9000 SYRIANS ECHOING THE SAME QUESTION – HOW MANY MORE LIKE US BEFORE YOU ACT!

Yesterday, it was Benghazi, today it is Homs, the two big towns in their respective countries but certainly not big enough to be known globally as they are known today.

Detailing out the exemplary courage of the common man to stand up to the oppressors and fearless journalism to report the truth, such places also told how lame the global geopolitics has become.

Right from the beginning of the uprising to the stage when the international intervention arrived in countries like Libya and Egypt, it is nothing but a sordid tale of practicing the rhetoric firing empty cannons. It happened in Libya and Egypt and global community is as divided on intervening in Syria as Syria’s internal opposition giving butchery of Bashar al-Assad a free run.

Libyan uprising began on a large scale on February 15, 2011 and calls for international intervention started getting louder soon after as Muammar Gaddafi unleashed terror of mercenaries on his own countrymen. No-fly zone and international intervention came into effect only on March 19, 2011, after a dilly-dallying of 31 days.

Who is accountable for the loss of numerous unaccountable lives that were lost during the phase of indecision of the international community? Similar misery was observed in the case of Egypt. Half-hearted and fractured international community allowed Hosni Mubarak to linger on and unleash his terror on protesters even if he had lost support to the absolute point of isolation.

But what is happening in Syria dwarfs all. We cannot say it is a civil war yet as the divided opposition is nothing but minnows in front of the organized and efficiently militarized Syrian forces. Rather they look like a group of anti-Assad regime forces. Their opposition is in patches unlike the Libyan revolt where the rebels had a united force to exercise maneuverability through half of the country. 


Result – over 9000 have been killed in just few months of the Syrian uprising that gained further momentum after Gaddafi was caught and killed by the opposition fighters last October.

Syria is staring at an acute humanitarian crisis. Shelling and bombing on dissident pockets is continued unabashed. More people are dying from non-availability of food and medicine.  Interview of the Sunday Times Reporter Marie Colvin who was one of the two reporters killed in Homs on February 22 confirms the horror that Syria has become now. Remi Ochlik was a French photographer who was also killed with Marie Colvin after the building that had the makeshift media centre in Homs came under fire. 

How many more lives? How long will it take for the international community to intervene and arrest the Syrian genocide?

Midst all this, have we heard of anything about Bahrain recently? Yemen saw Saleh out but his family’s clout remains in the country. How is it going to take shape - minus any effective international intervention?

WHAT DOES THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION STAND FOR?

Appended here are the highlights of the CNN story and the link to the video and transcript of Marie Colvin’s last interview on CNN.

TRANSCRIPT: MARIE COLVIN'S FINAL CNN INTERVIEW

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/22/world/marie-colvin-interview-transcript/index.html

Story highlights as on CNN website:

• Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin one of two Western reporters killed in Homs, Syria on Wednesday
• Colvin gave one of her last interviews to CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday night
• Journalist told of watching, helpless, as baby hit by shrapnel in poorly-equipped makeshift medical center died
• Colvin: 'The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians'

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/