AN article published in the New York Times on the 10th of February made a persuasive need for concise and cogent military action to enable humanitarian aid to flow into Syria to enable roughly one million Syrians to lead normal lives and thereby escape starvation. The article makes it clear that the catastrophe is clearly human in origin and mainly due to the pro Assad military which is ensuring that no food or medical supplies can come in areas around the cities of Homs, Aleppo and Deir Ezzor and in parts of the capital, Damascus, while at the same time refusing civilians to leave these areas, thus creating a situation where famine is bound to occur. The situation is so dire that a cleric in Damascus has ruled that normally forbidden animals like dogs, cats ,and donkeys may be eaten.
These problems are compounded at both the ground and international level-recent attempts to supply the city of Homs with humanitarian aid have met with attacks from the warring factions on the ground. At the international level President Putin has vetoed three Security Council Resolutions on Syria and has said that Russia would support humanitarian measures only if Syria agrees to them. The article makes the persuasive point that the geostrategic reasons for Mr Putin’s support should not act as a barrier for the international community in its actions to support the Syrian people whose living standards are already below the Paleolithic level. The need to support the Syrian people far surpasses any legal precedents and the moral grounds should be sufficient reason to help them to undergo the travails imposed on them by the Hitlerite regime of Assad which has already killed over a hundred thousand people and raped countless women. The sheer physical and mental suffering far surpasses the exponential and is on a scale which is beyond most comprehension.
What can happen next? Will the current regime accept the return of democracy to Syria, knowing full well that they would no longer hold the reins of power? This seems unlikely-as they know that they are the minority group. The last time that a dictatorial regime was moved to change its course of action occurred in 260 BCE when Emperor Ashoka stopped his aims of his empires expansion out of a remorse at seeing over 1,00,000 people killed in the Battle of Kalinga. This is a course of action which is highly unlikely to be followed by the present Syrian government. If there is one thing that history teaches, it is that regimes which use force as a weapon will only understand force as a counter weapon. No diplomatic missives will suffice.
So we also cannot but condemn the international community, especially the USA and its democratic partners for not effectively doing anything to stop the situation of the worst violation of human rights of recent times more particularly the right to life. More than one lac Syrians have been killed by Assad regime of Syria. Now the people are forced to die of starvation by keeping them under siege.
It is not unusual for the rebels to meet violence with violence. But it is the government’s responsibility to protect the people’s lives and offer them security. It is because of international political strategy between Russia and the West that the Muslims in Syria are becoming easy victims of human rights.
The Muslims feel seriously aggrieved for being discriminated because they are Muslims. To the Muslims everywhere, President Obama is seen now as a world leader who is no longer a great hope for upholding human rights equally for all irrespective of religion and colour. We still hope that he will represent America’s greatness in holding high values of human rights and left a legacy worth a great world leader.
