In March of 2011, the revolutionary vigor of the Arab Spring, which began a few months earlier with the revolution in Tunisia, spilled into Syria. Syrian activists organized to protest the government under current president Bashar al-Assad and demand the release of political prisoners.
One year later, the aAssad government’s military and rebel forces are locked in a power struggle, which has led to the deaths of over 10,000 people, according to United Nations estimates. In an attempt to quell opposition, the military has violently cracked down on civilians by open firing and shelling residential neighborhoods, with the most violence occurring in the central city of Homs.
“I think that, based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that [Assad] would fit into that category,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Feb. 28 of this year.
Despite a large, international outcry from many prominent figures such as Clinton, there has yet to be any major foreign intervention in the turmoil. Private groups trying to provide aid to the wounded have been largely blocked by the Syrian government, as was the case in March when the Red Cross was prevented from entering the embattled Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr.
New technology has made it easier for people in the most violent regions of Syria, such as Baba Amr, to record and then share information via the Internet to the rest of the world. For Arapahoe students in particular, one factor that separates Syria, the entire Arab Spring and almost any other political conflict in recent years from those of the past is the intensified international awareness.
“I think the amount of potential on the Internet through social network sites to not only provide the news, but to create it has yet to be realized and the amount of impact that it actually makes is well beyond what the average person realizes,” senior Seth Hardcastle said. “For me personally, the Internet has become the go-to source for news. The convenience of the Internet being available for instant and current access of what is going on locally and globally has made it a waste of time for most people to read the paper or to watch the news.”
For a significant portion of Americans, this means no longer having to rely on the traditional sources of information such as news publications, television or radio to know what conditions are like for those caught within the clash between the government and rebel forces. Posts on social networking sites provide frequent updates and often times unedited, amateur videos are posted on YouTube to offer visual depictions.
“The S.A.C. [Syrian American Council] communicates with protesters on the ground through relatives of the Syrian-American community and S.A.C. members as well as social media outlets [like] Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Skype, etc.,” Rashad Al-Dabbagh, the Communications Director of the Syrian American Council, said.
The present and still increasing interconnectedness of the world has made it easier for foreign groups and individuals outside of Syria to have access to conditions within the country and provide support for civilians.
The majority of international support has come in the form of verbal statements offered by critics of the current regime. The most substantial of these occurred on Feb. 16 when the United Nations General Assembly voted 137-12 with 17 abstentions, calling for Assad’s resignation. Coming after two attempts by the U.N. Security Council to intervene, which both Syrian allies Russia and China vetoed, the General Assembly resolution holds only symbolic meaning and does not signify any action is to be taken.
“[The condemnation] has no weight in terms of international law, however the U.N. General Assembly vote against the Syrian regime was a huge moral boost, a spiritual boost to the democratic forces in Syria,” University of Denver professor Nader Hashemi said.
Nevertheless, for many Syrian civilians in the midst of the turmoil and their supporters, the non-binding resolution was not sufficient; instead they are calling for a more concrete strategy.
“[The government] will continue shelling the cities of Homs, Hama, Idlib and elsewhere,” Al-Dabbagh said. “U.N. members should pressure Russia and China into accepting a tangible action to end the regime’s brutality. The U.N. Security Council has the responsibility to pass a resolution to protect the people of Syria.”
The current circumstances can be traced back to 1970, when Hafez al-Assad (Bashar al-Assad’s father and predecessor) led a charge to oust the then de facto leader Salah Jadid, putting Assad and the nationalist Ba’ath party in charge of Syria. This is often referred to as the Syrian Corrective Movement.
“[The revolution] effectively brought in this particular ruling regime and the family that’s in power right now and it allowed them to assume full political control over Syria,” Hashemi said. “I would say it has been one family rule for the last 41 years.”
As the Syrian conflict continues, many comparisons have been made to the situation last year in Libya. Both cases involve military dictators (Assad in Syria and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya) firing on citizens. Questions have been raised as to why a similar interventionist solution used in Libya could not be put into effect in Syria.
“Syria is a much more complicated situation,” Hashemi said. “In Libya, there was international consensus in terms of the U.N. Security Council, there was the strong support of the Arab League and the Libyan opposition was united in terms of wanting external support, and the prosecution of a military campaign against the existing regime in Libya was a lot easier because that regime was less militarily powerful than in the case of Syria.”
These complications have been the major contributing factor to why the Syrian conflict has continued so long, although as of April 2, 2012, Syria has agreed to a plan to withdraw troops from high population centers by April 10 and adapt a cease-fire within the next 48 hours. Despite this pledge, there is still a significant amount of skepticism. Clinton, who warned al-Assad to implement the plan at a Friends of Syria conference, is among those skeptics.
“We have to conclude that the regime is adding to its long list of broken promises,” Clinton said. “The world must judge Assad by what he does, not by what he says. And we cannot sit back and wait any longer.”