The Syrian Opposition Also Needs Red Lines
UN investigator Carla Del Ponte's disclosure of the possible use of chemical weapons by Syrian rebels should force Turkey to think again about its Syria policy, writes Kadri Gursel.
The disclosure by Swiss jurist Carla Del Ponte, the Syria monitor of the United Nations Human Rights Council that there are “strong and concrete suspicions” of use of sarin gas by Syrian rebels has increased the ambiguity over the chemical weapons and have made the situation extremely complicated.
Del Ponte, in a statement to Swiss TSI channel on Sunday [May 5], said:
"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals. According to their report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated. I was a little bit stupefied by the first indications we got. ... They were about the use of nerve gas by the opposition."
These remarks by Carla Del Ponte to a TV channel are not officially binding on the United Nations. But bearing in mind the reputable career this UN official built during her tenure as the chief prosecutor of the Rwanda and former Yugoslavia cases being tried at the International Criminal Court, it is impossible to ignore her latest comments. She is not just any person.
