U.N. Takes No Action Amid Slaughter in Syria
More than 1,100 people have been killed as a result of Syria’s government crackdown, surpassing the death toll of Egypt’s revolution this past winter. Over 80 of the deceased are children.
The Syrian government claims it was stopping armed terrorist groups who carried out a massacre in the city. Those on the opposition argue that the government's claims are a ruse to justify a crackdown on demonstrators demanding government reform.
In an interview with Fox News, Senator Lindsey Graham called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “indistinguishable” from Muammar al-Gaddafi.
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The United States has taken action, while the United Nations has not.
The U.S. has imposed sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad as well as other high ranking Syrian officials. Assets were frozen in response to human rights abuses. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal of the U.N. Security Council are in favor of U.N. involvement in the crisis.
“The Security Council has failed, so far, to react on Syria, which I think is extraordinary and disappointing,” said Carne Ross, a former U.N. diplomat.
U.N. ambassadors from China and Russia disagree, arguing that action taken by the U.N. would risk the destabilization of Syria.
Foreign journalists, meanwhile, have not been permitted to enter the country. Members of the international media are camping out at the Turkey/Syria border to interview Syrian refugees who have fled. According to U.N. official Metin Cohabiter, 6,817 Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey.
Accurate reports of the carnage are difficult to ascertain. But what's clear is that the death toll is expected to rise.
“It's wholesale slaughter now," Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News. “The reason we went into Libya is to protect the Libyan people from wholesale slaughter. When they protested, Gaddafi started killing them in the streets. He took his army, turned them on his own people. That's exactly what's happening in Syria.”
News reports of a mass grave being found in prominent Syrian city Jisr al Shughur have been circulating on the internet.
