Assad is a war criminal, but an attack will do nothing for the people of Syria

The west needs to concentrate on formally criminalising the Assad regime and turning its members into international pariahs

Nabila Ramdani

The Observer, Saturday 31 August 2013

"....

The difference nowadays is that horrifying images showing the extremes of industrial conflict are readily available in an instant. Almost exactly a year ago, I was provided with scores from the besieged Syrian city of Houla, including one of a four-month-old baby girl whose throat had been cut by militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. A week ago my contacts in the country, where I used to spend a great deal of time, sent me almost contemporaneous video film of children dying from the effects of nerve agents. Even the most sanitised were considered unpublishable to a wider audience.
David Cameron rightly referred to such footage in the House of Commons last week. He correctly pointed to it highlighting the absolute barbarity of the Assad regime, and its willingness to resort to near-genocide to maintain its grip on power. Like Saddam before him, Assad has proved himself to be the most evil kind of dictator – one who believes that the excruciatingly painful deaths of his own people are somehow justified because they enable him to remain in charge.
Yes, the latest film from the Damascus suburb of Ghouta suggests that Assad is a war criminal, and must be treated as such. But what it did not do is provide a compelling argument for unleashing further misery on the people of Syria through military action........

Instead, the west needs to concentrate on formally criminalising the Assad regime and turning its members into international pariahs. In the past, too much effort has been spent rehabilitating men such as Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, treating him as a respected trading partner in between attempts to kill him. The international criminal court (ICC) should issue proceedings against Assad immediately, with extraordinary war tribunals also initiated as a matter of urgency.
States such as Russia would be hard pressed to continue supporting an indicted criminal. Gaddafi and members of his family and inner circle were summoned to the ICC for threatening to kill their own people, Assad is actually killing his. Such inconsistencies are among the reasons why Assad was allowed to maintain a veneer of respectability as a recognised head of state for so long.
Note how America is currently accusing Assad of breaching "international norms", rather than the law. This must change. Technical points are being made on behalf of Assad, including the fact that Syria has not signed the UN's chemical weapons convention. This is pure pedantry about the science of killing......."