Al Assad deserves to pay for his crimes

A recent report by the Associated Press that read, “Britain and America are willing to offer the Syrian President Bashar Al Assad safe passage — and even clemency — as part of a diplomatic push to convene a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva” was deeply disturbing.

Al Assad does not merit mercy. He’s as brutal as former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, and former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, on trial for committing genocide and war crimes. For over a year, his military has been shelling homes with tanks and helicopter gunships mirroring the savagery of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. His army has tortured, killed and dismembered civilians including young children. Tens of thousands have been forced to flee to neighbouring countries. Al Assad may be educated and softly-spoken but beneath the veneer lurks a monster.

Imagine the outcry were Karadzic and Mladic to be pardoned; allowing those murderers to go free would be unthinkable. How much more unthinkable would it be for Al Assad to be rewarded for the horrors he has perpetrated? Brutality is entrenched in that dynastic family’s genes. I still remember how Hafez Al Assad quelled an uprising in Hama during February 1982. He authorised his brother Rifaat to cleanse the area of defenders at any cost, ending the lives of up to 40,000 in the process.

Al Assad’s cruelty towards his own people shames every Arab. Our brothers and sisters in Syria are pleading to be saved. Our TV screens have displayed the tiny bodies of young children massacred by the Alawite Al Shabiha to punish their dissenting parents. Yet, not a single Arab country has responded with practical assistance with the exception of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which, according to the Guardian, are arming and helping to fund the Free Syrian Army. Unfortunately, that’s not enough.

The Free Syrian Army is a defensive force and no match for Al Assad’s well-armed uniformed henchmen. Providing them with cash and weapons is a start but won’t tip the balance in favour of those demanding an end to dictatorship. Such gestures may go some way to salvaging our conscience. How long will Arab states continue offering its people decorative icing minus the cake? Arabs constantly complain about foreign powers meddling in their affairs but show little inclination to sort out their own problems. They grumble but refrain from taking bold steps, preferring to show a neutral face to the world. I, for one, feel ashamed that our leaders so eloquently talk the talk but rarely walk the walk.

It’s mystifying when we have highly intelligent politicians and strategists, effective armies, air forces and navies, the benefit of cutting-edge technologies and communications systems. We behave as though we’re paralysed people anxiously awaiting western powers to make decisions on our behalf, just as they did during the earlier part of the 20th century. Those days are long gone. We’re free and independent now… or are we? If we’re no longer under the thumb of hegemonic powers why do our governments stand on the side lines permitting the US and the UK to get involved in Arab matters? Why should they be empowered to grant an exit to a criminal responsible for slaughter on a massive scale? If we’re too cowardly or weak to manage our own problems we don’t deserve independence; we might as well invite our former occupiers to handle our lives for us.

I may sound cynical but, frankly, I’m reaching the end of my tether. I’ve always referred to myself as a proud Arab but the more I see that we’re still under the heel of the West, I feel less and less pride in being a son of the greater Arab nation. The only ticket out Al Assad should get is one-way to the International Criminal Court. He has forfeited his and his family’s right to negotiate any political transition or participate in UN-sponsored talks. The only ones with the moral authority to show him mercy are the families of the Syrian victims. Next to him Hosni Mubarak was saintly. It would be unjust for Al Assad and his fashionable wife to be spotted shopping for Louboutins on the rue Saint Honore in Paris while the former Egyptian leader gasps his last breath behind bars.

It’s worth mentioning that the Obama administration has denied it is contemplating handing the Syrian dictator a free pass but there’s no smoke without fire. It’s known that President Obama is under pressure to intervene for humanitarian reasons but is unwilling to confront Al Assad’s backers Moscow and Beijing, out to safeguard their regional interests to the detriment of the Syrian people. From Obama’s perspective, permitting Al Assad to walk off into the sunset, in the way that Bin Ali of Tunisia did, might be a lesser evil.

Before any such seed might sprout, Arab heads of state should send Washington and London an unequivocal message: Keep out! Any dirty laundry in our neighbourhood is ours to clean. Else we might as well close our eyes to the tears of Syria’s children, erase the term Arab world from our minds forever more and bow our heads to our masters in Washington and London.