Assad Claims Referendum Will Ease Crisis; Brutal Crackdown Continues
The situation in Syria is worsening by the day, and the UN still hasn’t acted in a concrete fashion. The Arab League is circulating a resolution in the General Assembly, but that’s a non-binding action. Russia and China continue blocking any more serious action in the Security Council, but France and the Arab League are trying to rewrite a resolution that will pass muster.
At the same time, Assad’s announcing that they’ll be holding a referendum on a new constitution at the end of the month.
Today, he’s claiming that a new constitution is ready for a referendum that would allow expanded access to the political system and that ends the Ba’athist control over the country.
President Bashar al-Assad set a February 26 date for the vote on a draft constitution, hailed by the his government as an important reform initiative. But analysts and demonstrators sloughed off the effort as “window dressing” and the latest in a series of superficial measures undertaken to mollify his critics over the last 11 months.
Members of a committee tasked with drafting the document “reiterated their keenness on a constitution that allows … public freedoms and political plurality in a way to lay the foundation for a new stage that will enrich Syria’s cultural history,” the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
Former Syrian lawmaker George Jabbour said “clause 8 of the new draft of the constitution is the essential point” of the document. It “allows a multi-party system as opposed to the Baath party being the leading party of the society and the state as stipulated in the current constitution.” The Baath party rules Syria.
That’s a laugh, considering that his brutal crackdown continues and the death and misery his loyalists are inflicting on civilians is growing with each passing day.
The regime continues shelling civilian populations in Hama, Homs, and even sending in elite forces to go after rebel forces in Damascus suburbs.
There are reports that Assad’s forces are using chemical weapons, but I would discount those reports until we see actual proof of use.
We know what use of chemical weapons looks like and what it can do to victims who are ill-prepared to deal with chemical weapons and nerve agents. Mustard gas and VX or GB all do tremendous damage to the nervous system and respiratory systems. Indeed, when Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons during the Anfal campaign to eliminate opposition, photos were taken of the victims.
Moreover, the US has been monitoring known Syrian chemical weapons sites for activity - to prevent proliferation, and they would likely see unusual activity such as taking weapons from those stockpiles for use.
If the claims by defecting soldiers that chemical weapons are indeed being used, then the pressure for the United Nations to act increases significantly because Assad would then be in violation of the Geneva Conventions, The Rome Statute (establishing the ICC and provides for crimes against humanity and war crimes), Chemical Weapons Conventions although Syria is not a signatory to the CWC.