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Today the UN released a summary of its investigation into attacks on seven protected sites in northwest Syria, which our team has been reporting on for nearly a year ( https://www.un.org/sg/sites/www.un.org.sg/files/atoms/files/NWS_BOI_Summary_06_April_2020.pdf). Here's what this investigation does (and mostly does not) say:
1)The UN investigation does not assign any specific blame to Russia, despite our finding that Russia carried out one of the bombings, on a school and hospital compound in Qalaat al-Madiq https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/31/world/middleeast/syria-united-nations-investigation.html
2)The Board of Inquiry's scope remained narrow: it never expanded its investigation beyond seven sites, excluding a number of hospital bombings which we proved Russia carried out https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/middleeast/russia-bombing-syrian-hospitals.html
3)Diplomats told us in November that Russia was pressing Secretary General António Guterres not to release the conclusions of even this very narrow inquiry. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/world/middleeast/russia-syria-hospital-bombing.html
4)The UN even dropped its own investigation into one of the seven sites, Al-Suqlabiyah National Hospital, because it was supported by the @WHO, and not directly by the UN. (We determined the hospital probably was hit by the National Liberation Front) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/31/world/middleeast/syria-united-nations-investigation.html
5)The Board of Inquiry confirmed that the UN did not verify the coordinates of hospitals and clinics groups submitted to @OCHA_Syria in the hopes of protecting themselves from attack. We reported on the failings of this "deconfliction" system https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/world/middleeast/united-nations-syria-russia.html
