OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria

The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria is a mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate some possible cases of the use of toxic chemicals in Syria during the civil war, including chlorine. The 21 August 2013 Ghouta chemical attack used sarin.^[1] The OPCW-Director General Ahmet Üzümcü announced the creation of the mission on 29 April 2014. This initial mission was headed by Malik Ellahi.^[2] The Syrian Government agreed to the Mission.^[3]

The Mission took over the work of the OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria, which had been formed to oversee the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons program, and which ended its activities on 30 September 2014.^[4] On 4 September 2014, the head of the Joint Mission reported to the UN Security Council that 96% of Syria's declared stockpile, including the most dangerous chemicals, had been destroyed and preparation were underway to destroy the remaining 12 production facilities, a task to be completed by the OPCW Mission.^[5] On 4 January 2015, the OPCW stated that destruction was completed, though since then previously undeclared traces of compounds in a Syrian government military research site have been reported.^{[citation needed]}

2014

On 16 June 2014 the mission published its first summary report (S/1191/2014), covering the period from 3 to 31 May 2014.^[2] Its second report (S/1212/2014)^[6] was circulated to States Parties on 10 September 2014.^[7] Its third report (S/1230/2014) was dated 18 December 2014.^[8]

During its first visit in Syria, the mission attempted on May 27 to conduct one field visit to Kafr Zita, in Hama Governorate, held by the opposition, where chlorine gas was allegedly used for an attack on May 19, departing from government held Homs. It aborted the mission after its "leading vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device", another vehicle was "attacked with automatic gun fire" and "the remaining two vehicles were intercepted by armed gunmen and members of the team detained for some time." The mission interviewed between 25 August and 5 September, in a safe location out of Syria, 37 witness of chlorine attacks of the villages of Talmenes, in Idlib Governorate, on 21 and 24 April 2014, Al-Tamanah, in Idlib Governorate, on 12, 18 and 30 April, 22 and 25 May 2014, and Kafr Zita, which suffered 14 attacks between 10 April and 30 August 2014) The third report presented the conclusions and evidence obtained from the interviewees. It estimates that those attacks were made with barrel bombs thrown from helicopters which killed 13 people — 3 in Talmenes, 8 in Al-Tamanah, and 2 in Kafr Zita.

2015

A further three missions were initiated by OPCW in 2015, which were headed by different personnel and the reports passed through Ban Ki-Moon by Ahmet Üzümcü to the President of the Security Council in November 2015 (S/2015/908). The reports (S/1318/2015, S/1319/2015, and S/1320/2015, all dated 29 October 2015) were titled "Interim report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria regarding the incidents described in communications from the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates and the Head of the National Authority of the Syrian Arab Republic from 15 December 2014 to 15 June 2015", led by Steven Wallis, "Report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria Regarding Alleged Incidents in the Idlib Governorate of the Syrian Arab Republic between 16 March and 20 May 2015", dated 20 October 2015 led by Leonard Phillips and "Report of the OPCW fact-finding mission in Syria regarding alleged incidents in Marea, Syrian Arab Republic August 2015".^[9]

In early 2015 the mission disclosed previously undeclared traces of sarin and VX precursor compounds in a Syrian government military research site, the Scientific Studies and Research Centre, where use of those compounds had not been previously declared.^[10][11]

2017

The OPCW expressed "serious concern" over the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack and said that its Fact-Finding Mission in Syria was "gathering and analysing information from all available sources."^[12] The following day, the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW, referring to the media reports, requested all member states of the Chemical Weapons Convention to share available information on what it described preliminary as "allegations of use of chemical weapons in the Khan Shaykhun area of Idlib province in the Syrian Arab Republic."^[13]

The OPCW declared on 19 April that lab results "indicate that the victims were exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance."^[14]

2018

A chemical attack on Douma took place on 7 April 2018 that killed at least 49 civilians with scores injured, and which has been blamed on the Assad government.^[15][16] On 10 April, the Syrian and Russian governments invited the OPCW to send a team to investigate the attacks.^[17][18] The investigators arrived in Damascus on April 14,^[19] but were blocked from entering Douma, saying they can not guarantee their safety.^[20][21] Under the evacuation agreement for Ghouta, the Syrian military were unable to enter Douma, so Russian Military Police assisted the OPCW mission.^[22] Concerns were also raised by US ambassador Kenneth D. Ward that Russia was trying to conceal the evidence, and that Russia had tampered with the site of the attack to thwart the OPCW fact finding mission; Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied any tampering had occurred.^[21]

On 17 April, the OPCW was promised access to the site, but had not entered Douma^[23] and was unable to carry out the inspection because their teams came under fire during a reconnaissance to visit sites of the chemical weapons attack. According to the OPCW director, “On arrival at site one, a large crowd gathered and the advice provided by the UNDSS was that the reconnaissance team should withdraw,” and “at site two, the team came under small arms fire and an explosive was detonated. The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus”, and at the site "the incident reportedly resulted in two fatalities and an injury to a Russian soldier." Following that incident, several security measures were increased, and during the next visits the investigation team could work undisturbed.^[24][22][25]

On 21 April, the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission visited a site in Douma to collect samples, and on 25 April visited a second site in Douma to collect further samples. The team also interviewed people related to incident in Damascus.^[26] On 4 May the OPCW announced that the initial deployment of the Fact-Finding Mission in Douma was complete, but that analysis of the samples would take at least three to four weeks.^[27] An interim report in July 2018 concluded that no evidence of nerve agents were found but that chlorinated organic agents were, and that further analysis was required to establish the provenance of a gas cylinder on the roof of the building hit in the strike.^[28]

The FFM in its final report in March 2019 concluded that the evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered by the FFM provide reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place and that the chemical agent used was molecular chlorine.^[29][30]

Resolution on Syria

In November 2018, the committee voted for the 2019 Budget to inspect the situation of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.^[31] The resolution passed with 99 in favor and 27 against.

In favour (99)	Abstaining (18)	Against (27)	Absent (9)
Albania   Andorra   Argentina   Australia   Austria   Bahrain   Bangladesh   Barbados   Belgium   Benin   Bhutan   Botswana   Brunei   Bulgaria   Cameroon   Canada   Chile   Colombia   Costa Rica   Croatia   Cyprus   Czech Republic   Denmark   Dominican Republic   Estonia   Fiji   Finland   France   Georgia   Germany   Greece   Ghana   Guyana    Holy See   Honduras   Hungary   Iceland   Indonesia   Ireland   Italy   Ivory Coast   Jamaica   Japan   Kenya   Kuwait   Latvia   Liberia   Libya   Liechtenstein   Lithuania   Luxembourg   Macedonia   Malawi   Malta   Mexico   Monaco   Moldova   Montenegro   Morocco   Netherlands   New Zealand   Nigeria   Norway   Oman   Panama   Papua New Guinea   Paraguay   Peru   Poland   Portugal   Qatar   Romania   Saint Kitts and Nevis   Saint Lucia   Samoa   San Marino   Saudi Arabia   Senegal   Seychelles   Singapore   Slovakia   Slovenia   Solomon Islands   South Korea   Spain   Sweden   Switzerland   Thailand   Togo   Tonga   Turkey   Ukraine   United Arab Emirates   United Kingdom   United States   Uruguay   Vanuatu   Vietnam	Afghanistan   Algeria   Bosnia and Herzegovina   Brazil   Burkina Faso   Ecuador   El Salvador   Ethiopia   India   Iraq   Jordan   Malaysia   Mongolia     Nepal   Philippines   Sri Lanka   Suriname   Uganda	Angola   Armenia   Belarus   Bolivia   Burundi   China   Congo   Comoros   Cuba   Guatemala   Iran   Kazakhstan   Kyrgyzstan   Laos   Mozambique   Myanmar   Nicaragua   Pakistan   Palestine   Russia   South Africa   Sudan   Syria   Tajikistan   Uzbekistan   Venezuela   Zimbabwe	Azerbaijan   Democratic Republic of the Congo   Madagascar   Mauritius   Rwanda   Serbia   Swaziland   Turkmenistan   Zambia

See also

• Use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war
• Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic
• United Nations Mission to Investigate Alleged Uses of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic (2013)
• OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (2015-2016)

References

1. Sellström, Åke; Cairns, Scott; Barbeschi, Maurizio (16 September 2013). (PDF). United Nations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2015. Also: 2015-05-18 at the Wayback Machine
2. "Summary Report of the Work of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria Covering the Period from 3 to 31 May 2014" (PDF). OPCW. 16 June 2014.
3. "Report of the Secretary General on Security Council Resolution 2139". New York Times. 22 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
4. "OPCW-UN Joint Mission draws to a close". OPCW-UN Joint Mission. 1 October 2014.
5. "Ninety-six percent of Syria's declared chemical weapons destroyed – UN-OPCW mission chief". OPCW. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
6. "Second Report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria, Key Findings" (PDF). OPCW. 10 September 2014.
7. "Letter dated 27 October 2014 from the Secretary General addressed to the President of the Security Council". UN. 27 October 2014.
8. "Third Report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria" (PDF). OPCW. 18 December 2014.
9. "Letter dated 24 November 2015 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council" (PDF).
10. Louisa Loveluck (9 May 2015). "UN inspectors find undeclared sarin-linked chemicals at Syrian military site". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
11. Deutsch, Anthony. "Exclusive: Weapons inspectors find undeclared sarin and VX traces in Syria – diplomats". Reuters. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
12. OPCW Press Release on Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use in Southern Idlib, Syria, 4 April 2017.
13. [Note verbale of the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW NV/ODG/209302/17 dated 5 April 2017
14. "OPCW Director-General Shares Incontrovertible Laboratory Results Concluding Exposure to Sarin".
15. Nicole Gaouette. "Haley says Russia's hands are 'covered in the blood of Syrian children'". CNN. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
16. "Suspected Syria chemical attack kills 70". BBC News. 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
17. "OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria". www.opcw.org.
18. "Syria invites OPCW to investigate alleged chemical attack in Douma". U.S. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
19. "МИД Франции: эксперты ОЗХО до сих пор не допущены в Думу". Радио Свобода.
20. Wintour, Patrick; Borger, Julian (16 April 2018). "Syria: chemical weapons inspectors barred from Douma site". the Guardian.
21. "Chemical Weapons Experts Blocked From Site of Syria Attack, Officials Say". New York Times. 16 April 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
22. "Update by the Director-General on the deployment of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syrian Arab Republic, to the Executive Council at its fifty-ninth meeting" (PDF). OPCW. 18 April 2018. EC-M-59/DG.2. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
23. "OPCW chemical weapons investigators enter Douma after being 'blocked'". 17 April 2018.
24. https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/S_series/2018/en/s-1645-2018_e_.pdf
25. Deutsch, Anthony; Perry, Tom (18 April 2018). "U.N. team fired upon in Syria while visiting suspected chemical sites". Reuters. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
26. "OPCW Fact-Finding Mission Visits Second Site in Douma, Syria" (Press release). OPCW. 25 April 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
27. "OPCW Spokesperson's Statement on Fact-Finding Mission Deployment to Douma" (Press release). OPCW. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
28. "Interim OPCW report finds proof of chlorine used in Syria's Douma". Al Jazeera. 2018-07-06. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
29. REPORT OF THE FACT-FINDING MISSION REGARDING THE INCIDENT OF ALLEGED USE OF TOXIC CHEMICALS AS A WEAPON IN DOUMA, SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC, ON 7 APRIL 2018
30. "OPCW confirms chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria - 01.03.2019". DW.COM. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
31. "Webcast". OPCW. Retrieved 2 March 2019.