News of the alleged chemical attack by the Syrian regime has put this years-long conflict in the headlines once again. For months, it seemed that the international community had sidelined the Syrian crisis.
Reactions towards extended conflicts tend to become passive, as developments become merely repetitive news items, and likewise taken for granted. This, until remarkable developments take place. The alleged use of chemical weapons is one such development.
Despite the international community making sincere efforts towards disarming the regime through sanctions, the incessant excessive use of force has not abated, let alone stopped.
In recent months, the EU Foreign Affairs Council lifted the arms embargo on the Syrian Opposition. Irrespective of arguments for and against arming the opposition, there is little doubt that the regime is in possession of a disproportionate level of weapons in comparison.
In his book Under the Wire, Paul Convoy, a war photographer for The Sunday Times of London, describes the brutal siege on the city of Homs that took place in February 2012. While the Syrian rebels fought for their lives with Kalashnikovs, Assad’s regime bombarded the city with the use of mortars, rockets and tanks – it was astonishingly disproportionate.
This, coupled with the use of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, known as air drones, allegedly provided by friendly allies of the regime, meant the Syrian Opposition and its people stood no chance in this massacre.
Air drones are used to identify the coordinates of sheltered rebels with precision, feeding the front line for a bull’s eye hit.
We owe it to the innocent people, whose lives are being shattered before our eyes
In this account, Convoy describes the determination of his colleague, war reporter Marie Colvin, whose inner sense of justice led her to the rebel forces, who smuggled her into Homs.
As an inferno struck the city, she bravely resisted departure. As one of few remaining reporters, only she could bear witness for the outside world. Just as she had completed a TV interview, a mortar struck her home-turned-refuge. She gave her life, her everything.
When one hears news of kidnapped journalists, one’s immediate response might be void of pity, blaming the journalists themselves for their predicament. They have risked life and limb to reach high-risk war zones but one is tempted to assume that their determination was fuelled by a sense of sensationalism or media hype.
In hindsight, had it not been for war journalists, we would have never read nor been aware of the atrocities conducted by regimes.
Perhaps this is the reason why no confirmed reports were readily available of the alleged chemical attacks in Syria.
As I read through this account, in the comforting refuge of my own home, I simply could not sit back and just stare into the oblivious darkness that we seem to find ourselves in. As a Member of Parliament, but also as a citizen who cherishes democracy and freedom, I believe that we have a responsibility to take action to protect the unprotected.
As days and months continue to go by, two years into the Syrian conflict international policy makers are obliged to do more. We owe it to the innocent people, whose lives are being shattered before our eyes; to those average citizens minding their own lives, now turned to front-line fighters, and to the mothers and their children.
We also owe it to the reporters who risk their lives fighting for justice. More so, we owe it to the estimated 100,000 Syrians that have perished so far.
Ryan Callus is a member of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee.