In the attack that brutally devastated mosques and houses where the faithful were celebrating Mawlid an-Nabi (Mevlid Kandili), which marks the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, on Friday, it is reported that at least 337 people were killed and 1,500 people wounded. Some Syrian activists claim the death toll to be around 500 in the mass slaughter. Assad's father killed 20,000-40,000 people in Hama.
The latest massacres that made everyone's blood run cold allegedly started when civilians wanted to take back the corpses of their relatives who were killed by the Syrian army. According to Syrian activists, 138 people, including 57 children were killed in the Al Khalidiya district of Homs. It is virtually impossible to confirm the scarce information coming out of the country, and the world can only get a gist of the ongoing massacre via video images obtained by cellular phones. In images Syrians posted on the Internet, one can see dead bodies and ruined streets after the clashes. Still, the Assad administration denies the shelling of the city and has resorted to a shameless black propaganda campaign filled with lies and disinformation.
As soon as the word on Assad's Homs massacre came, people protested Syria in front of Syrian embassies in Ankara, Cairo, Berlin, London and Athens. Tunisia quickly expelled the Syrian ambassador. In this process, the impotency or uselessness of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), where Russia and China, as the main supporters of Syria, enjoy veto power, was proven once again. Because of these country's vetoes, the UNSC not only failed to pass a resolution to take preventive action against the massacres in Syria, but was also unable to issue a resolution to support the Arab League's decision to make Assad resign and to condemn the human rights violations by Syria.
While the civilian massacre was under way in the houses and mosques in Homs on a holy day when the birth of the Prophet of Islam was being marked, Russia worked hard to change the resolution text and postpone the voting, even resorting to filibustering techniques, including making Vitaly Churkin, the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, be late for the meeting. And this will certainly be remembered as a moment of shame for Russia. Moreover, this is not the first occasion of disgrace for Russia and China. Indeed, these two countries vetoed a similar UNSC resolution four months ago. This was proof enough that the UNSC is a good-for-nothing organization while a despot is ruthlessly killing civilians before the eyes of the civilized world, and it must be reorganized according to current circumstances.
Obviously, by vetoing the UNSC resolution, strongly backed by the remaining 13 members, Russia and China have not only given the green light to Assad to continue his massacres, they are also providing full political support to this despotic regime that is their regional ally and ideological brother and also supplying arms and ammunition to the Syrian massacre machine, which is accused of using chemical weapons as well. The fact that the bullets and shells used in the civilian massacre in Homs are Russian explains a lot, despite the Kremlin's denial. Russia and China are doing their best in a coldblooded manner to buy the bloodthirsty Assad dictatorship the time it needs to bring this bloody business to a successful completion. As announced the day before yesterday, the visit Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia's foreign intelligence chief Mikhail Fradkov will pay to Damascus on Tuesday is certainly geared toward the same goal. Russia and China are openly betraying the Syrian public and their right to life and demands for freedom and democracy before the eyes of the whole civilized world.
However, as noted in a statement issued by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the veto powers that the UNSC permanent members enjoy also entail a serious sense of responsibility. Moreover, as the statement stresses, “The stage that has been reached by the regime's suppressing the desire of the Syrian people for universal values such as democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law with the use of guns, violence and mass executions has acquired a threatening nature in which international peace and security are at risk.”
The responsibility of the blood spilled in Syria will fall not only on the shoulders of the despotic Assad regime. Along with Russia and China, which are acting as supports to this illegitimate system of oppression, Iran, which ruthlessly continues to lend full support to this bloody regime because of a sectarian affinity and its geopolitical interests in the region, as well as the groups in the region who are under Iran's influence, will be held responsible as well. Each drop of blood spilled in Syria will forever remain as a black stain on the foreheads of Russia and China as well as Iran, who similarly legitimizes this tyranny.
