The Syrian Blood Is Now on the Hands of Russia and China

Just when it seemed that nothing worse could happen in Syria…the worst happened.

Through the night of Friday-Saturday, the al-Assad regime launched mortar fire over the city of Homs, killing more than 200 civilians and wounding many more.

The regime said that the civilians in the city bombed themselves to make it appear that al-Assad’s military had done it. Reports from witnesses on the ground verify that the mortar came from regime forces.

As if to laugh at the entire would, while people in Homs were being buried and treated - without an equipped hospital or the medicines and doctors needed - both China and Russia vetoed the UN Security resolution condemning the violence in Syria.

Russia’s explanation? The resolution was “unbalanced,” even after every effort had been made to accommodate the Russian government by eviscerating the resolution so that no sanctions, no ban on the Russian sale of armaments to al-Assad and no demand for the departure of al-Assad himself were included. It was merely a condemnation of the violence.

UN Secretary-General Ban-ki-Moon said this afternoon that there was no valid reason for a veto to be used.

The entire world has registered its disapproval of the Chinese-Russian action, but of course, there is nothing to be done. They have the absolute right to a veto, as does every permanent member of the Security Council.

Syrians in Cairo, London, Kuwait City and New York demonstrated outside their Syrian Embassy. In Cairo and Kuwait, the demonstrators entered the buildings and set fire to various areas.

There are calls in London for the UK government to expel the Syrian ambassador.

There is, or should be, a limit to international patience, both toward the Syrian regime and toward Russia’s and China’s deliberate participation in the al-Assad murder of its own people.

When the al-Assad regime is toppled by the Syrian freedom fighters, and the world has been able to assess the totality of the damage and death caused by al-Assad forces, I for one would like to see not only al-Assad and his clique tried for crimes against humanity.

I believe it is now appropriate to talk about charging the Russian and Chinese governments with complicity in these crimes against humanity. There is no excuse for Russia or China to encourage mortar shelling to occur…

There is no excuse for permitting people to be murdered, day after day after day…

There is no excuse for selling arms to murderers…

There is no excuse for putting their position in the Middle East above their positions of trust as members of the Security Council.

Russia and China have made their beds, alongside the blood-stained bed of al-Assad and that innocent blood has seeped over and onto their hands. It is now time to treat them as the criminals they are.