Editorial
Crimes against humanity
Taking Syria to ICC hits hurdle
Momentum is gaining in the international arena to make the Assad regime answer in the International Criminal Court for what Switzerland and 56 other states are terming as a 'failure to investigate and prosecute crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since March 2011'. The situation on the ground in Syria is deteriorating rapidly as an increasingly isolated regime turns its guns on the civilian population and atrocities becoming commonplace against a helpless populace.
Hundreds of thousands Syrians have fled their homeland to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, yet the UN Security Council remains a house divided. With two permanent representatives, China and Russia effectively blocking the UN from exerting greater pressure on Syria, the Syrian people have largely been left to fend off an organised military. The local forces (FSA) aligned against the regime to not have what it takes to bring the conflict to a decisive end.
The latest calls for making the Assad regime accountable for its actions by referring this matter to the International Criminal Court has met with stiff rebuttal by Russia. Russia views such a move to be “untimely†and “counterproductive†and would prefer to see a negotiated settlement to the 11-month conflict. The question at this juncture is fairly simple. With Syrian opposition groups steadfastly refusing to deal with, what they state as a murderous regime and with no signs of breaking the stalemate in UN Security Council, what is to become of ordinary Syrians? Have we become so numb to rise in the daily death toll, like the attack on Aleppo University on January 16 that took 87 lives?
Will the world stand by and do nothing while the UN descends into a failed organisation like League of Nations? Intervention should have occurred some time ago, before some 600,000 Syrians had to flee to other countries, and before tens of thousands of civilians had to suffer unavoidable deaths. The only thing “counterproductive†in this carnage is to stand by and do nothing.
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