Chris Ford: An open letter to Bashar al-Assad of Syria

Dear President Bashar al-Assad,?

Why don't you just go and stop your country's misery?

Instead, you and your security forces have slaughtered tens of thousands of your fellow Syrians in order to retain power. Your forces even rape, torture and kill young children. This is truly repulsive.

Instead, yourself, Asma and the kids want to retain the luxury lifestyle into which you and they have become accustomed. As with all dictators, power corrupts and absolute power has corrupted your family and its coterie for well over four decades.?

If I were living in Syria at the moment, all I would have known throughout the first 42 years of my own life would have been the rule of your despotic family. All I would have heard about (in whispers most likely) would have been the disappearance of somebody in the neighbourhood who spoke up against the regime. In hushed tones as well, I would, if I were a Syrian, have heard of the story of your father's butchery in the city of Homs in 1982. There, nearly 30,000 souls perished because of their daring to speak out. Now, you are punishing that city again a thousand times over.

And overnight has come the story of another massacre in the town of Tremseh. Your regime has, reportedly, slaughtered 200 more souls adding to your family's total of mass carnage. All this done in the name of retaining power. You and your government have simply played on your country's sectarian divisions in order to do so. Do you not care about the consequences for the wider region of you and your government's actions? Are you so lustful for power that you would retain it at any cost, even if it were to eventually bring major regional and international powers like Iran, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States potentially into conflict with one another?

By any calculation, you are already succeeding at creating a scenario for a regional war that would make the one in the former Yugoslavia look like a picnic. And right now, with the global economy going through its most difficult phase since the 1930s Great Depression, a wider Middle East conflict is the last thing we all need.

I know that all of the major players in this crisis (the United States, Iran, Israel, Russia and China) all have blood on their hands due to internal repressions (particularly in the cases of Iran, Russia and China) and external interventions (especially in the cases of the United States, Israel and Russia). I also note that the United States is protecting the Bahraini royals in their similarly bloody attempt to retain power in the same way that Russia and China are protecting you. I know that even elements of the opposition have committed atrocities but you launched this bloodshed first!

Here's an idea: what if Russia and China decided to cut you off and agree to support you and your dynasty into exile and the United States and Saudi Arabia did the same with the Al Khalifa dynasty? I think that you should accept any deal.

However, you have exceeded even the Bahrainis, the Israelis (in Palestine), the Egyptians, Libyans and others in your bloodlust. You have two options.

The first is as I've outlined go and go now. Go, even without a deal. Just step down voluntarily and go into exile. I am sure that China or Russia would be prepared to host you. While you may escape the justice that you and your regime deserve in these circumstances, the situation in Syria would become peaceful again should you decide to vacate office voluntarily. If you are a true Syrian patriot, then this would be the best way to demonstrate it.

The second option is just stay there as you are but face the inevitability of being overthrown violently. I hope you aren't afraid of dying as your opponents will likely treat you in the same way that the Libyan rebels treated Colonel Muammar Gaddafi - savagely. There is an outside chance that they could be lenient and either try you in Syria, or if they are in a humane mood, extradite you and members of your family to the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

Overall, though, Mr President, the days of you and your family ruling Syria are over. Whether the end comes today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year, the end is inevitable. All I repeat to you is go and go now - it would be best not only for you but for Syria, the wider Middle East and, indeed, the world!

Yours sincerely,

Chris Ford

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Source: http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/chris-ford-open-letter-bashar-al-assad-syria/1273/129006

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