4 February 2013
It is critical that
this genocide discussion focuses on the ethnic cleansing of Sunni
children in this Syrian
Sunni-Shiaa civil war:
War Child UK
released, Syria: A War on Childhood, documenting how Assad’s forces
take children from their parents, schools and communities and transfer
these children to detention centers or military units for use as human
shields. The children are brutally tortured, raped, and murdered.
“Children and young people have been summarily massacred; illegally
detained; sexual abused; used in combat; abducted and tortured; denied
schooling and access to humanitarian aid; and deliberately targeted in
violent attacks.” -- Genocide
in Syria:The Hill, 30 August 2012.
History
Repeats Itself:
3 February 2013
From:
Stephen M. Apatow
Founder,
Director of Research & Development
Humanitarian
Resource Institute (UN:NGO:DESA)
Humanitarian University
Consortium Graduate Studies
Center
for Medicine, Veterinary Medicine & Law
Phone:
203-668-0282
Email:
s.m.apatow@humanitarian.net
Internet:
www.humanitarian.net
H-II
OPSEC
Url:
www.H-II.org
HRI:
International Disaster Information Network
Url:
www.humanitarian.net/idin
Ignoring
Genocide of Syria's Children - Lessons of Iraq/Afghanistan
One
of the most tragic outcomes of the Syrian humanitarian
Catastrophe, beyond civilians abandoned 22 months with upwards of
100,000
dead, [1] is the consequences of ignoring the fundamental lessons of
counterinsurgency learned in Iraq and Afghanistan in "A Comprehensive
Approach." [2] As the crisis spirals
out of control and countries prepare for mass casualty incidents, due
to
unsecured CBRNE WMD stockpiles in a Failed State, [3] we are reminded
of the discussion "Genocide
in Syria" (The Hill, 30 August 2012): [4]
Adopted by the UN’s
General Assembly on December 9, 1948, Article 2 of the Genocide
Convention states, “genocide means any of the following acts committed
with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical, racial
or religious group such as: (a) killing members of the group; (b)
causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c)
deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or part; (d) imposing
measures intended to prevent births within the group; and (e) forcibly
transferring children of the group to another group.”
Six
respected organizations have documented evidence of Section (e)
committed by Assad’s state military against its own child-civilian
population. Syria qualifying as genocide under Section (e)
distinguishes Assad’s regime from other modern mass atrocities, such as
Bosnia or Rwanda. Children are often collateral damage but Assad’s
deliberately targeting children makes Syria “disturbingly unique.”
War
Child UK released, Syria: A War on Childhood, documenting how Assad’s
forces take children from their parents, schools and communities and
transfer these children to detention centers or military units for use
as human shields. The children are brutally tortured, raped, and
murdered. “Children and young people have been summarily massacred;
illegally detained; sexual abused; used in combat; abducted and
tortured; denied schooling and access to humanitarian aid; and
deliberately targeted in violent attacks.”
Now
as we contemplate Stabilization, Security, Transition and Recovery
(SSTR), we return to the importance of caring for those in harms way in
a counterinsurgency crisis and the fundamentals of UN Peacekeeping
Operations, [5] with damage and scars as deep as Darfur, Rwanda and
Bosnia.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged international
action on Syria, comparing the ongoing civil conflict in the country to
Holocaust, the UN News Centre reported.
-- UN chief urges international action on Syria: The Hindu, 13 January
2013. [6]
The United States has pushed for intensive relief efforts from day
one, [7] but the inability of the UN Security Council to fulfill it's
Chapter 7 responsibility to protect international security, [8] left
the task of caring for the victims of the atrocities to the Arab
countries in the region. Disregard for the
humanitarian catastrophe and international
security crisis has led to Israel's intervention, in an effort to
protect all countries in the region from the imminent CBRNE
international security threats.
"A threatened State,
according to long
established international law, can take military action as long as the
threatened attack is imminent, no other means would deflect it and the
action is proportionate." -- Counterterrorism:
Self-Defense [8]
References:
- Syria: International Humanitarian & Security
Discussions : Humanitarian Intervention Initiative. See also Syria2012.com - 72
Hours Under Fire.
- United Nations Peacekeeping Operations - Principles
and Guidelines: United Nations Department of Peacekeeping
Operations, Department of Field Support.
- Syria: CBRNE Chemical - Biological - Nuclear Crisis
Discussions: HRI, Last updated 1 February 2013.
- Abandoned -
SYRIA2012 Massacre in Homs, Syria: Photos UPI : HRI, 26 July 2012.
- The Comprehensive Approach: NATO.
- UN
chief urges international action on Syria: The Hindu, 13 January
2013.
- Syrian Emergency: U.S.
Department of State.
- Chapter
VII: Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace
and Acts of Aggression: Charter of the United Nations.
- Counterterrorism:
Self-Defense: David Kinsella Division of
Political Science, Hatfield School
of Government, Portland
State University.
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