２０１７年の化学兵器攻撃にシリア政権軍関与、ＯＰＣＷが初認定

【ハーグＡＦＰ＝時事】化学兵器禁止機関（OPCW）は8日、2017年にシリアで起きた3回の化学兵器攻撃について、バッシャール・アサド政権軍が関与したとする報告書を発表した。OPCWが化学兵器使用の責任者を明示するのは初めて。（写真は化学兵器禁止機関のロゴ。オランダ・ハーグにて）
　ＯＰＣＷは、９年に及ぶシリア内戦における化学兵器使用の責任者を特定するために新たに調査班を設置。今回の調査結果は、この調査班の最初の報告書で明らかとなった。
　この報告書を受け、欧米諸国と人権団体はシリア政権を非難。報告書は、今後の対応などを検討するために国連などに送られる。
　報告書によると、シリア空軍の戦闘機は２０１７年３月２４日と３０日、北部の村ラタミナでサリンを含む爆弾２個を投下。さらに同２５日には、同軍のヘリが塩素ガス入りのたる爆弾を同村の病院に投下した。ＯＰＣＷによると、これらの攻撃で計１０６人が被害を受けた。
　ＯＰＣＷによると、調査班は「２０１７年にラタミナでサリンと塩素ガスを化学兵器として使用した攻撃の責任者が、シリア・アラブ共和国空軍に属する人物であると考える合理的な根拠があると結論付けた」という。
　オランダ・ハーグに拠点を置くＯＰＣＷの加盟国は２０１８年、シリアと同盟国ロシアが反対したにもかかわらず、化学兵器攻撃の責任者を特定するため、ＯＰＣＷに新たな権限を付与することで合意した。ＯＰＣＷはそれまで、化学兵器攻撃が起きたかどうかについて言及するのみで、攻撃の責任者を明示することはできなかった。
　ＯＰＣＷは２０１３年、化学兵器全廃に向けた努力が評価されノーベル平和賞を受賞した。同機関は世界の化学兵器の９７％を排除したととしている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/04/09-12:01）

The global chemical weapons watchdog on Wednesday for the first time explicitly blamed Syria for toxic attacks, saying President Bashar al-Assad's air force used the nerve gas sarin and chlorine three times in 2017.
The findings came in the first report from a new investigative team set up by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to identify the perpetrators of attacks in Syria's ongoing nine-year-long civil war.
In March 2017, Syrian fighter jets dropped sarin on the northern village of Lataminah and a military helicopter dropped a barrel bomb full of chlorine on the same village, the probe found.
The OPCW said the team has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the perpetrators of the use of sarin as a chemical weapon in Lataminah in 2017... and the use of chlorine... were individuals belonging to the Syrian Arab Air Force.
The report willl now go to the UN Security Council which will decide what, if any, further action to take,
Member states of the OPCW agreed two years ago to give The Hague-based watchdog new powers to attribute blame for attacks, despite the objections of Syria and its ally Russia.
Previously it had only been able to say whether chemical strikes had occurred but without naming the perpetrators.
- 'Higher authorities' -
The OPCW said the new Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) could not identify the precise chain of command but that orders for the attacks must have come from senior commanders.
Attacks of such a strategic nature would have only taken place on the basis of orders from the higher authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic military command, IIT coordinator Santiago Onate-Laborde said
Even if authority can be delegated, responsibility cannot. In the end, the was unable to identify any other plausible explanation, he said in a statement.
Western nations and human rights groups praised the OPCW report, saying it proved Syria continued chemical attacks on its own population.
Today's confirmation that the Syrian military 'at the highest level' was responsible for sarin and chlorine attacks in 2017 should remove any doubt that the Syrian state deliberately used chemical weapons against its own people, Louis Charbonneau, Human Rights Watch's UN director said.
The OPCW's conclusions should be used to support criminal justice for the individuals responsible, he added in a statement.
Canada's delegation to the OPCW said the evidence in the report was conclusive and described Syria's actions as reprehensible.
Britain's ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Wilson said Syria was now in breach of the UN Chemical Weapons Convention and that OPCW states must respond.
- Fighter jets -
The report said two Syrian Arab Air Force Sukhoi SU-22 jet fighters dropped two bombs containing sarin on Lataminah on March 24 and 30, 2017.
A Syrian military helicopter dropped a cylinder containing chlorine on a hospital in the sane village on March 25 that year, the report said.
In total, 106 people were affected by the attacks, the OPCW said.
Almost two years ago, the OPCW confirmed that sarin and chlorine were used in two attacks on the town, but at the time it did not name those responsible.
The Lataminah strikes came just days before another deadly sarin assault in nearby Khan Sheikhun on April 4 that killing more than 80 people.
Western nations launched air strikes on Syrian military targets in response to the Khan Sheikhun attack.
The OPCW team is expected to deal at a later date with an alleged 2018 chlorine attack in the Syrian town of Douma in which at least 40 people died -- an investigation that has become a major bone of contention between Damascus and its Russian ally and Western nations.
Damascus has continued to deny the use of chemical weapons and insists it has handed over its weapons stockpiles under a 2013 agreement, prompted by a suspected sarin gas attack that killed 1,400 in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.
The OPCW won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for its work in Syria and says it has eliminated 97 percent of the world's chemical weapons.