By Isabelle Olson
What started the civil war that would tear the country of Syria
In March 2011, teenagers from Syria painted revolutionary symbols on the side of a building, and as punishment they were captured by their government and tortured. As a result of this, people of the small city Daraa took to the streets in protest, and before long they were met with a security task force, who gunned them down, killing three people. President Bashar al-Assad has dominated politics of his country for nearly 50 years and did not tolerate any rebellion against his rule. His Ba’ath party was formed in 1947 by his predecessors and basically outlines the want for a single Arab state, to unify Arabs and to create a decrease in outside control. But when people started rebelling they were met with violent acts and torture beyond imagination from the government. And these are the sparks that started the flame.
From there the violence only got worse. Syria slowly descended into an all out civil war, and rebel groups were forced to battle government forces in their own streets, cities, towns, and homes. By 2012, fighting had reached the capital city of Damascus.
By June 2013, 90,000 people had died as a cause of this conflict, and by August 2014 the number more than doubled to 191,000, and a year later soared to 250,000. Now this is an all-out war, between the people of a country and its leader’s supporters. The battle has now evolved from just a rebellion against Assad’s rule. It has formed sectarian groups, pitching the country’s sects against the President’s. Neighbouring countries have been involved as well as other world powers. The rise of the Islamic State, or as people of Syria call them, Daaesh, has caused much fear all over the world.
Both sides of this conflict have been reported to be committing war crimes by the United Nations. Murder, torture, rape, and disappearances have all created a violent atmosphere for all the residents of Syria. As methods of war, both sides of the conflict have been reported using civilian suffering (such as blocking ways to food, water and health care) as a method of war. The United Nations (UN) says there have often been planned attacks on events, leading to the massacre of hundreds of civilians. And it only gets worse from there. After the UN Security Council banned guns from populated areas in the country, around 6,000 civilians were killed by barrel bombs dropped by the Syrian government. Hundreds of people were killed in August 2013 due to rockets filled with the nerve agent “sarin” that were fired at several agricultural districts around the city of Damascus. Western powers said it could only have been carried out by Syria’s government, but the government and its ally Russia blamed the rebels.
It seems to go on and on, getting worse and worse with time. Syria’s education, health and social welfare are in a state of collapse. The number of people who have been forced to flee their homes totals to around more than 11 million, which is half of the population that lived in Syria before the war began. Most of these are women and children, all of whom need food, healthcare and shelter. The ones forced to flee have gone to neighboring countries. According to BBC News 1,938,000 people have gone to Turkey, 1,113, 941 people to Lebanon and 629, 245 to Jordan, as well as many more people who sought refuge in other places such as Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa. The problem is that these countries are having a hard time supporting such a large influx of people, and places for them to find refuge are dwindling. The entire country, even those who had nothing to do with the war, has been devastated and hurt beyond belief, and now they are left alone to somehow survive.
So far the United States has provided many necessities to the refugees by giving around $4.5 million dollars to rescue teams who have gone to places where they are taking refuge. By providing food, water, and health care such as surgeries and vaccines these rescue teams are saving countless lives that in most cases would be dead without this assistance. According to the White House website, America plans to admit around 70,000 refugees from all over the world into the country over the next year, but Obama is pushing for the admission of 10,000.
All in all, the war in Syria has been long and violent; the consequences have extended farther than just to those who have fought for their rights.
