The Damascus Brouhaha

Since March 2011, Syria has known no peace due to the on-going civil war which has claimed nearly 100000 lives and displaced nearly 2 million Syrians. The ongoing violence has been widely condemned by the Arab league, the European Union, United States and the United Nations. There are lots of questions arising: 'What went wrong with Syria?' 'What did Damascus not do right?' 'Does Bashir Al-Assad still have the mandate of Syrians?' 'Can it be rightly said that the "Super powers" have not been proactive enough like they were in the case of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and others?' 'Why is Russia so insistent in its support of Syria?'..., these and many more questions have been on the mind of observers and of which this article seeks to answer.
The city of Daraa plays a prominent role in the Syrian violence as it kick-started the violence in Syria when a group of teens and children in Daraa were arrested for writing political graffiti. Dozens of people are killed most times when security forces crack down on demonstrations and a case of this sort led to series of other demonstrations that led to the US imposing sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and six other senior Syrian officials. This dovetailed into the freezing of Syrian Government Assets in America and the ban of the importation of Syrian Oil by the European Union due to the "continuing brutal campaign" by the Government against its own people. Further sanctions on Syria included its suspension from the Arab League effective from November 16, 2011.
The Syrian Government is accused of arresting democracy and human rights activists, censoring websites, detaining bloggers and imposing travel bans while arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances are widespread. Although Syria's constitution guarantees gender equality, critics say that personal statutes laws and the penal code discriminate against women and girls. Moreover, it also grants leniency for so-called "Honour killing". On November 9, 2011, during the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations reported that amidst 3500 total deaths, over 250 deaths were children as young as 2 years old and that boys as young as 11 years old have been gang raped by security services' officers. People opposing President Assad's rule claim that more than 200 persons, mostly civilians, were massacred and about 300 injured in Hama during shelling by the Government forces on 12 July 2012.
In August 2013 the government was suspected to have used chemical weapons against its civilians. US Secretary of State John Kerry said it was "undeniable" that chemical weapons had been used in the country and that President Bashar Al-Assad's forces had committed a "moral obscenity" against his own people. "Make no mistake," Kerry said, "President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapon against the world's most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny."
The Emergency Law, effectively suspending most constitutional protections, was in effect from 1963 until April 21, 2011. It was justified by the government in the light of the continuing war with Israel over the Golan Heights. The "sidon-look" attitude of world powers, particularly Russia, to the plight of Syrians languishing under the brutal dictatorship of the "Butcher of Damascus" is so shocking. The grandstanding of Russia leaves a lot to be desired. These are some of the reasons Vladmir Putin is supporting Al-Assad's Government: 1. Russia has a naval installation in Syria, which is strategically important and Russia’s last foreign military base outside the former Soviet Union. 2. Russia still has a bit of a Cold War mentality as well as a touch of national insecurity which makes it care very much about maintaining one of its last military alliances. 3. Russia also hates the idea of "international intervention" against a country like Syria because it sees this as Cold War-style western imperialism and ultimately a threat to Russia. 4. Syria buys a lot of Russian military exports and Russia needs the money.
With the exception of the fourth, you might notice that all of these have something to do with the Cold War which still influences Russia's view of itself greatly, its place in the world and its relationship with the dreaded West. To paraphrase Faulkner, the past is never dead in foreign affairs. It is not even past! So far, the insistence of Russia to support Al-Assad led to a tirade of verbal attacks on Vladmir Putin by Barack Obama in Geneva, with the latter calling the former "a jackass" and a "dick". Putin replied with a tense press statement saying that he is not afraid of this "skinny man" (Obama). For onlookers, the dilemma continues. The search for peace seems to elude civilians in Syria but it seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel with the suspension of attacks on Syria by US. The ongoing negotiations between Russia and America to destroy Syria's chemical weapons should provide a framework to bring peace back to Syria and Syrians Written by Idorenyin Umoh