The UN draws a purple line in Syria

News

“The situation is so desperate, between the Syrian regime’s constant bombings and Islamic State’s psychological warfare, that people seize every piece of good news, however small. UN [United Nations] Security Council Resolution 2235 is one of them. For the first time, an expert mission is going to investigate to find out who is responsible for the chemical attacks perpetrated in Syria,” explains Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a British chemical-weapons expert, in an interview with Equal Times.

Exactly two years ago, five surface-to-surface missiles loaded with sarin gas fell on Ghouta, the Damascus suburb where the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had won decisive battles against Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian army.

Around 3,600 people were affected by the nerve gas, which causes severe lesions and death by asphyxia. Between 355 people, according to Médecins Sans Frontières, and 1,845, according to the FSA, died as a result.

The missiles were fired just a year after the warning issued by US President Barack Obama: “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised,” warned Obama on 20 August, 2012.

Instead of a US military intervention, the attack led to a diplomatic agreement: under UN Resolution 2118, Syria became a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention on 14 September, 2013.

It therefore committed to declaring and destroying its entire stock of chemical weapons under the supervision of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Today, the OPCW confirms that 98.8 per cent of the chemical weapons arsenal declared by the Syrian regime has been destroyed.

As for the massacre in Ghouta, the use of sarin gas has been confirmed but those responsible have not been identified by the investigators sent by the UN or by the OPCW, as this was not their mandate.

A report by Human Rights Watch, however, shows that two of the five missiles were fired from the base of the 104th brigade of the Republican Guard, one of the Syrian regime’s military sites.

Rather than being the end of the story, it was the beginning of the horror. Since Resolution 2118, new chemical attacks have been perpetrated in Syrian territories opposed to the regime.

Around ten chlorine gas attacks took place in the suburbs of Hama between February and April 2014; between March and May 2015, it was the population of Idlib’s turn to be the target of a gas that burns its victims’ lungs. The attacks have caused dozens of civilian deaths and injuries.

For de Bretton-Gordon, there is no doubt over who is responsible: “We worked with the British NGO Syrian Relief to train local health workers to respond in the event of a chemical attack, but also to collect evidence. In April 2014, a doctor risked his life to bring me samples from Kfar Zita and Talmenes, where chemical attacks had taken place. I was able to analyse them from the Turkish border and confirm their chlorine content. I also obtained samples that confirmed the use of chlorine when an attack took place in Sarmin in April 2015. Every time, the doctors also brought back videos showing barrel bombs being dropped from helicopters. And it’s only the regime that has them.”

The UN denounced the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon in Syria in its vote on Resolution 2209 in March 2015. But again, the perpetrator was not named.

This is why Resolution 2235, adopted on 7 August, finally offers de Bretton-Gordon some hope for justice, however small it may be. In it, the Security Council expresses “its determination to identify those responsible for these acts and reiterates that those individuals, entities, groups, or governments responsible for any use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical, must be held accountable”.

Following on from the US red line, the UN has drawn its own purple one.

 
The UN’s “broken promises”

It was a decision that came too late for Dr Majed Aboali, who was at the bedsides of victims in Ghouta on 21 August 2013. “We saw the first victims of chemical attacks in early 2013. We warned the UN and NGOs and asked for special equipment for victims of such attacks. All in vain. I think the regime was testing the response from the outside world. And then there was 21 August.

And afterwards? Lots of doctors and militants spoke and nothing happened. Going forward, you can’t ask the Syrians to wait for whatever UN resolutions there may be!” he says in an interview with Equal Times.

The Syria Justice and Accountability Centre takes a more nuanced view, welcoming “a long overdue Resolution” but noting with regret that: “A commitment to refer the case to the International Criminal Court or to establish a tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators would have sent a much stronger signal.”

Two years after the attack on 21 August 2013, some 500,000 people are still living in Ghouta, besieged by the Syrian regime. “People aren’t only dying from chemical attacks. There is hunger and polluted water and there are TNT barrel bombs. What are the international community’s hopes for a generation that is growing up under siege? Children don’t know what a banana is, but you can get yourself a gun in an hour!” warns Dr Majed from Turkey, where he took refuge in 2014.

On Sunday 16 August, an aerial bombardment by the Syrian regime killed 112 civilians and wounded 270 in the market in Douma, the capital of Ghouta, according to the Violations Documentation Center.

“Every day, we have to bring bodies out of the rubble following TNT barrel bomb attacks. Whether it’s in Idlib, Aleppo, Lattakia, Hama, Homs, Deraa or the suburbs of Damascus, the regime is increasing its bombings of markets, hospitals and anywhere civilians gather,” according to Majd Khalaf, a member of the White Helmets, the Syrian Civil Defence teams who have already saved 22,000 lives.

In February 2014, UN Resolution 2139 called for an end to the use of barrel bombs in Syria.

No measures have since been taken in spite of the daily use of such weapons by the Syrian army against its people. The White Helmets have no hesitation in speaking of “broken promises” on their website.

They also recall that in March 2015, under Resolution 2209, the UN Security Council made a commitment to impose measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter and to the use of force to protect civilians if chemical attacks continued.

They conclude that, “By failing to act, Security Council members are emboldening the killers.”