© Associated Press / Bassem Mroue
Why has the fact finding mission (FFM) of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) not visited Douma?
The OPCW inspectors are held up
by the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) which has a say about any movement of UN aligned organizations in areas that might be dangerous.
The UNDSS is led by an Australian police / intelligence officer. The holdup seems to be intended.On Sunday April 8 videos were published of an alleged 'chemical attack' in Douma near Damascus. At that time the area was under control of Jaish al-Islam, a Salafi terrorist organization financed by Saudi Arabia. The various videos from terrorist supporters like the 'White Helmets' were unconvincing. They showed obviously
arranged scenes of an alleged 'barrel bomb' and manipulated bodies of dead children that
had been moved and decorated with shaving foam to superficially fit the claims of a 'chemical incident'. Another video showed people in a hospital being doused with water for no apparent reason.
An often quoted opposition news outlet, the Syrian Observatory in Britain, denied that a 'chemical attack' had happened. It
reported on April 8 of suffocation after a shelter collapsed due to bombing:
[I]n among the casualties there are 21 civilians including 9 children and 3 women were killed as a result of suffocation caused by the shelling which destroyed basements of houses as a result of the violence bombardment that stopped about an hour ago on Douma area.
The 'chemical incident' was likely faked. It suspiciously happened just a few days after U.S. President Trump had announced the he wanted the U.S. military to leave Syria. A year earlier
a similar incident was claimed to have happened after a similar announcement by Trump. The U.S. had responded to the 2017 incident by bombing an empty Syrian airfield.
Comment: MoA seems to be implying that the UNDSS fabricated the attack on their reconnaissance team. Perhaps that's the case. But regardless, the Russians are going with it, because assuming it
is true, the conclusion is still obvious, as Russian Deputy FM Bogdanov stated
today:
"There are militants who terrorize citizens and, among other things, impede the normal work of representatives of the international community - the UN and the OPCW [Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons]. Someone does not want an objective professional investigation [to be carried out]," the diplomat told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
When asked if there is a security threat to the OPCW mission, the deputy minister said: "As events show, there is."
It's not the Russians or Syrians who want to block the investigation. Who stands to lose if it is carried out successfully? Lavrov has the
answer:
"At the time when they were in the area, shooting began from the part of the town where there were still a few dozen extremists, who were clearly warned ahead about who specifically will be arriving in the area and for what purpose," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Comment: See also: Chemical weapons from Germany and smoke bombs from UK found in liberated Eastern Ghouta - Russian Foreign Ministry