UN suspects Syrian rebel use of Sarin (nerve gas)

[The Cheshire Cat]

UN human rights investigators say they have strong suspicions but not absolute proof that Syrian rebel forces have used the nerve gas sarin.
It follows interviews with victims and doctors in neighbouring countries.
“We collected some witness testimony that made to appear that some chemical weapons were used, in particular nerving (sic) gas and what appears to our investigation (was) that that was used by the opponents, by the rebels,” said Carla del Ponte, a member of the UN investigating team who has also served as an international war crimes prosecutor.
The Geneva-based inquiry gave no details as to when or where the nerve gas may have been used.
It did not find evidence that government forces had resorted to chemical weapons.
The US has said it has “varying degrees of confidence” that Syria’s government has used sarin on its people.
Both President al-Assad’s forces and the rebels have accused each other of employing chemical weapons several times.
Sarin has no colour or smell and can be fatal even in small doses

http://www.euronews.com/2013/05/06/un-strong-suspicions-that-syrian-rebels-have-used-sarin-nerve-gas/

More elaborate article from BBC News:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22424188



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

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67436000/jpg/_67436591_67436590.jpg




Carla del Ponte: "I was a little bit stupefied by the first indication of the use of nerve gas by the opposition"





Testimony from victims of the Syrian conflict suggests rebels have used the nerve agent sarin, according to a leading United Nations investigator.
Carla del Ponte told Swiss TV there were "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof".
However, she said her panel had not yet seen evidence of government forces using chemical weapons.
Syria has recently come under growing Western pressure over the alleged use of such weapons.
Ms del Ponte, who serves on the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said in an interview with Swiss-Italian TV: "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."
Ms del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general and prosecutor with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, did not rule out the possibility that government troops might also have used chemical weapons, but said further investigation was needed.
She gave no details of when or where sarin may have been used.
Her commission was established in August 2011 to examine alleged violations of human rights in the Syrian conflict since March 2011.
It is due to issue its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June.
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.
What is Sarin?


One of a group of nerve gas agents invented by German scientists as part of Hitler's preparations for World War II
Huge secret stockpiles built up by superpowers during Cold War
20 times more deadly than cyanide: A drop the size of a pin-head can kill a person
Called "the poor man's atomic bomb" due to large number of people that can be killed by a small amount
Kills by crippling the nervous system through blocking the action of an enzyme that removes acetylcholine - a chemical that transmits signals down the nervous system
Can only be manufactured in a laboratory, but does not require very sophisticated equipment
Very dangerous to manufacture. Contains four main ingredients, including phosphorus trichloride


Syria's chemical weapons stockpile (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22307705)

The United States and the UK have said there is emerging evidence of Syrian government forces having used sarin, with the US saying it had "varying degrees of confidence" that chemical weapons had been deployed.
US President Barack Obama called in April for a "vigorous investigation", saying the use of such weapons would be a "game changer" if verified.
President Bashar al-Assad's government says the claims do not have any credibility, denouncing them as "lies".
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.
Israeli raids
Ms del Ponte's allegations concerning the use of sarin by rebels came after Israel carried out a series of air attacks on Syrian military targets early on Sunday.
Israeli officials said its military struck consignments of advanced Iranian missiles for delivery to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67436000/jpg/_67436576_86fe63e6-a1a5-4bd0-956f-aa79edcfdc81.jpg Syria said the latest Israeli air strikes hit three locations
Hours later, the Syrian government said the Jamraya research centre north-west of Damascus was hit.
A more recent official statement has given more details, saying military positions in the Jamraya area were struck along with other facilities at Maysaloun near the Lebanese border and a military airport at Dimass.
The statement said there was massive damage at those locations and nearby civilian areas with many people killed or injured. It also denied that the targets included missiles on their way to Hezbollah.
The New York Times quotes an unnamed senior Syrian official as saying dozens of elite troops stationed near the presidential palace were killed, while AFP news agency quoted the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying 15 soldiers died.
Images on state TV showed large areas of rubble with many buildings destroyed or badly damaged.
The Arab League has condemned the raids and the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, has expressed concern.
He said all sides should "exercise maximum calm and restraint" and "act with a sense of responsibility to prevent an escalation of what is already a devastating and highly dangerous conflict".

[Sasha]

I highly doubt the rebels are capable of producing sarin, but maybe they found some of Assads stockpiles...

[khad]

Of all the typical nerve agents, Sarin is by far the easiest to manufacture
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2948900.stm

The chemicals needed to launch a deadly terrorist attack are easily available in Britain, a BBC investigation has discovered.
Using a credit card and fake headed note paper, a reporter for BBC Radio 4's Today programme was able to buy a cocktail of ingredients which could be used to make sarin gas.
In 1995 members of a religious cult used sarin on the Tokyo underground, in a terrorist attack which killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000.
One breath of the nerve agent is enough to kill, with death often coming in less than a minute.
Export controls
The BBC investigation found that buying the chemicals needed to make sarin is simple.
There are stringent and rigorous import and export controls on them imposed by the government, but there are no laws restricting their purchase inside the UK.
The Today programme's reporter Angus Stickler was able to buy enough of the chemicals to make twice the amount of sarin used in the Tokyo attack.
Then, an umbrella was used to pierce a container filled with sarin wrapped in newspaper.


Some of these chemicals are dangerous so we're keeping them under lock and key
Angus Stickler
BBC correspondent

It took Angus Stickler three weeks to buy the four chemicals needed by simply faxing an order to two British supply companies.
The chemicals arrived within days.
"There's all the ingredients to make sarin here," said the correspondent.
"Some of these chemicals are dangerous so we're keeping them under lock and key but there's no law to keep anyone buying these."
A recipe describing how to manufacture the nerve agent was found on the internet.
Economic risks
The Chemical Industry Association, which operates a voluntary code of practice, says the issue is difficult to legislate because many of the chemicals involved have legitimate industrial, commercial or household use.
Therefore "legislating for them would be a kneejerk reaction", spokesman Steve Elliot told Today.
"It would impact on economic activity and potentially assist terrorists in some of their activities."


Legislating for (these chemicals) would be a kneejerk reaction
Steve Elliot, Chemical Industry Association spokesman

He said it was up to chemical companies to remain vigilant, to monitor suspicious enquiries and control who they employed.
Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin agreed providing foolproof security in an open society was "intrinsically difficult".
But he said currently nine government departments had some responsibility over chemical usage and it should be coordinated under a "single, heavyweight minister".
The investigation's findings follow growing concerns about the possibility of a terrorist attack in the UK.
Concrete barriers have been installed around Parliament to deter would-be suicide bombers and security has been stepped up at London airports.


There have also been reports that undercover police squads watching suspected Islamic militants in London have been told they can shoot to kill if they think a suicide attack is being launched. And the Sunday Times claimed that MI5 and Scotland Yard are hunting two men in Britain who have been trained as suicide bombers by al-Qaeda.
Detainees at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba reportedly told British and American authorities the men were members of a specially recruited squad of "martyrs".
Last weekend it emerged that 11,500 passports have gone missing over the last few years, prompting fears they may fall into the hands of terrorists.
Liberal Democrat spokesman Paul Burstow called for an immediate inquiry into the "scandalous" situation.

[l'Enfermé]

I think this is actually an improvement. Sarin is actually less painful and delivers a quicker death than all those beheadings with dull rusty knives and the torture that precedes the beheadings.

"Syrian" Insurgents - Now 38% more humane!