From Syria to UNICEF, a not so blank statement

A medical worker carries a child victim of gas attack on Khan Sheikhun, Syria. (Reuters)

If there is anything that can be incurred from the 5-year long Syrian ‘Civil’ War is that it has a false name and that it is going to continue to commit crimes, murder one child after another, one woman after another, one youth after another, under this false identity until International institutions call the bluff and unveil the horrendous reality.

What is it?

A fight for black gold in the city of darkness by the people with rotten hearts.

What happened?

470,000 Syrians have died by now and the wings of death are only spreading.
It began as a conflict between the people and their government and soon became a bait for the superpowers to feed on the country and hoard in its nest as much as it can. Like a vulture it picked and it picked and it will continue to pick until the worms in its stomach are full, except, that is never.

Why now?

UNICEF on 20th February issued a statement, a blank statement which did not say anything because they were ‘out of words.’

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s words brought French Revolution. Simone de Beauvoir, Doris Lessing, Jonathan Swift, Harriet Jacobs, nobody would have known these writers, these thinkers, their struggles if they, like UNICEF, were ‘out of words.’

The blank statement issued by the UNICEF, sounds like a blank cheque, a permission to Bashar al-Assad ‘government’ to continue the manslaughter.

For many, it must be symbolic, but to some it the weakest statement an organization made to empower children could issue. To those who think it is futile to say a few words and criticise what is happening because it is beyond anybody’s control, to them it is to be reminded that these words mean the world to children gasping for their last breath, it is these words that their breath is looking for, it could be the reason for them to be alive and by not saying anything you are robbing them of their hope.

To think that the war is out of anybody’s control is to think that war made people and that is anything but the truth. If people made war, they can end it too but the question is not about can or cannot, the question is about the want.

The Geneva Convention which bans the use of Chemical weapons was violated thrice in Syria between 2014-2015 with the use of banned nerve agent sarin and with use of mustard gas. Not to any surprise, the incident of chemical attack repeated itself for the nth time on the intervening night of 25th-26th February 2018 in ‘rebel’ held Ghouta district near Damascus where it killed a child.

And the child’s death would not even be recorded by UN because it stopped updating the figure in 2015.

As an organization many of these children look up to, it is a matter of immense shame that they ‘have no words’.

Way Ahead:

• Transportation of any kind of explosives in the country must be seized permanently.
• United Nations, notwithstanding other factors such as involvement of permanent and non-permanent members, must adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards countries encouraging atrocities on civilians in Syria by selling armaments.
• Bashar-Al-Assad must be asked to prove majority in Syria if he wishes to continue to hold office.
• Massive reconstruction and preservation missions must be undertaken by International peace institutions from their independent fund.
• Gradual and smooth transfer of power to the next elected member.

Or, one could wait for Syria’s own Emma Gonzalez to stand up for basic human rights but who knows if the budding leader of Syria survived last night’s Chemical Attack or not.

-Somya Khera