31 December 2011

Arab League needs to tell the truth about...

a lot of different things, but let's start with Arab League needs to tell the truth about Syria. The following quote summarizes the story wonderfully:

Meanwhile, another 17 people were reported killed in the city [Homs, Syria], including some of the thousands who tried to gather in a central square. Yet Gen. Dabi, who has been linked to the genocide in Darfur, was disconcertingly upbeat about what his team witnessed: “The situation seemed reassuring so far,” he told Reuters on Wednesday.
So much for truth you can expect (and shall receive) from the observers about Syria. However, when the general says that situation seems reassuring, maybe the Arab League reached some agreement with Baby Assad re the allowance of daily killing, who knows?

Meanwhile An Arab Summit Embraces the Butcher of Darfur:
So it was interesting to see what else was in the latest statement issued by the kings, princes and authoritarian presidents of the Middle East and North Africa. First there was a call on "the international community to prosecute those responsible" for alleged "war crimes" committed by Israel in its recent offensive in Gaza. Then came an ardent defense of Sudanese dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir -- who was welcomed to the Doha summit despite an outstanding arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court on multiple war crimes charges.

"We stress our solidarity with Sudan and our rejection of the decision" of the ICC, said the communique, which Mr. Bashir welcomed in a bombastic address to the summit plenary. Leader after leader declared fealty. "We must also take a decisive stance of solidarity alongside fraternal Sudan and President Omar al-Bashir," said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
As a reminder:
To be sure, some human rights groups have alleged crimes by Israeli forces in Gaza. But, according to Palestinian accounts, 1,409 people were killed during the offensive, of whom a substantial number were armed Hamas fighters. In contrast, the United Nations has reported more than 300,000 civilian deaths in Darfur as a result of the genocidal campaign sponsored by Mr. Bashir.
And this is the way it goes...

8 comments:

Brian Goldfarb said...

"...there was a call on "the international community to prosecute those responsible" for alleged "war crimes" committed by Israel in its recent offensive in Gaza."We all know that Israel gets accused of war crimes if so much as 1 soldier or border policeman sneezes over a Palestinian or Gazan, but this appears to be a new development: a redefinition of the very term "war crime". Nothing that an authoritarian regime does to its citizens is a war crime; everything that Israel does in the West Bank or to Gaza is a war crime. 
I know this is nothing new in practice, but at least we now have it spelled out, unequivocally. 
Pity these authoritarian regimes are incapable of making New Year's resolutions to use the language (whichever one it is) in the same way that normal, sane people in the rest of the world do. 

Dick Stanley said...

Truth and the Arab League are strange bedfellows.

KatieNorcross said...

What the Arab League is really in Syria for is to figure out how Assad can do what he has been doing without the US bombing the crap out of him.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Probably because the whole concept of the New Year is so confusing and diluted here in the Middle East.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Well, Arab League is the modern truth maker for the history records.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Oh, it may simply mean that the White House finally figured out that they don't know what is worse: the current tyrant or his replacement...

David All said...

Totally nausating! That a person like General Dabi, who has been involved in the genocide in Darfur should be a Monitor trying to keep track and curb Assad's murderous repression in Syria is a new low even for the Arab League. To see a confrontation between Dabi and a brave Syrian dissident, click on http://hurryupharry.org/2011/12/31/the-awesome-bravery-of-Syrias-citizen-journalists
Go down to middle of the post to see the video between Dabi and the dissident.

Dabi's boss, Sudanese President Omar Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague on charges of war crimes including that of genocide. Do not know if Dabi is also under indictment.

Katie: Am afraid there is no desire here in the US or in Europe to bombing Syria, especially with the possibility of war with Iran over its nuclear bomb building.        

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Surely it goes with the countries like Cuba, Saudi Arabia and other of their ilk sitting on the Human Rights Council of UN...