the times | Wednesday April 8 2020 1GM 29
attacking hospitals. There will be
another test of accountability today
when a separate inquiry, by the UN’s
Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW), pub-
lishes its findings on a series of sus-
pected sarin and chlorine attacks in
Syria. It will assign blame outright for
three attacks on the rebel-held town of
al-Latiminah in March 2017, shortly
before a sarin attack on the nearby
town of Khan Sheikhoun which led to
retaliatory US air strikes.
David Nott, a British surgeon who
has repeatedly travelled to Syria to
work in underground hospitals and
train emergency staff, said that so long
as Russia remained on the security
council the world would “continue to
wring its hands in desperation and
every humanitarian law will be broken”.
He told The Times: “The overwhelm-
ing evidence from my doctors on the
ground in Idlib is that their hospitals
were attacked from the air using co-
ordinated attacks from both the Rus-
sian and the Syrian regime. All these
attacks on schools and hospitals
occurred in the de-confliction zone, all
on civilian targets.”publication was also long delayed.
However, although not explicit, its
findings were clear. “It was ‘highly
probable’ that an attack on the Rakaya
primary health care centre, in the vil-
lage of Rakaya Sijneh in Idlib governor-
ate, on May 3 2019 was carried out by
Syrian government forces,” the board
said of one attack.
Of another, it found: “Regarding
damage done to the Kafr Nobol
surgical hospital in Kafr Nobol, on July
4 last year, it was ‘highly probable’ that
the strikes had been carried out by the
government and/or its allies.”
Russia’s veto at the security council
means that it is unlikely the report will
be followed up by action. Its failure to
go beyond the “highly probable” line
led to Russian news organisations
quickly claiming yesterday that the
Kremlin had been cleared.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-
general, said the report did not repre-
sent the findings of a “criminal inquiry”
and its purpose was to improve UN
“procedures” and prevent a repeat of
attacks on humanitarian targets.
Russia and the Syrian regime have
both repeatedly denied deliberatelyThe World at Five
India’s migrant workers
shunned, even at home
In depth and online today at 5pm
thetimes.co.uk
Assad and Russian allies
targeted hospitals, says UN
A UN commission of inquiry has put
direct blame for attacks on hospitals
and other civilian facilities in Syria on
the Assad regime “and/or its allies”; a
clear reference to President Putin.
The investigation found that in four
out of seven incidents studied — air-
strikes on two healthcare centres, a
hospital, and a child protection clinic —
it was “plausible”, “probable” or “highly
probable” that aircraft of the regime or
its allies were responsible.
The inquiry focused on targets
whose co-ordinates had been given to
the UN as vulnerable civilian sites that
should have protection. Russia has
been accused of passing on the details
to the regime.
Activists and human rights groups
condemned the report for failing to
mention Russia, a permanent member
of the UN security council, by name.
Human Rights Watch also criticised
the limited scope of the inquiry, which
looked at only seven of the countless
attacks carried out on vulnerable civil-
ian sites. Kenneth Roth, the director,
said the “mealy-mouthed report” had
been careful to avoid offending Russia,
“the prime offender along with Syria”.
Abdulkhafi al-Hamdo, an activist in
rebel-held northwestern Syria, said:
“The UN and the whole world knows
that most of the warplanes were Rus-
sians, not Syrian. Nevertheless, the UN
cannot pronounce the name of Russia.”
Aid workers have accused the regime
of targeting hospitals from the start of
the civil war nine years ago. In total,
about 600 attacks on health facilities
have been documented and hundreds
of healthcare workers killed.
When Russia intervened in the war
in September 2015 the pace of attacks
increased. Accusations that “de-con-
fliction” lists provided to the UN were
being used by the attackers were first
aired in 2018.
The inquiry, opposed by Russia, was
limited to seven sites in part because
President Assad refused to grant the
necessary visas. The 185-page report’sSyria
Richard Spencer
Middle East CorrespondentSt Petersburg nationalists ‘a terror group’
A Russian nationalist designated as a
terrorist and white supremacist by the
United States has acknowledged that he
gave combat training to two Swedes
who returned home and organised
bomb attacks.
The US State Department classified
Denis Gariyev and two other leaders of
the Russian Imperial Movement as
“global terrorists” because they had
provided “paramilitary-style training
to neo-Nazis and white supremacists”
and tried to “rally like-minded Europe-
ans and Americans into a common
front against their perceived enemies”.
Mr Gariyev, 42, said the charges were
politically motivated and that his
organisation was a “Christian Ortho-
dox, right-conservative, monarchist”Nick Griffin, of the British National
Party, and Udo Voigt, from the German
neo-Nazi NPD. The group has earned
official favour by training volunteers
who went to fight on the side of pro-
Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
A paper and cardboard company
founded by Mr Gariyev has also ful-
filled nearly $160,000 in government
contracts since 2016, including for
President Putin’s bodyguard service
and the FSB spy agency. Mr Gariyev
refused to answer questions about his
business activities.
Anton Shekhovtsov, an expert on the
Russian far right, said Mr Gariyev’s
claims that the group was only about
protecting traditional values were dis-
ingenuous and the group was truly “fas-
cist” and antisemitic in nature. Its ideol-
ogy envisaged a Russian empire over-
seen by ethnic Russians, he said.group that aimed to protect ethnic Rus-
sians. He said it was not xenophobic,
but believed migration and gay parades
were eroding European cultures.
Washington said the group had
“innocent blood on its hands” because
it had trained the two Swedish extrem-
ists, who went on to commit bomb
attacks in 2017. Mr Gariyev, who heads
the Partizan combat training club in St
Petersburg, admitted that the Swedes
had been present at sessions with repli-
ca weapons but said they had not been
taught to use explosives. One of the two
Swedes who travelled to St Petersburg
was released but the other remains in
prison. A Swedish prosecutor said that
their trip to the Russian city had been “a
key step in their radicalisation”.
Members of the Russian Imperial
Movement attended a forum in St
Petersburg in 2015 also attended byRussia
Tom Parfitt Moscow
An airstrike on a hospital in Kafr Nobol, Idlib, was blamed on Syria and its allies
VALERY SHARIFULIN/TASS/GETTY IMAGESmissions during the
Iraq war before
becoming the
youngest member of
Nasa’s astronaut corps
in 2013, departed for a
six-month stint aboard
the space station in
December 2018.
One month later Ms
Worden lodged a
complaint with the US
Federal Trade
Commission (FTC),
claiming that the
astronaut had stolen
her former partner’s
identity to access her
bank account from
space, raising
unprecedented legal
issues relating to US
jurisdiction.
Ms Worden’s
parents also lodged a
complaint with the
Nasa Office of
Inspector General
(OIG), accusing
Colonel McClain of
mounting a “highly
calculated and
manipulative
campaign” for custody
and of sending herestranged wife
threatening emails
from space.
Denying the claims
at the time, Colonel
McClain said that she
had checked a shared
account to ensure that
there were funds to
support the child
while she was away.
Ryan Patrick, the
state attorney for the
southern district of
Texas, revealed on
Monday that Ms
Worden was facing
two charges of making
false statements: one
to the FTC and one to
Nasa’s OIG.Lieutenant-Colonel Anne
McClain was accused of
hacking into the bank
account of her estranged
wife, Summer Worden,
far left, while in orbitOMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES