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pampango

(24,692 posts)
Sun Apr 28, 2013, 02:24 PM Apr 2013

UN chief writes to Assad with new request for access for chemical weapons investigators

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, on Friday wrote to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a new request for access to investigators inside the war-torn country.

Last month, both the Syrian government and rebels accused each other of using chemical weapons in an attack on the village of Khan al-Assal outside the northern city of Aleppo.

Following the incident, the Syria government called for the UN to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels. Syria, however, has still not allowed a team of experts into the country ...

Weapons inspectors will determine whether banned chemical agents were used in Syrian conflict only if they are able to access sites and take soil, blood, urine or tissue samples and examine them in certified laboratories, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which works with the UN on inspections.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/04/201342712035191678.html

You can keep requesting entry into Syria to conduct a real investigation, Mr. Ban, but there is no sign that the government there is going to allow it. The experts who were sent a few weeks ago when Syria said it wanted them got as far as Cyprus and are still waiting there for the government to allow them in.

As a result, the half-assed investigation being conducted by the UN from outside of Syria is all there is and may add fuel to a fire that we do not need.

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