World inaction causes humanitarian disaster in Syria

The situation in Syria is a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions, greatly exacerbated by the inaction of the international community. Every day than now passes without action simply adds hundreds of human lives to the body count. 

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Catholic Online) - Just a few hundred miles away, in cities such as Damascus and Aleppo, and in the mountainous desert country of Syria, the worst possible human conditions persist as a civil war fought to oust dictator Bashir al-Assad from power continues. 

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Two years ago, Syria was a peaceful country with many citizens enjoying a reasonable standard of living and a lifestyle that was relatively modern by Middle Eastern standards. Less than two years after the start of the Arab Spring uprisings, many people are living in conditions that the country hasn't seen in over a century. 

The immediate disaster is the humanitarian crisis. 

Civilians are considered routine targets by the Syrian military and its supporting militias. Soldiers and police raid homes on a daily basis and arrest suspects, evidence or no. The fate of the arrested can include detention to interrogation, to summary execution. 

Civilians are also dying because of direct military action. On occasion, they are deliberately targeted, and more frequently, they are caught in the crossfire between rebels and government forces. Government forces are employing indiscriminate fire against them dropping area munitions such as high explosive bombs and artillery in populated neighborhoods. 

Those who survive the combat must contend with a lack of necessities. This goes beyond being without electricity, which is now a common situation. Many are without food and drinkable water as public services have been damaged and disrupted by fighting. Occasionally, these are deliberately shut off to areas the regime wants to punish. The rebels have also been known to disrupt these vital services. 

Food and fuel have stopped moving except irregularly. Many people have become refugees in fear for their lives. Unfortunately, it's the refugees that face the greatest danger. 

Refugees are mostly streaming towards camps across the border in Turkey. These camps established by the Turkish government and the UN are already bursting well past capacity.

International aid organizations are struggling to keep the people supplied with basic needs and are in dire need of continual support. 

For those who choose to remain in Syria, the future remains uncertain. Civilians living peacefully in quiet neighborhoods one day can find themselves suddenly embroiled in conflict the next as rebels find new places to strike and government forces mount fierce counter-attacks. 

Medicine has run out in many areas and medical care is strained as doctors have either been arrested or pressed into service by the combatants. Those few doctors that remain on duty in the urban areas must face a swelling population of patients, for whom they lack the proper resources to treat. 

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This situation should not be happening. The failure of the UN and the international community to peacefully intervene, represented most recently by UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan's resignation, shows just how impossible the situation has become. Buffaloed by threats from Russia and China, the world has largely kept its distance, instead imposing harsh sanctions on the country that seem to affect the people as much as the regime. 

That has not kept international actors at bay, however. Both sides have accused international supporters of funneling arms and ammunition to the other. Evidence of this is plentiful. 

The people of Syria need humanitarian aid and peace, not dalliance and guns. However, even the most sincere efforts of various world governments to bring peace have failed miserably. It appears likely that the situation in Syria will be left to resolve itself, and there is no way to predict how long that will take. 

In the meantime, humanitarian assistance for the people of Syria is urgently needed. 

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Concerned humanitarians can donate via this link, and all are encouraged to pray for a rapid peace in the region with swift justice for all the criminals involved in making daily life a living hell for the civilians of Syria.

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