OPEN MINDS

History will condemn us for our silence on Syria

Arecently concluded BBC investigation reveals that Syria used chemical weapons on 106 occasions against its own civilian population.

According to reliable intelligence reports, and media revelations, it is absolutely certain that the President Bashar Al Assad’s regime used chemical weapons against the Syrian population to seize control of the areas held by the rebels. What’s appalling is that the regime has crossed the red line several times with impunity, and the world has continued to watch the Syrian people suffer for over seven years.

The ongoing civil war has claimed lives of more than 350,000 people and displaced millions. Assad now appears close to victory against the forces trying to overthrow him, and this has been possible primarily due to the use of chemical weapons, the use of which is prohibited in international armed conflicts in a series of treaties including the Hague declaration concerning asphyxiating gases of 1899, the Geneva gas protocol of 1925, the chemical weapons convention of 1997 and the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court.

Numerous military manuals also prohibit the use of chemical weapons. The ban on the use of chemical weapons contained in the chemical weapons convention applies in all circumstances, including non-international armed conflicts.

Without a doubt, chemical weapons are cruel and have devastating impact on those exposed to them. Chemical weapons are classified as arms that use toxic chemical substances to harm or kill people during war, and they should not be used.

The certainty of suffering, pain and death is associated with chemical weapons used in Syria. They are blood agents, choking agents, blister agents and nerve agents. History will condemn us all for being bystanders, in the face of these monstrous crimes against humanity.