In the know: Government crackdown in Syria
By Nicole Mirea
Feb. 10, 2012 12:39 a.m.
Homs, a Syrian industrial city with more than 1 million citizens, lies about 40 miles from the Mediterranean Sea.
The city has been under brutal siege from the Syrian government for almost a week. The death toll has reached more than 200 since the bombings started last Friday.
In total, more than 5,400 people have died in Syria’s revolutionary struggle since March, when the previously peaceful protests for democracy turned bloody. Yet the U.N. Security Council is unable to settle on a plan of action concerning the situation.
In a meeting of the U.N. Security Council Saturday, both Russia and China vetoed a resolution that would condemn the human rights violations of Syria’s current government, thereby prolonging violence and delaying democracy in the region.
The resolution would have allowed the U.N. to launch an observer action promoting the establishment of a democratic political system in conjunction with the League of Arab States.
The current Syrian regime, led by President Bashar al-Assad of the Baath Party, is Moscow’s greatest ally in the Middle East. It makes sense that Russia would be reluctant to overthrow it, especially since the Syrian government has been enthusiastically buying arms from Russia. China has cited similar reasons for its veto.
However, when making decisions as part of the U.N. Security Council, Russia must make decisions as a component of the U.N., not as a single nation bogged down by various economic entanglements.
“The purpose of the United Nations is to bring all nations of the world together to work for peace and development, based on the principles of justice, human dignity and the well-being of all people,” said the U.N. on an educational webpage.
A pro-democracy intervention in Syria would do just that.
Although the human cost of a military intervention must be noted ““ as well as complications that would arise from further U.S. involvement in the Middle East ““ the mounting civilian death toll in Syria cannot be ignored.
The United States Department of State’s compiled list of human rights abuses committed by the Syrian Baath government is quite long. It includes arbitrary and unlawful deprivation of life, torture, arbitrary arrests, restricted freedom of speech and peaceful protest, government corruption and the criminalization of homosexuality.
And, as the events in Homs this week have shown, Russia’s and China’s vetoes have only strengthened the Syrian authorities’ determination to stamp out dissenters. If the U.N. continues to sit on the bench, the situation and the death toll will only rise.
It is vital that Russia and China reconsider their positions, despite their economic interests in the region, in order to further the U.N.’s mission of shaping a safer, fairer world.
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