Remarks on Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria
就敘利亞使用化學武器問題發(fā)表的講話

Secretary of State John Kerry
國務卿約翰·克里

Washington, DC
華盛頓哥倫比亞特區(qū)

August 26, 2013
2013年8月26日

Well, for the last several days President Obama and his entire national security team have been reviewing the situation in Syria, and today I want to provide an update on our efforts as we consider our response to the use of chemical weapons.
過去這幾天，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)和他的整個國家安全團隊一直在關注敘利亞局勢。我們正在考慮如何應對敘利亞使用化學武器的問題，今天，我想就我們進行的努力提供一些最新情況。

What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear: The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders, by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard it is inexcusable, and despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable.
上星期敘利亞發(fā)生的事件應當使全世界的良知都受到震憾。這種行為無視任何道德準則。我必須明確指出： 使用化學武器濫殺平民，殺害婦女和兒童以及無辜的旁觀者是喪盡天良的行為，不論按照什么標準都不可容忍；不論編造什么借口，不論如何敷衍應付，事實不容否認。

The meaning of this attack goes beyond the conflict in Syria itself, and that conflict has already brought so much terrible suffering. This is about the large-scale, indiscriminate use of weapons that the civilized world long ago decided must never be used at all – a conviction shared even by countries that agree on little else. There is a clear reason that the world has banned entirely the use of chemical weapons. There is a reason the international community has set a clear standard and why many countries have taken major steps to eradicate these weapons. There is a reason why President Obama has made it such a priority to stop the proliferation of these weapons and lock them down where they do exist. There is a reason why President Obama has made clear to the Assad regime that this international norm cannot be violated without consequences. And there is a reason why no matter what you believe about Syria, all peoples and all nations who believe in the cause of our common humanity must stand up to assure that there is accountability for the use of chemical weapons so that it never happens again.
這次襲擊說明的問題超出了敘利亞沖突本身，而這場沖突已經(jīng)造成如此巨大的痛苦。這涉及大規(guī)模、肆無忌憚地使用文明世界早已決定決不可使用的武器——即使是在其他方面意見極少一致的國家也這么認為。全世界有明確的理由完全禁止使用化學武器。正因為如此，國際社會制定了明確的標準，許多國家已采取重要措施消除這些武器。正因為如此，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)高度重視這方面的事務，要求制止這些武器的擴散并在這些武器存在的地方就地封存。正因為如此，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)已經(jīng)明確告知阿薩德政權，違反這條國際準則必將承擔后果。正因為如此，無論你們對敘利亞的看法如何，所有的民族和國家，只要信奉我們維護共同人性的事業(yè)，都必須挺身而出，堅決對使用化學武器的行徑追究責任，使類似情況決不再發(fā)生。

Last night after speaking with foreign ministers from around the world about the gravity of this situation, I went back and I watched the videos, the videos that anybody can watch in the social media, and I watched them one more gut-wrenching time. It is really hard to express in words the human suffering that they lay out before us. As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head of a man who held up his dead child, wailing while chaos swirled around him; the images of entire families dead in their beds without a drop of blood or even a visible wound; bodies contorting in spasms; human suffering that we can never ignore or forget. Anyone who can claim that an attack of this staggering scale could be contrived or fabricated needs to check their conscience and their own moral compass.
昨晚，我與世界各國外交部長討論了敘利亞局勢的嚴重性后再次觀看了任何人在社交媒體上都可以看到的視頻。我又一次觀看視頻，又一次感到撕心裂肺，實在難以用語言表達這些視頻在我們面前展現(xiàn)的人類痛苦。身為人父，這些畫面在我腦中揮之不去。我看到一名男子抱著他孩子的尸體號啕大哭，身邊是一片混亂的景象；我看到一家人死在床上，沒有一滴血，甚至見不到任何傷口；我看到尸體因痙攣而扭曲；我看到永遠無法視而不見，永遠不能忘卻的人類痛苦。任何人如果聲稱如此令人難以想象的大規(guī)模襲擊是虛構(gòu)或捏造的，都需要檢討自己的良心和道德準則。

What is before us today is real, and it is compelling. So I also want to underscore that while investigators are gathering additional evidence on the ground, our understanding of what has already happened in Syria is grounded in facts informed by conscience and guided by common sense. The reported number of victims, the reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, the firsthand accounts from humanitarian organizations on the ground like Doctors Without Borders and the Syria Human Rights Commission – these all strongly indicate that everything these images are already screaming at us is real, that chemical weapons were used in Syria.
今天，我們看到的都是真實的景象。這類惡行實屬駭人聽聞。因此，我還需要強調(diào)，雖然調(diào)查人員正在實地收集更多的證據(jù)，但我們對敘利亞已發(fā)生的事件的了解有事實為依據(jù)，同時受我們良心的驅(qū)動和人情之常的指引。根據(jù)有關受害者人數(shù)的報道、被殺害或受傷者癥狀的報道以及醫(yī)生無國界和敘利亞人權委員會等人道主義組織的實地調(diào)查——所有這一切都有力地表明，這些令人慘不忍睹的畫面向我們展示的一切都是真實的，敘利亞已經(jīng)使用了化學武器。

Moreover, we know that the Syrian regime maintains custody of these chemical weapons. We know that the Syrian regime has the capacity to do this with rockets. We know that the regime has been determined to clear the opposition from those very places where the attacks took place. And with our own eyes, we have all of us become witnesses.
此外，我們知道敘利亞政權掌握著這些化學武器。我們知道敘利亞政權有能力利用火箭使用這些武器。我們知道敘利亞政權一直處心積慮地希望在那些發(fā)生攻擊事件的地方清除反對派。我們所有的人都通過自己的眼睛成為目擊者。

We have additional information about this attack, and that information is being compiled and reviewed together with our partners, and we will provide that information in the days ahead.
我們掌握了有關這次襲擊事件的其他情報，正與我們的合作伙伴整理和研究這些情報，將在未來幾天公諸于眾。

Our sense of basic humanity is offended not only by this cowardly crime but also by the cynical attempt to cover it up. At every turn, the Syrian regime has failed to cooperate with the UN investigation, using it only to stall and to stymie the important effort to bring to light what happened in Damascus in the dead of night. And as Ban Ki-moon said last week, the UN investigation will not determine who used these chemical weapons, only whether such weapons were used – a judgment that is already clear to the world.
我們基本的人性受到了褻瀆，不僅因為這類怯懦的罪行，而且因為企圖掩飾罪行的無恥行為。敘利亞政權在各方面都不配合聯(lián)合國的調(diào)查，只是利用這個機會敷衍搪塞，阻礙人們進行重要的努力揭露大馬士革深夜發(fā)生的事件。潘基文上星期說，聯(lián)合國的調(diào)查不是為了確定誰使用了這些化學武器，只是為了確定是否已經(jīng)使用了化學武器——這一點已經(jīng)舉世皆知。

I spoke on Thursday with Syrian Foreign Minister Muallim and I made it very clear to him that if the regime, as he argued, had nothing to hide, then their response should be immediate – immediate transparency, immediate access – not shelling. Their response needed to be unrestricted and immediate access. Failure to permit that, I told him, would tell its own story.
上星期四，我與敘利亞外交部長穆阿利姆交談時向他十分明確地表示，如果敘利亞政權如他所說的沒有什么好隱瞞的，他們就必須立即做出回應——立即做到公開透明，立即允許進入現(xiàn)場調(diào)查——而不應進行炮擊。他們的回應必須不附加限制，立即允許進入現(xiàn)場調(diào)查。我告訴他，如果這一點都做不到，其本身就說明了問題。

Instead, for five days, the Syrian regime refused to allow the UN investigators access to the site of the attack that would allegedly exonerate them. Instead, it attacked the area further, shelling it and systematically destroying evidence. That is not the behavior of a government that has nothing to hide. That is not the action of a regime eager to prove to the world that it had not used chemical weapons. In fact, the regime’s belated decision to allow access is too late, and it’s too late to be credible. Today’s reports of an attack on the UN investigators, together with the continued shelling of these very neighborhoods, only further weakens the regime’s credibility.
但是，五天來敘利亞政權拒絕聯(lián)合國調(diào)查人員進入襲擊事件現(xiàn)場。如果的確是為了洗脫嫌疑，這是一個機會。但與此相反，敘利亞政權變本加厲襲擊這片區(qū)域，企圖通過炮擊系統(tǒng)地銷毀證據(jù)。這不是沒有什么可隱瞞的政府的作為。這不是一個希望向全世界證明沒有使用化學武器的政府的作為。實際上，敘利亞政權對允許進入現(xiàn)場調(diào)查一事拖延得太久，為時已晚，已經(jīng)無法取信于人。今天有報道說聯(lián)合國調(diào)查人員遭到襲擊，而且對鄰近街區(qū)的炮擊也在繼續(xù)，這只能進一步使敘利亞政權信用掃地。

At President Obama’s direction, I’ve spent many hours over the last few days on the phone with foreign ministers and other leaders. The Administration is actively consulting with members of Congress and we will continue to have these conversations in the days ahead. President Obama has also been in close touch with the leaders of our key allies, and the President will be making an informed decision about how to respond to this indiscriminate use of chemical weapons. But make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny.
根據(jù)奧巴馬總統(tǒng)的指示，過去幾天我花了許多時間與各國外交部長和其他領導人通話。本屆政府正積極與國會議員協(xié)商，此后我們還將繼續(xù)進行這些對話。奧巴馬總統(tǒng)也一直與我們主要盟國的領導人保持密切聯(lián)系。總統(tǒng)將根據(jù)了解到的情況決定如何應對敘利亞肆無忌憚地使用化學武器的問題。但毋庸置疑： 奧巴馬總統(tǒng)認為，對于使用世界上最慘無人道的武器攻擊世界上最孱弱無助的民眾的人，必須追究其責任。今天，沒有任何事比此事更嚴重，也沒有任何事比此事更需要嚴肅追查。

Thank you.
謝謝諸位。