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Journalism of Courage
The government crackdown in Syria threatens to assume worrying proportions. But it hasnt evoked a strong verbal criticism from the international community because of two reasons. First,Syria is geopolitically critical in a sense Libya is not. Its situation in the lap of Israel,Iraq,Jordan,Lebanon and Turkey implies a disastrously destabilising fallout for the region from any sudden regime collapse. Second,internally,Syria is a sectarian tinderbox. The al-Assad family as well as the military and civilian elite are the once-oppressed minority Alawites,while a typical rebelling town like Hama belongs mostly to the majority Sunnis. The unrest in Syria can escalate into a civil war like Lebanons. Therefore,the international community has been watching,unable to act.
The battle begun on Sunday in Hama has claimed almost 150 lives and the total civilian death toll in the protests which began in March is believed to stand at around 1,600. It hasnt been easy for a divided UN Security Council to formulate an unambiguous response. Meanwhile,there seems to be little to doubt any more the regimes inclination towards taking the people on. As of Wednesday,there were reports of columns of tanks snaking into Hama. Whether Bashar al-Assad believes he can defy the logic of overreaching dictators and hang on is besides the fact that whatever window had opened after the April 21 lifting of the emergency for talks something the international community is still insisting on seems to have closed.
