The town of Homs. A blast rocks the city. The blast is soon followed by more blasts, some bigger than others. Rockets soon follow and explode on contact. There is family running for their lives and then there is an explosion and all that’s left is a few pieces of burning clothes. After more than three hours, the bombardment ceases. People start to come out of buildings and are running towards the cries wounded. You see two children carrying their maimed mother away from the fray. Suddenly a cloud of red appears around one, and she falls over with a ragged hole in her chest. The other kid runs for safety. Another red cloud appears on one of the citizens, she falls to the ground; the blood slowly spreads on the road. There is a distant blast, and then 5 seconds later; a man has his left and right leg blown off. The stumps slowly expend the rest of his life and he becomes yet another of the countless victims of this genocide.
This is what is happening in the Syrian town of Homs. The Government has been mercilessly bombarding the city with artillery, claiming to be fighting a terrorist force. The 11-month-old uprising is now being oppressed brutally; snipers in the Syrian armed forces are killing civilians, men, women, and children. The United Nations has put the death toll at about 7,500 people killed, and about 100 women and children dying EACH DAY.
The UN has also put several sanctions against the ruler of the country and the U.N. General Assembly sent a clear message to the people of Syria: The world is with you. Bashar al-Assad has never been more isolated. Well that doesn’t stop him from murdering thousands of his own people. It also doesn’t stop these rebels in Homs and other surrounding cities from giving up despite words, words, words, and no action.
The UN is a peacekeeping structure, so why are they letting this genocide unfold? When the Rwandan Genocide was happening the UN was slow to respond as well, and then sent in 5000 peacekeepers to hopefully suppress the violence, and in the end, it suppressed the violence, but didn’t end it fully.
The UN Security Council is made up of many countries including the USA, The UK, France, Russia, and China. The Security Council is supposed to be making these decisions, but it seems that China and Russia don’t want to help the helpless, all for a black liquid that seems to make the world go ‘round these days. The UN Security Council has not done anything, it seems, regarding this recent genocide except place a couple of Sanctions on Bashar al-Assad, which doesn’t do anything for the Rebels being killed.
Here is what the UN Security Council is doing, taken from the UN website: “under the Charter, all Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council. While other organs of the United Nations make recommendations to Governments, the Council alone has the power to take decisions which Member States are obligated under the Charter to carry out.”
Now, why does it take ten countries to decide the fate of one? Why does it take 5 superpowers in first world countries to decide the fate of a third world country? I think that the UN needs to take a harder look at what is happening in Syria and if they cannot get the Job done, then we are condemning thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands more innocent people to death.
Back to Syria, in the town of Homs there is little to no food and aid supplies getting through the perimeter of Syrian tanks, missile platforms, and snipers. If the humanitarian aid attempted an airdrops, then Syrian surface to air missiles would likely shoot down the plane. It seems that there is no way for these people to find ways of survival. They are becoming desperate.
The Leader of Syria states that there are “Deadly terrorists” in the town of Homs; these rebels are just doing the same thing that the Libyan rebels were doing, attempting to overthrow and oppressive regime. These rebels though have an iron will. They will push through no matter what, even if one thousand die, it seems that there will be tens of thousands coming to replace them and keep the fight going till the end.
Body:
It seems that the rebels here are more than just rebels to Assad; he says that they are gangs of terrorists running wild. These are rebels, not terrorists and while Assad continues to bombard these rebels and civilians, the international community is going to keep putting the pressure on him to either step down or be taken down.
The Rebels have little to no food to eat, there are people being killed by a superior enemy left and right. The rebels are just the opposite of Assad, caring, warm, and aware of what is right and what is wrong. The rebels have considerably less power than Assad, so what is he going to do? Killing them along with 100 women and children seems like a good idea (Note the heavy sarcasm).
Even though several countries have condemned Assad, there has been not a lot to show for it. People are still being killed and there has been no UN Intervention.
What will it take to get the UN to send in some troops and planes like in Libya? Do 100,000 people have to lay down their lives so that they get international aid? It should have started at one and not 100 in other words.
If the UN doesn’t help these people, who will? They are hopeless in a conflict of this scale. If action isn’t taken soon, the world will see the entire city of Homs flattened and every last person killed.
Assad’s regime, which has lasted for more than 12 years, has gone too far by attacking the town of Homs. The people of Syria are crying for reform in the 5-month-old uprising, and Assad has said that he will reform the Parliamentary elections, and greater freedoms. Not much has shown of the so-called reform.
This man is not allowing the people in Homs to have a chance against a force that has tanks and other armored vehicles. All these people have are assault rifles and RPGs which will come in a lot of handy if Assad decides to roll up the Main street with his tanks. The UN has its peacekeepers and needs to use them to keep this man at bay, or get him to step down. But then again, the UN doesn’t have anything that can take out a T-72 tank.
The World community has power, but they don’t seem to know it. We as humans have ethics and responsibilities and we need to prove it. We can do it by getting the man behind the genocide in Homs and other Syrian towns to step down or surrender himself as a war criminal.
In a recent NY times article the author (Name not given ?) stated: “A handful of the other countries that opposed the resolution, notably Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea, condemned it as an unwarranted interference in Syria’s internal politics”. These countries are all saying that what the Assad regime is okay and don’t want him to stop killing innocent civilians. I’m surprised that the UN hasn’t charged these people with crimes against humanity.
Once the Assad regime is over, these people can put in a government that is friendlier towards them and will help them fight for the common good and not go the way of Assad. They will have a government that works for them rather than against.
And when that happens, no more of this mass murder will happen in Syria. No more of the oppressiveness will come of a government working for the people rather than against. And who knows? Maybe the rest of the middle east will follow what these Syrian freedom fighters are fighting for, and get their government overthrown and install one friendly to them. But the question still remains: why does it take 10 countries to decide what happens in one, especially if 7,500 people have been killed in the past weeks? I’ll let you think on that one.
Alex Edwards is in the 8th grade at the Odyssey School of expeditionary learning. He is what you might call a World War Two history buff, and likes to build models that have connection to that topic. He is the author of two previous commentaries (not published).