U.N. Amb. Power: World must stop Syrian murders

 

Ambassador Samantha Power
Ambassador Samantha Power

UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (Press Release) — Ambassador Samantha Power, the U.S. permanent representatitve to the United Nations, said on Wednesday, April 16, that the world must do more to stop mass killings and atrocities in Syria.

At a Security Council briefing on the prevention and fight against genocide, she described as “devastating” crimes against humanity that still persist. In a prepared speech, Ambassador Power continued: “Yesterday, many of us attended an Arria session, in which we saw graphic photographs taken in Syrian prisons showing the systematic, industrial-style slaughter and forced starvation killings of approximately 11,000 detainees. And those photos were taken in just three of the 50 Syrian-run detention centers, in Syria. And to that we can add the Syrian victims of chemical weapons attacks, the children felled by barrel bombs and those being starved to death in besieged towns and villages, or those executed by terrorist groups. Twenty years from now, how will we reflect on this Council’s failure to help those people? How will we explain Council disunity on Syria twenty years after Rwanda?

Too often, we have done too little, waited too long, or been caught unprepared by events that should not have surprised us. Moving forward, we have to do a better job confronting and defeating the practitioners of hate. Part of protecting against mass atrocities is preventing the conditions that allow them: rampant discrimination, the denial of human dignity, and the codification of bigotry. No one should be targeted for violence simply because of who they are or what they believe.

In our collective effort to prevent mass atrocities, we must make creative use of every tool we have: human rights monitoring; diplomatic missions; technical assistance; arms embargos; smart sanctions; peace operations; judicial inquiries; truth commissions; courts; and other measures designed to influence the calculations of perpetrators who every day are deciding how far they are going to go – every day they are doing a cost benefit analysis in their head about whether the cost of moving forward exceeds the benefits from their often warped perspective.

We must also be innovative in taking advantage of new technology like the UAV’s now being deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo – even text messaging which is being used to raise alarms, track the movement of outlaw groups, gather evidence of criminal violations, and we of course must always deliver aid to those in desperate need.

We must remember, as well, that preventing mass atrocities is a global responsibility requiring robust contributions from all. In particular, we need to train and equip peacekeepers who head into harm’s way. And more countries should do their share – whether through soldiers, civilians, enablers, or other contributions. I echo my Rwandan colleague’s point that twenty years after Rwanda – the Rwandan genocide – we should have moved further beyond what he called, ‘crisis improvisation.”

Further, we must enhance the bonds of trust between ourselves. Historic differences within or between regional groups must neither lessen our capabilities nor diminish our willingness to act as one.

Finally, we must ask every state to consider whether there is more it can do to remove the political roadblocks that impede effective action. Again, with thousands of lives at stake in Syria and elsewhere, obstruction is untenable and cooperation is a moral and strategic imperative. Tomorrow afternoon, we will also have the chance to shine a spotlight on the horrors going on in the darkness of North Korea.

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