U.N. chief criticizes council inaction on Syria
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday for failing to take action to protect Syrians facing violence that has led to thousands of deaths.
"In the eight ensuing months, we have seen the immense human cost of failing to protect," the secretary-general told a General Assembly meeting.
At a U.N. summit in 2005, world leaders agreed that governments have a collective responsibility to protect people from genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
The secretary-general demanded urgent action to protect Syrians now fleeing the country in record numbers before there are more killings.
"We cannot stand by while populations fall victim to these grave crimes and violations," he said.
In January, the death toll from the conflict - which began in March 2011 as a peaceful protest against President Bashar Assad's regime - was approaching 6,000. Activists now put the death toll at between 23,000 and 26,000.
The concept of the responsibility to protect arose from the World War II Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia in the late 1970s and the genocides in Rwanda in 1994 and Srebrenica in 1995.
In the 18 months since the Syrian conflict erupted, Russia and China have strongly allied themselves with the Syrian government and have vetoed three Western-backed Security Council resolutions demanding that his forces end the violence and threatening sanctions if they didn't.
Ban told the General Assembly that "inaction cannot be an option for our community of nations."
Germany's U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig, the current Security Council president, told a news conference Wednesday that the Security Council has not been united on crucial questions to deal with the Syrian crisis.
"But that doesn't mean that we simply cease to discuss this crisis," he said.
"In the eight ensuing months, we have seen the immense human cost of failing to protect," the secretary-general told a General Assembly meeting.
At a U.N. summit in 2005, world leaders agreed that governments have a collective responsibility to protect people from genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
The secretary-general demanded urgent action to protect Syrians now fleeing the country in record numbers before there are more killings.
"We cannot stand by while populations fall victim to these grave crimes and violations," he said.
In January, the death toll from the conflict - which began in March 2011 as a peaceful protest against President Bashar Assad's regime - was approaching 6,000. Activists now put the death toll at between 23,000 and 26,000.
The concept of the responsibility to protect arose from the World War II Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia in the late 1970s and the genocides in Rwanda in 1994 and Srebrenica in 1995.
In the 18 months since the Syrian conflict erupted, Russia and China have strongly allied themselves with the Syrian government and have vetoed three Western-backed Security Council resolutions demanding that his forces end the violence and threatening sanctions if they didn't.
Ban told the General Assembly that "inaction cannot be an option for our community of nations."
Germany's U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig, the current Security Council president, told a news conference Wednesday that the Security Council has not been united on crucial questions to deal with the Syrian crisis.
"But that doesn't mean that we simply cease to discuss this crisis," he said.
As serious as this action in Syria is, we have to stop playing world watchdog sometime whether there is someone else or not. These games we play in other lands interfere with those PEOPLE'S human right to self determination.
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Yeah, that whole American Revolution thing.
Shut up Ban. You were an idiot before you got the job and nothing has changed. Not for the better at any rate.
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Without the US, the UN wouldn't even exist. For the life of me, I can't see how that would be a bad thing. Get US OUT!
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What exactly has the UN done for the world in the last 50 years? The US is the chief contributor for your insider trading, and at the same time, the biggest detriment. Screw the UN. Get another bank account.
 @bobalouie It has been true a few times that the UN has taken on things for this nation that weren't possible for us at the time.  Especially when they go in somewhere for us on the ground to give the U.S. time to garner support for action from our people. They kept us from having to go in a few times as well, such as with the Liberian civil war. Liberia has always been in both favored and protected status since WE formed that nation. Many of their people were born Americans and worked their best years here. They kept us from FULL WAR in the Bosnia conflict, where we were both ally and trading partner, required to back the populace. Allowing us the ability to not actually pick a side, and limiting our involvement to interdiction of atrocity, but not going full combat on their line troops.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon  should take the fight to the CIA. They're the ones moving the Al Quaeda terrorists into Syria and other middle eastern countries to stir things up. If all the outside influences were removed the people of Syria could decide on their own how they want the country run. None of our business.
 @Blindman While we ALL do indeed know that the CIA has done some serious dirt on this world, if this were true it would be apparent to our troops by now, some thousands of which were killed by Al Qaeda. And U.S. troops would be quietly hunting the CIA first, Al Qaeda second. CIA moves are usually eventually identified when they involve large troop actions, because simple patterns of attack eventually emerge after known movements of 'top secret' personnel who have no apparent function and are obviously well outside the chain of command. CIA guys aren't hard to identify in a war zone.  Neither are their actions on the ground, unclear as their strategy may be.