Editorial: Who can save Syrians?

One of the few remaining hopes for outside intervention to end Syria’s bloody civil war has been dashed after President Bashar al-Assad’s government categorically rejected an Arab League proposal for the creation of a UN peacekeeping mission.

The League, made up of Syria’s Arab neighbors, has rightly taken the lead in trying to end fighting that has killed thousands of innocent civilians.

After virtually sitting on the fence for months, the Arab League took the initiative early this month to call for the
UN Security Council to intervene. A resolution that called for the termination of the violence and the removal of
President Assad, however, was vetoed by Russia and China.

If not the Arab League, then who else is there to influence the regime in Damascus to end what is clearly now an unacceptable mass killing of civilians?

The issue will soon be taken up by the UN General Assembly, but there is really little hope that it will lead to any meaningful change on the ground. All eyes turn to Russia, probably the only external force that still has some influence on President Assad.

The case for international intervention in Syria unfortunately is not as clear cut as when the international community dealt with Libya last year, even when the violence has already reached alarming proportions.

Syria sits astride in the center of complex Middle East politics and any wrong move could set unpredictable and unwarranted chain reactions.

The Western powers are simply reluctant to act and have instead confined themselves to making compassionate appeals. Not only do they have little appetite to intervene militarily, like they did in Libya, they don’t even have the ability and resources to begin with as most of them, particularly the European countries, face economic crisis at home.

The Security Council vote, and the Russian/China veto, coming almost a year after the violence began, shows that strategic interests of these major powers superseded the humanitarian interests.

Indonesia too has little, if any, leverage in Syria. The best that Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa could come up with last weekend was an appeal to end the violence and to allow the political processes to take place.

For now, and God knows for how long, Syrians will have to fend for themselves and the rest of the world can only watch. May God be with them.