Why the West is Wrong on Syria

Monday, 14 October, 2013

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Razan Zaitouneh

|Why does the West insist on treating our dead and injured as if they were less valuable than a Westerner’s life, and as if our casualties don’t even deserve respect or compassion?

After the chemical massacre in Ghouta, we believed that the world would at last take our interests into account one way or another. We did not believe that upon seeing hundreds of dead children, the international community would act only in its own narrow interests.

The chemical massacre was a milestone not only in the Syrian revolution, but also in the consciousness and minds of Syrians.

I witnessed the massacre myself. I saw the bodies of men, women and children in the streets. I heard the mothers screaming when they found the bodies of their children among the dead.

As a human rights activist who has always believed in the humanitarian principles of the United Nations, I can talk for hours about the psychological breakdown and the amount of humiliation I felt after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2118. The resolution implies that Bashar al-Assad will continue to rule Syria for at least one more year with the international community’s acquiescence.

The resolution also reveals the lie we have all been living regarding the human rights principles that have not been applied, not even pro forma, in Syria.

If this is how I have been affected, how does the ordinary Syrian citizen – who has never believed our misleading slogans about unity and equality – feel after suffering such discrimination and injustice?

The world goes further in disrespecting the sufferings of the Syrians by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize this year to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. This award shows the West has exchanged its moral and ethical obligations for legal ones.

Meanwhile Assad, the real criminal, is free because no one cares.

Appeals have become useless, as if there is a thick wall preventing all calls from reaching the “civilised” West, which continues to chart the future of our revolution as if our citizens and rebels no longer exist, and to turn a deaf ear to the will and aspirations of Syrians who have worked hard to make the revolution happen.

Now, scenarios for Geneva 2 conference are being suggested, with many leaks about the proposed American and Russian solutions. The Syrian opposition is being pushed to attend and comply.

The West is trying to repeat the Iraqi scenario in Syria in a terrifying, paradoxical way. It is refusing to do what it should be doing, under the pretext of not turning Syria into a second Iraq. Yet it does practically nothing but continue observing the destruction of the Syrian state and society in a way that will leave no room for reconstruction for decades to come, especially when it comes to divided social structures.

In 2011, Syrians took to the streets in peaceful demonstrations calling for a free democratic country, with “the Syrian people are one” as their slogan. Yet since then, the West has bet on the development of sectarian strife rather than encouraging the peaceful revolutionary movement. Despite that, we are still fighting the battle against Assad’s brutal, sectarian regime and against its efforts to prevent a just, unified and free Syria coming into being.

The West pretends to be protecting minorities, yet it has allowed the regime to wage a sectarian war against the majority of Syrians for two-and-a-half years now. It is citing al-Qaeda and the extremists as a pretext, yet it contributed to their ascent and popularity by delaying support to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which adheres to an ideology far removed from extremism and non-national agendas.

The West has from the very beginning rejected everything the FSA asked for, starting by refusing to deliver effective weapons and to create a no-fly zone and safe areas for civilians. It then blamed the FSA for being divided and weak, and for the spread of the extremists.

What does the West really want from Syria? A desire to destroy the regime’s chemical weapons and to secure Israel’s borders is completely understandable. But the West should also listen to what Syrians want. Turning a blind eye to the Syrian people’s needs will only lead to the failure of all Western plans, as no unified opposition can impose what the “superpowers” agree. And the rebel Syrians are not willing to accept half-solutions after all they have suffered.

It would benefit the West to stop disregarding our massacres and martyrs and to start listening in order to achieve some balance between its own interests – which it regards as strategic – and what its current policies are doing to the future of those strategic interests.

Syrians will not forget that the international community forced the regime to dismantle its chemical weapons, yet could not force it to break its siege of a city where children are dying of hunger on a daily basis. “Could not” is not the right word for what has happened and what is happening – “did not want to” or “had no interest” might be more accurate. Syrians will not forget that.

By the way, in Ghouta, where I currently live, at least 23 children have died in the last three months due to malnutrition and lack of medicines resulting from the government’s siege. My friends in besieged Hajar Aswad are eating only one meal a day consisting of lentils, the only food left there.

Of course these “minor details” do not appear to warrant the West’s concern. Such “minor issues” should be on the table for Geneva 2, so that participants avoid rose-tinted dreams. All Syrians want to stop the bloodshed by ending its causes, by first stopping Assad’s brutal regime and then achieving its departure.

The West’s strategic interests should not overwhelm what is left of its humanity. Even if the West continues along the same path, we will not allow that decision to destroy our remaining determination to continue our revolution until the end.

Razan Zaitouneh wrote this comment piece for the Damascus Bureau, an IWPR project for Syria.