Human rights are non-existent in these countries but as they do
not serve directly to the interests of any major world ‘power’, they are
comfortably forgotten and the list of such countries is long. Even listing some
of them here would clear out the point.
Pakistan – a
politically unstable country patronizing terror as state policy and such a
country has been allowed to increase its nuclear arsenal – Pakistan is a poor
country, an oil importer, but, somehow, serves to the petty interests of US and
China.
North Korea
– a dry, barren land, nothing much explored in the name of natural
resources – a country alleged to have killed millions of its citizens in the last
50 years – the international community is yet to find a ‘reason’ to intervene
actively.
Bahrain – Bahrain
happened to be the high point of talks during the tidal-effect days of the Arab
Spring but the dictator there crushed the uprising brutally killing many –
Bahrain has limited oil resources and so, expectedly, the international
community didn’t see the reasons to intervene.
Zimbabwe – Robert
Mugabe is literally making a joke of anything that we call a united world body.
He has been ruling the African nation with hammer killing on will since the past
32 years and the result has been Zimbabwe is among the poorest nations. Also, Zimbabwe is not an oil-rich country.
There are many small nations, apart from biggies like China,
Russia, Cuba, where human rights are heavily crushed but as these countries are
either too powerful or too insignificant to serve the interests of the world powers;
their human citizens are left to be harvested as animals by the animals ruling
over them.
And Syria comes in this category. Its oil production is relatively
small. According to a US Department of State report, Syria accounted for just
0.5 per cent of the total global oil production in 2010. And so again,
expectedly, the international community is finding it almost impossible to find
a reason to intervene in Syria even if the civilian death toll is mounting
rapidly.
So we have stupid attempts like UN-Arab League peace initiative or
British or French rhetoric of saving lives or Obama’s or Clinton’s wisdom that
intervening in Syria would bring catastrophe.
What is
happening is less than catastrophe? 15,000 is the assessment
of international community based on fragile reports by the rebels filtered out through
social media. The real number of people killed is bound to be much higher.
What else
is left for one to believe that the time is running out? A regime
that is massacring even the children in a planned way, as happened in Houla, or
an Opposition that is divided and inefficient to fight – doesn’t this situation
call for an active intervention?
Mr. Kofi Anna, the UN-Arab League Peace Envoy, prepared a peace
plan that came into effect on April 12, 2012. Let’s see how Syria has
progressed since then:
April 16,
2012 – Security forced killed 55 civilians
April 17,
2012 – 77 civilians killed, mainly in Homs and Idlib
April 19,
2012 – 42 civilians killed, mainly in Homs
April 20,
2012 – over 50 civilians killed, primarily in Idlib
April 25,
2012 – over 100 civilians reportedly killed, primarily in Hama
May 3,
2012 – Security forces killed 25 civilians including students from Aleppo
University
May 4, 2012
– 12 killed by forces in Damascus and Aleppo
May 7,
2012 - Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC) reports 35 civilians killed
May 8
& 9 – LCC reports put the toll at 36 and 20 civilians for the days
May 10,
2012 - twin bomb explosions in Damascus killed 55 and wound over 350
May 15,
2012 – Security forced opened fire on a funeral procession in Khan Sheikhoun
killing 21 (UN observers were visiting the town at the same time)
May 16,
2012 – 40 civilians killed by the regime forces in a Homs neighbourhood
May 25,
2012 – Houla massacre was planned and executed
May 28,
202 – at least 41 alleged to be killed in artillery assault on Hama
May 29,
2012 – Syrian forced killed 72 civilians in Homs and Deir Ezzor
May 30,
2012 - 46 civilians killed in Douma and Damascus
May 31,
2012 – another 61 civilians killed by the regime forces
NO EFFECT at all!
These are some widely ‘reported’ assaults in addition to the less reported/unreported
regular bombings by the regime forces on areas believed to be the rebel
shelters, killing many. In fact, if one goes by the reports collected by the
LCC and other smaller groups working for the Syrian cause, one would find that
not a single day has passed in the recent Syrian history when civilians were
not killed by the Assad’s forces.
For past many months, every passing moment has been the high time
to intervene in Syria but the international community has failed to act.
Can Houla massacre change that?
Merely expelling the Syrian diplomats for Houla cannot be seen as
a serious enough reaction. Gestures for symbolic action had ceased to exist as a
valid proposition in Syria’s case a long ago.
Time is running fast but when would we come out of the slumber?