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| Syria's Children Refugees Injured inside and out Traumatized |
Today in Syria “all sides” are committing “ongoing
violations of international humanitarian law and basic humanitarian principles.”
Commentary by Carolyn Bennett with re-reporting, editing
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he Middle or Near East consists of the lands around the
southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. These lands extend from Morocco
to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, and by some interpretations beyond.
Some of the first modern Western geographers and historians who tended to
divide the Orient into three regions gave the region the name “Near East.”
In their three-region designations: Near East applied to the
region nearest Europe, extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian
Gulf; the Middle East, extending from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia; and
the Far East, encompassing the regions facing the Pacific Ocean.
The change in usage from “Near” to “Middle” East began
evolving before World War II and extended through that war. The British
military command in Egypt coined the term “Middle East” and, so defined, its states
or territories included:
Turkey, Cyprus, Syria,
Lebanon;
Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Jordan;
Egypt, The Sudan, Libya; and
Various states of Arabia proper
(Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and
the Trucial States, or
Trucial Oman [now United Arab
Emirates]
Subsequent events have tended, in loose usage, to enlarge
the number of lands included in the definition. Among these are: Tunisia,
Algeria and Morocco, three North African countries “closely connected in
sentiment and foreign policy with the Arab states”; Afghanistan and Pakistan,
because geography and geopolitics connect these with affairs of the Middle
East.
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oday in Syria, says Robert Mardini of the International Committee
of the Red Cross’s Operations for the Near and Middle East, “we are not able to
reach all the affected population.
We very much believe that States
should play a positive role by exerting stronger influence on those involved to
secure greater respect for international humanitarian law.
This would hopefully create an
environment where impartial humanitarian action could take place in real time.
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| The dead Continuous death and dying |
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he United States and its allies, convenient and historic,
are today by far the worst force in the world for the peoples of the world.
I believe in my own sense of progressivism that not only is
killing wrong and that this fabricated global “war’ on terror is immoral,
illegal and a lie; but that truly evolved thought and action ─ action based on truly progressivist
thought (far different from the current political tribalism, partisanship and
“me-ism”) ─ would reject the current state of bastardized, depraved, first-now-and-always
violence in human affairs.
Progressivist thought and action would engage with mind
and heart in respectful negotiation, interaction, conversation; seek understanding of the
varieties of languages, cultures, traditions and histories; and, with courage and determination, embark on a course of sustained coexistence that improves lives and livelihoods and
human rights of the world's peoples.
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| Syrians protest foreign interference |
But progressivist thought is absent and Western depravity continues. Continuously, U.S.
policy and practice in countries of the world has callously murdered and traumatized people.
The cynic might argue that NGOs and healing organizations such as the Red Cross
and Red Crescent need this current state of endless violence and manufactured war and conflict to justify their existence, that they would be out of work if governments and counter- government forces and
others did not commit endless aggression. But the cynic's view is ridiculous because, though their missions or functions would and should change over time, there always will be a need for legitimate helping organizations. But to continuously uproot, displace, kill, wound in mind, body and spirit is
unconscionable ─ unconscionably criminal. There is nothing "humanitarian" in Western countries' foreign relations model and their impunity and our complicity in it must end.
The report of the International Committee of the Red Cross continues.
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oday in the Middle East/Syria: “Hundreds are dying daily.”
And this does not include the already homeless, internally and externally displaced,
and forced migrations, mixed migrating peoples; and compounding impact of hostility
migrating peoples face from regional countries and countries farther away who
are now and have been for years at war with their homelands.
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| Syria's people continually Refugees Displaced Homeless Traumatized |
“Millions have been displaced inside Syria,” says the head
of Operations for the Near and Middle East at the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC). “Others have fled to neighboring countries to live in
harsh conditions, Robert Mardini reports.
Tens of thousands are missing or
detained.
Families are desperately seeking
their loved ones [but] no information on their whereabouts is available.
Health standards have fallen
dramatically, medical facilities have been targeted and health workers killed,
intimidated or detained while trying to save lives.
Property and infrastructure have
been severely damaged, leaving large areas in rubble.
Today in Syria and right across the Middle East, South
Central Asia, on both sides of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, there are
ongoing “atrocities against civilians” and “indiscriminate attacks against
civilians and the targeting of health-care personnel and aid workers.”
International Committee of the Red Cross
Established in 1863, the International Committee of the Red
Cross is an independent and neutral organization working worldwide to provide
humanitarian help for people affected by conflict and armed violence and to
promote the laws that protect victims of war.
The ICRC’s ten largest operations worldwide are:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq,
Somalia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel and the Occupied
Territories, Colombia, Yemen, and Mali/Niger
The mandate of the International Committee of the Red Cross stems
essentially from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the
ICRC employs some 12,000 people in 80 countries; it is financed mainly by
voluntary donations from governments and from national Red Cross and Red
Crescent societies.
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hen nuclear-weighted and otherwise armed-to-the-teeth powers
commit incessant violence against the peoples of the world, what power will
speak for those who are violated, whose sovereignty is breached? What body will
hold the depraved, the lawless to account for their crimes?
The intolerable state of global affairs, international
relations, and the well-being of the world’s peoples must be taken on by genuine
progressivist thought and effort.
Sources and notes
“Syria: Two years on, immense suffering with no end in sight”
March, 15, 2013, News Release,
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/news-release/2013/03-15-syria-two-years.htm
Robert Mardini, Head of Operations for the Near and Middle
East at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
International Committee of the Red Cross and International
Humanitarian Law
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is
present in some 80 countries with around 11,000 staff worldwide.
Its extensive network of missions and delegations allows it
to act close to people affected by armed conflict and other situations of
violence and to provide them with a meaningful response to their plight. The
ICRC’s ten largest operations worldwide are:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq,
Somalia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel and the Occupied
Territories, Colombia, Yemen, and Mali/Niger
http://www.icrc.org/eng/where-we-work/index.jsp
Established in 1863, the International Committee of the Red
Cross is an independent and neutral organization working worldwide to provide
humanitarian help for people affected by conflict and armed violence and to
promote the laws that protect victims of war.
The ICRC’s mandate stems essentially from the Geneva
Conventions of 1949. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, it employs some 12,000
people in 80 countries; it is financed mainly by voluntary donations from
governments and from national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
http://www.icrc.org/eng/who-we-are/index.jsp
International humanitarian law is a set of rules which seek,
for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict.
International humanitarian law protects persons who are not
or are no longer participating in the hostilities and restricts the means and
methods of warfare. International humanitarian law is also known as the law of
war or the law of armed conflict.
International humanitarian law is part of international law,
which is the body of rules governing relations between States.
International law is contained in agreements between States
– treaties or conventions – in customary rules, which consist of State practice
considered by them as legally binding, and in general principles.
An important and distinct part of international law set out
in the United Nations Charter ─ not in
International humanitarian law applying to armed conflicts ─ governs whether a
State may actually use force.
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/legal-fact-sheet/humanitarian-law-factsheet.htm
MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES
Background: Middle East (Near East) Countries
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he Middle or Near East consists of the lands around the
southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. These lands extend from Morocco
to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, and by some interpretations beyond.
Some of the first modern Western geographers and historians who tended to
divide the Orient into three regions gave the region the name “Near East.”
In their three-region designations: Near East applied to the
region nearest Europe, extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian
Gulf; the Middle East, extending from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia; and
the Far East, encompassing the regions facing the Pacific Ocean.
The change in usage from “Near” to “Middle” East began
evolving before World War II and extended through that war. The British
military command in Egypt coined the term “Middle East” and, so defined, its states
or territories included:
Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon;
Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Jordan;
Egypt, The Sudan, Libya; and
Various states of Arabia proper (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial States, or
Trucial Oman [now United Arab Emirates]
Subsequent events have tended, in loose usage, to enlarge
the number of lands included in the definition. Among these are: Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, three North African countries “closely
connected in sentiment and foreign policy with the Arab states”;
Afghanistan and Pakistan, because geography and geopolitics connect
these with affairs of the Middle East;
Greece occasionally is included in the compass of the Middle
East because the Middle Eastern (then Near Eastern) question in its modern form
first became apparent when the Greeks in 1821 rebelled to assert their independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey and Greece, together with the predominantly Arabic-speaking lands around
the eastern end of the Mediterranean, were also formerly known as the Levant.
Historically the countries along the eastern Mediterranean
shores were called the Levant. Common use of the term is associated with
Venetian and other trading ventures and the establishment of commerce with cities
such as Tyre and Sidon as a result of the Crusades. It was applied to the
coastlands of Asia Minor and Syria, sometimes extending from Greece to Egypt.
It was also used for Anatolia and as a synonym for the Middle or Near East. In
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the term “High Levant” referred to the
Far East. The name “Levant States” was given to the French mandate of Syria and
Lebanon after World War I, and the term is sometimes still used for those two
countries, which became independent in 1946. (“Levant” is from the French
“lever,” “to rise,” as in sunrise, meaning the east.)
Use of the term “Middle East” remains unsettled, and some
agencies (notably the United States State Department and certain bodies of the United
Nations) still employ the term “Near East.”
Encyclopædia Britannica Deluxe Edition, s.v. “Middle East.”
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