25 September 2012:
In my usual daily routine, I open all the major news websites in the world upon
my getting to work. I also listen to world news on the radio on my way to work.
I have now been accustomed to that. Today, I was greeted with the headline Syria child trauma
'appalling' - Save the Children in one news website. The Syrian crisis has
gone for over a year now. Anti-government protests erupted in the southern city
of Deraa in mid-March 2011 which ignited countrywide protests and have been
going on to date. There have been repeated calls for the Syrian President
Bashaar Al Assad to step down. Nowhere have these calls been so fervent than
from the Western nations. The protests in Syria were part of the Middle East
and the Arab Spring uprisings last year. The protests saw the deposition of
leaders such as Muammar Gadhafi of Libya, Tunisia’s leader Ben Ali, President
Hosni Mubarak, the Western puppet, and Yemeni longtime leader Abdullah Saleh. Attempts
to see off Mr. Assad have been thwarted partly due to the divided ‘opposition’
the likes of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the National Coordination Committee
(NCC) and the Syrian National Council (SNC) which is the equivalent of the then
opposition council, the National Transitional Council (NTC) of Libya. As part
of the move to end the escalating crisis in the country, the Arab League
appointed Kofi Annan as a peace envoy to mediate the crisis. He failed
miserably and decided to throw in the towel. Kofi Annan with his six-plan peace
strategy failed due to undoubtedly western interference and western incessant
desire for regime change and backing rebels. Long time Algerian diplomat Lakhdar
Brahimi replaced Kofi Annan. Brahimi has also started on a bad footing. In his
first interview, he admitted that his work will be challenging. In yet another
move of western interference, Mr. Brahimi says that the government of President
Bashar al-Assad was "not serious about making reforms". He was speaking
the UN Security Council.
I would like to draw your attention to the striking
headline: Syria Child trauma “appalling” as documented by a report by Save the
Children. It says almost every child it
spoke to has seen a family member killed. The report gives testimonies
collected from refugees in camps outside Syria. The report reveals that
children are been killed, maimed and tortured in the country's brutal civil
war. The report further indicates that children have also witnessed the deaths
of parents, siblings, other children, and torture. I don’t totally discount
these finds nor do I totally agree with them either. Of great concern is the
motive of such a report. It is not new to the cycles of a humanitarian disaster
to witness the horrendous and harrowing sights of children suffering from the
traumas of wars and its effects. The children of Iraq and Afghanistan long for
such reports. This British Charity firm may have clear and humanitarian
intentions, but their intention is no doubt driven by the Western agenda of
regime change. Brahimi has a lot to do. He must do a great balancing act to
solve the crisis in Syria. Western International NGOs and Western pressures
will be enomous. His task now is to balance it out. It is not going to be easy.
