Drawing Conclusions

"This is a war crime and a grave violation of ... international law. 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.
"[There is] profound shock and regret at the conclusion that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale, resulting in numerous casualties, particularly among civilians and including many children.
"It is for others to decide whether to pursue this matter further to determine responsibility."
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

Led by Ake Sellstrom, the UN chemical weapons inspectors happened to be in Damascus when the attacks in the Ghouta areas of Ein Tarma, Moadamiyeh and Zamalka took place. The inspectors visited the three suburbs and reached the conclusion that all were exposed to bombardment by "surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin". Their report produced "clear and convincing evidence" that chemical weapons were used last month in Syria killing hundreds of people.

The "clear and convincing evidence" represented "environmental, chemical and medical samples", supplemented by interviews with fifty survivors of those early-morning attacks. The eyewitnesses reported "an attack with shelling", then the onset of symptoms beginning with blurred vision followed by vomiting and loss of consciousness. The witnesses spoke of the people who were incapacitated whom they found "lying on the ground .. deceased or unconscious".

The UN experts went around to the locations where five rockets had exploded to represent a "relatively large scale" attack "against civilians, including children". Two types of artillery-launched rocket were identified: M14 and 330 mm. Both present in the armoury of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military. A military which also is in possession of one of the world's largest sarin nerve gas stockpiles.

Investigators garnered sufficient evidence to trace the rocket trajectories of two of the five rockets. Experts have said that even if the rebels might have captured a few of those delivery systems from the Syrian military, along with the requisite amount of sarin gas, the operation of the weapons delivery system would be exceptionally difficult for those not trained in their use.

In their report the inspectors described the rockets used in the dispersal of sarin, saying that the rockets that hit two of the suburbs, Zamalka and Ein Tarma, were fired from the northwest. No exact location on the rocket launch site was given but Qassioun Mountain, the locale of Syrian military bases, is situated roughly north-west of both suburbs.

As far as the U.S., Britain and France are concerned, the findings infer with no qualifying arguments that the regime perpetrated the attack, an assumption generally well received by all involved with the exception of Russia and Syria. "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", claimed French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

"It reinforces the position of those that have said the regime is guilty." Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the UN said: "Only the regime could have carried out this large-scale attack." She observed the quality of the sarin to be more potent than what was used by Iraq's Saddam Hussein against Iran. There was an additional caution by the inspectors that the sites they looked at had been "well travelled by other individuals prior to the arrival of the mission."

As for Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, he stressed it was too early to jump to conclusions. Although the investigators' conclusion was "deeply disturbing". "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. This result leaves us with the deepest concern."

"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."

www.abc.net.au by Mary Geari