The Syrian Coalition called upon the UN Security Council to re-open the file of the Ghouta Massacre and refer it to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to determine perpetrators of the massacre and bring them to justice so as to make sure such a heinous crime cannot be repeated.
Reports by independent human rights groups indicated that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons 136 times since the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2118 on September 27, 2013 under which Assad’s declared stockpiles of chemical weapons were destroyed.
The Syrian Coalition stressed that the Assad regime would not have used banned weapons against Syrian civilians had it not been for its total disregard for the international community as well as its sense of protection and impunity.
The Syrian Coalition denounced the extraordinary claims made by the Assad regime’s UN representative Bashar Aljaafari who on Monday blamed France for the Ghouta Massacre that claimed the lives of over 1,127 civilians, a third of them women and children.
The Coalition said Aljaafari’s claims showed the utmost disregard for the victims of the Ghouta Massacre and are a desperate attempt to deny Assad’s responsibility for the sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta.
Following the massacre, the Assad regime surrendered its cache of chemical weapons under the threat of UN sanctions and the use of force by the United States.
Over the past three years, the Assad regime has persistently denied responsibility for the Ghouta Massacre, while seeking to blame opposition groups. However, probes by the United Nations and international organizations produced a mass of evidence and facts pointing to the Assad regime’s direct responsibility for the chemical attack on eastern Ghouta. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
