Assad’s extermination method under the Russia’s immunity

Assad regime bombarded a refugee camp in the town of Al-Kamouna in Idlib countryside last Thursday. Its refugees have fled from the horrors of the conflict in Aleppo to what they thought to be a secure place. More than 100 people were killed and injured.

The clear war crime was committed after hours of a Security Council session during which most members condemned the brutal attacks on Aleppo destroying hospitals and medical facilities. However, Russia prevented the Security Council from issuing a statement of condemnation.

The Russian attitude aimed at protecting Assad regime from any condemnation which might hold Assad regime accountable for war crimes. Depending on this “immunity”,  Assad’s warplanes launched those bloody attacks on the refugees’ camp.

This time Ban Ki- Moon demanded the Security Council to take necessary procedures to refer Assad to International Criminal Court. 

Soon Assad regime and Russia started a misleading campaign to water down their responsibility about the attacks. They accused Al-Nusra of killing refugees in a camp that is located under its control. Washington also joined this misleading campaign when the US Department of State spokesperson said timidly that “nothing can justify the attacks on civilians.” 

This over-timid attitude has actually contributed in obscuring what really happened since affirming Assad’s responsibility for the crimes requires to take the next step by the US which is to launch a campaign against Assad that contains referring Assad regime to the ICC. However, the American reluctance makes it prefer to escape facing the truth. 

Consequently, what does this American- Russian irresponsibility imply? The horrific answer is: legitimizing the extermination. There is no exaggeration about that. Extermination as a word, a definition and a way of thinking, is being repeated by all those who articulate Assad’s ideas. From the mufti to those who show up on TV channels. 

With the crisis getting more complicated and arguments about it becoming hotter and wider, Assad regime has recently been considering extermination as a solution that is approved by its Russian and Iranian partners. This exterminating solution which has been used gradually since 2011 presents thus replicas of Hama’s massacre that took place in 1982. 

The bombardment of Al-Kamouna is not extermination only, but it also reveals the reality of the mutual American-Russian misleading campaign which aims at deceiving the Syrian People and obliging them to go back under Assad’s control.        

Abdulwahab Badrakhan in Al-Hayat