
The Aug. 21 chemical attack unfolded as a U.N. chemical weapons
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.
The inspectors were mandated 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.
Chief weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom handed over the report to
the secretary-general on Sunday amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at
getting Syria to put its just-acknowledged stockpile of chemical weapons and
chemical precursors under international control for destruction.
In Geneva, the chairman of a U.N. war crimes panel on Monday said
it is investigating 14 suspected chemical attacks in Syria, dramatically
escalating the stakes after diplomatic breakthroughs that saw the Syrian
government agree to dismantle its chemical weapons program.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the Geneva-based U.N. panel he heads
has not pinpointed the chemical used in the attacks and is awaiting evidence
from a separate team of U.N. chemical weapons inspectors expected to be made
public later Monday.
The report is expected to add momentum to a deal to eradicate
Syria's chemical weapons program.
Pinheiro also said the panel believes Assad's government has been
responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, while rebel groups have
perpetrated war crimes but not crimes against humanity "because there is
not a clear chain of command."
Pinheiro added that the "vast majority" of casualties in
Syria's civil war came from conventional weapons like guns and mortars.
Meanwhile,
US Secretary of State John Kerry ended a weeklong
diplomacy tour in Paris. Just a week ago, he was there lobbying for global
support for military strikes against Assad, but after a breakthrough with
Russia, Kerry's latest visit was intended to secure support from allies for the
deal to secure and then eradicate Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.
This as 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.
AP