AAP March 10, 2013 2:11PM
March 15 marks two years since the brutal and bloody conflict in Syria began
AS the Arab Spring blossomed two years ago, a heady breeze brought hopes of democracy, human rights and a better life to countries across the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria.
But while dictatorships fell in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya, President Bashar al-Assad clung to power in Damascus, unleashing a brutal crackdown on what began as a peaceful pro-reform movement.
The response on the street was no surprise. As many Syrians clung to the belief that peaceful tactics could change things, an ever growing number took up arms.
Two years on, Syria is mired in a devastating civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people, forced a million to flee with millions more displaced at home or missing, and an economic and humanitarian disaster.
Rebels have seized large swathes of territory, but growing tensions between liberals and moderate Muslims on the one hand, and powerful Islamists on the other, have raised fears Syria could collapse in a new sectarian bloodbath.
The United Nations said last week that "Syria is spiralling towards full-scale disaster".
"Syria is collapsing. World powers will act only when they realise that the country is becoming a new Somalia," Paris-Sud professor of international relations Khattar Abou Diab said.
That was a chilling reference to the fragmented Horn of Africa country where a weak central government and Islamists have battled unsuccessfully for years.
For now, both the rebels and Assad are intransigent, with neither a military nor a political end in sight.
It began on March 15, 2011, when youths in the southern city of Daraa scrawled on school walls the main chant of the Arab Spring: "The people want the fall of the regime."
Activists say they were jailed and tortured, helping to spark the uprising. In power for 40 years, the Assad clan believed it could quell the revolt, just as Bashar's father and predecessor Hafez did in 1982, when he crushed a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people.
In Tunisia and Egypt, the army turned its back on the top echelons of power, but Syria's army, led by officers from Assad's Alawite community, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has remained loyal.
Defections from regime ranks have multiplied but still failed to strike the core.
And while defectors once formed the kernel of the rebel Free Syrian Army, insurgent ranks now include disparate groups including jihadist fighters from abroad.
The military has formidable firepower, and clashes with poorly armed rebels have reduced many cities to rubble, and in Libya, where demands for reform also turned to civil war, dictator Muammar Gaddafi also had a powerful war machine.
But the diplomatic climate there was different, and Western powers quickly imposed a no-fly zone and provided insurgents with weapons and training.
The world is divided over Syria, where unflinching support from long-time Damascus ally Russia and China has prevented the United Nations from adopting a unified posture.
Even countries such as the United States, Britain and France that have demanded Assad's departure are not providing the heavy weaponry that the rebels need to prevail.
They fear such weapons could fall into the hands of Muslim extremists, so have limited themselves to providing non-lethal support to rebels and sanctioning the inflexible regime.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/syria-crushed-by-war-two-years-into-revolt/story-e6frfkui-1226594132495#ixzz2N86bpcQ8
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
10032013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment