Press release – Humanist Association of Hong Kong
25 August 2013
Press release: Syria
It is imperative that the perpetrator of the chemical weapons attack that took place Wednesday 21 August in Damascus be determined before any nation’s government or coalition of same places blame that results in the launch of any further attack on Syria.
More missiles and bombs are not an answer and only mean further deaths and injuries to the Syrian people. Soldiers are people and the outrage of remote killing of armed forces is considerably worse than conventional fighting where at least one soldier can see the other whom he – or she nowadays – is duty-bound to engage.
There is the possibility that a sufficient grouping of the international community will muster itself to impose further warring actions against Syria to commandeer the stocks of chemical weapons no matter by which side those weapons are held because those nations fear chemical weapons falling into the hands of the forces acting against them, namely the Al Qaeda-linked (to try and give that grouping a name) forces.
The Syrian government has not co-operated with those requesting it to allow the UN investigative team already in the country to try and determine from whence the 21 August attack came. Also, that was not their brief. If readers can recall, the investigative team that looked into the weapons of mass destruction facade during the Iraq War was thrown out of Iraq when it was uncovered that the team was heavily infiltrated by USA spies.
Also, all efforts going toward normalisation by the Assad regime have been ignored by the ‘West’ and more than that, labelled as insincere – but significant numbers of the Syrian population did want to give the Syrian government space to start reforms.
It is also good to recall that in the very beginning the protests against the Assad regime were peaceful and what had been seen in Tunisia for example was a clear reference in Syria. However, other forces, the violent ones, took over and the way of peace was lost in the ensuing melee. Those days of attempting to enact change non-violently have been undermined and the hysteria of civil war has engulfed the nation.
Let us remember how the government was changed in the Philippines, with a peaceful revolution (against Marcos). The Philippine army simply sided with the people. It can be done!
Bombing Syria from distant warships is a cowardly act and not an answer. Any country sending arms and munitions into Syria is guilty of killing the Syrian people. Any outside force aiding one side or the other with weapons and munitions supplies is guilty of killing the Syrian people.
“No to Violence, yes to Life” is a message that needs to be loudly and clearly transmitted to everyone across the Middle East, which is a region tearing itself to pieces. That phenomenon shows a profound need for a reassessment of the Arab way of life as that desert-born culture is hit by massive amounts of oil money. That, plus the divisive attractions of a consumer and mass-marketed society that has become widespread, submerging all previously held Arab-values.
e-mail tonyhen@humanist.org.hk
Web page: http://humanistassociationhongkong.yolasite.com/
