The Security Council fails the UN again and journalists Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik killed in Syria

di Alessandro Batazzi

“Sunday Times” correspondent Marie Colvin and photographer Remi Ochlik died Wednesday as a result of the regime’s shelling of the city of Homs. Colvin was the only British journalist reporting from the besieged Baba Amr. In her last report she told the stories of Homs, such as that of a “widow’s basement”, a basement occupied by “frightened women and children trapped in the horror of Homs, the Syrian city shaken by two weeks of relentless bombardment”[1].

Colvin and Ochlik are not the only victims, as “The Guardian” reports that two other foreign correspondents were wounded and other Syrian activists and bloggers have been killed[2]. With the situation escalating, the international community is running out of excuses not to intervene in what clearly is a humanitarian disaster.

As the regime is committed to crush the anti-government protests, a by-product of the so-called “Arab Spring” started by Egypt and Tunisia, the United Nations (UN) still struggles to find agreement on how to intervene. As civilians and journalists continue to die, the regime opposition Syrian National Council urges the UN and the Arab states to intervene.

The Western bloc is horrified by the humanitarian crisis but also concerned with the possibility of a Sunni-led Syria. At the Security Council, they sponsored a resolution for an Arab League peacekeeping force but were vetoed by Russia and China. Allegedly, Russia has been providing the Syrian security forces with arms, and if President Bashar al-Assad were to topple then they would lose their most important Arab ally.

In light of the inaction, critics against the UN have risen once again as the Security Council once again shows its limits and contradictions. The special status awarded to the winners of World War II has no reason to be maintained. With the Cold War over and the post-1990 calls for a “New World Order” coming from all sides, the veto power seems nothing but an obstacle and a double-edged sword. It is supposed to prevent the uni-polarization of the UN by any super power, yet it continues to hinder the work of the humanitarian organization.

Despite the horrible new opportunities to intervene and take a stand in crises around the world, the UN continues to fail and keep peace, and has become nothing but a band-aid for the weak and vulnerable.

[1] Colvin, M. “We live in fear of a massacre”, The Sunday Times, 19 February 2012. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/news/article874796.ece

[2] Chulov, M. “Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin killed in Syria”, The Guardian, 22 February 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/22/sunday-times-marie-colvin-killed-syria.