A UN team of investigators into rights abuses in Syria has stressed there is no conclusive proof of either side in the conflict using chemical weapons, despite a team member’s claims to the contrary. “The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic wishes to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict,” the commission said in a statement on Monday. Earlier, Carla del Ponte, a former war crimes prosecutor and a member of the commission, had told Swiss public broadcaster RSI that “according to the testimonies we have gathered, the rebels have used chemical weapons, making use of sarin gas”. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) swiftly denied the claim that rebel forces had used chemical arms. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Saleem Edris, FSA chief of staff, said he considered the remarks a “huge injustice” and “provocation” to the Syrian people. The Syrian regime and rebels have both accused each other of using chemical weapons, which are banned under international law. Del Ponte said that the inquiry had not yet seen evidence of government forces having used such arms. Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general who also served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, gave no details as to when or where sarin may have been used. Set up two years ago at the behest of the UN Human Rights Council, the commission has so far been unable to gain access to Syria as Damascus has ignored repeated requests for entry. Instead, it has interviewed more than 1,500 refugees and exiles as a basis for its reports and its charges that both the government forces and their allies and opposition forces have carried out war crimes in Syria, where more than 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.
