Reported by: Sana Adnan
A decade has passed. A decade of families being torn apart, children being massacred, women being raped, more than 2.1 million people injured and more than 250,000 killed. A decade of the cries of these innocent victims remaining unheard and injustice and incompetence prevailing. A decade of the strongest nations of the world prioritizing political motives over humanity. The only question resonating in the mind of every Syrian is; “When will this end or more clearly, if this will ever end.”
The Syrian dispute has gotten way more complex than the initial civil war ten years ago. What separates this war from a mere dissatisfaction with the government are the numerous other stakeholders that have caused the graveness of the situation to escalate to the point that all hopes seem to be lost. The United Nations, the last refuge in case of internal disputes, has also failed to establish peace in the region, thus further emphasizing how complicated the situation really is. While it is unanimously agreed upon that a clear political solution will pave the way for a peaceful Syria, there seems to be no real effort on account of the government or the extremist groups. While on one hand Jihadists vow to defend their land and people for the sake of their religion, the opposite party views them as terrorists who need to be silenced for good thus leaving the question, who is to be blamed, unanswered.
The UN called for the implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communiqué, which anticipates a transitional governing body that is formed after joint agreement of all parties. The Syrian government was not willing to cooperate with the rebellious groups such as IS and Southern Front at any cost and thus this resolution was easily discarded. What followed was another agreement that proposed the formation of a committee to draft a constitution in order to conduct fair elections to form a government under United Nations supervision in the country. This arrangement would mean that the people were finally getting a voice rather than surrendering to those in power. It comes as no surprise that the drafting was not even started, let alone holding the elections.
The major hindrance in the road to betterment is the fact that the country’s future does not only lie in the hands of the Syrians but also the foreign armies that have occupied lands in the region. Whether it is the alleged “foreign backed terrorism” that Mr Assad vowed to crush or the foreign armies that have been aiding the government in countering rebellions, there is sufficient foreign intervention in the area to prove that the solution does not depend on the Syrians alone. The Syrian government, opposition groups, IS group, Turkish forces, Russian forces, US-led Coalition army and Syrian Democratic forces are all responsible for the death toll. Worsening the situation, religious motives surfaced with extremist organisations like Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaeda rose to action, followed by the Kurds who claimed the right to self government. The most direct conclusion is that the innocent citizens are the collateral damage in this civil war that does not seem to be coming to an end anytime soon.
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