U.N. Chief Responds to Syria Report

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/world/middleeast/un-chief-responds-to-syria-report.html

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UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations secretary general on Friday said that those who used chemical weapons in Syria should be brought to justice, even as a team of United Nations investigators said their inquiries alone could not establish who did what.

“The international community has a moral and political responsibility to hold accountable those responsible, to deter future incidents and to ensure that chemical weapons can never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare,” the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, told members of the General Assembly on Friday. His remarks came as he discussed the final report of a United Nations-appointed panel of experts charged with investigating allegations of the use of chemical weapons.

That group concluded in a report submitted Thursday that chemical arms had been used in at least five instances between March and August. Corroborating the accusations proved hard: The investigators could not travel to some of the sites in question or inspect the munitions used. Instead, they relied on the testimony of witnesses and in some cases, medical tests.

Speaking to reporters late Friday, members of the team took pains to say that others, namely United Nations human rights officials, would have to undertake additional forensic investigations to determine who did what.