Pillay says UN Rights Investigation Team to examine suspected Syria chemical attack
Thursday, 29 August 2013 00:00
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Reuters: The independent commission set up by the United Nations Human Rights Council will examine the impact of a suspected chemical weapons attack on an area of Damascus suburbs, the UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said on Wednesday (28 August).
US President Barack Obama and his European and Middle East allies have already blamed President Bashar al-Assad for last week’s killing of hundreds of civilians, something Assad’s government has denied. UN experts are still gathering evidence at the site of the suspected attack on the outskirts of Damascus.
Speaking from Sri Lanka’s eastern port city of Trincomalee on the third day of her official visit to the island nation, Pillay said she supported UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s desire to see the Syrian crisis resolved politically only after inspectors had finished their visit.
Pillay indicated that the suspected chemical weapons attack would be probed, not by the UN High Rights Commission directly, but by the independent investigators looking at reported abuses in Syria. “We are not doing any inquiries into the chemical weapons. The commission of inquiry set by the Human Rights Council will,” she said.
Pillay is visiting Sri Lanka to assess rights in a country still divided by a 27-year war, though her trip has been beset by protesters criticising the UN.
The United Nations Security Council was set for a showdown over Syria after Britain sought authorisation for Western military action that Russia called premature. UN chemical weapons experts investigating an apparent gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus made a second trip across the front line to take samples on Wednesday. Ban has pleaded for them to be given the time they need to complete their mission.
