Airstrikes Against Peace In Syria.

by Eze Eluchie,

One is really beginning to pity the people of Syria over the seemingly unending depreciation of their lives, country and future they have been made to endure these past 5 years. Without any doubts, there might have been genuine grievances against the Al-Assad regime which led to the commencement of efforts at revolt in 2011, at the same time the Arab world was engulfed in the now infamous Arab Spring. What has since become clear now is that foreign forces are now using the different sides in the Syrian conflict as pawns in a most atrocious proxy war which is leaving Syria and its people utterly devastated.

More worrisome is the unfolding reality that the conflict in Syria, going by observed trends, may continue in perpetuity, at least for the foreseeable future. This worry is rooted in the fact that any efforts at addressing critical issues in the conflict or opportunities to arbitrate or attain meaningful ceasefires are deliberately undermined in such a manner that encourages the various combatants in the conflict to dig deeper into their trenches.

Two instances of these ‘dashing-of-hopes-for-peace’ instances readily come to mind. Firstly, the Turkey shoot-down of a Russian Air Force jet at a time when ISIS and other collateral terrorists in the Syrian conflict were feeling the dire impact of sustained Russian air-power. The downing of the Russian jet by a NATO member-state, which was obviously hiding under the cloak of collective security offered by NATO membership, served to dampen Russian efforts at strafing ISIS out of existence and created a crack in the resolve by the international community to destroy ISIS. 

The more recent scuttling of the Syrian ceasefire agreement painstakingly arrived at in the course of several meetings between the Foreign Ministers of the United States and Russia, via lethal airstrikes by US soldiers which killed over 60 Syrian soldiers in the area around the Deit al-Zour, is particularly unfortunate. The US airstrikes in question, attacks which accorded opposition/terrorist elements some advantage over the Syrian Government positions prior to the inception of the ceasefire, occurred barely 48 hours to occurrence of an important milestone in the ceasefire processes - the 7-day observance of cessation of hostilities, a milestone that would have for the first time witnessed the harmonization of intelligence capabilities of the US and Russian militaries towards confronting an identified adversary, extremist Islamist terrorist organizations. The world did indeed miss out on an opportunity to unify resources and efforts against ISIS, and by extension, global Islamist terrorism.

The US airstrikes against Syrian soldiers practically ended the ceasefire agreement. Feeble excuses of mistakes in targeting rendered by US authorities were rightly discountenanced – mistaken mass murders indeed! The official announcement of the end of the ceasefire agreement some 24 hours later by the Syrian Government was expected by all except the undiscerning. Once more, a unique opportunity to end the Syrian war and its attendant humanitarian crisis had been lost. The declaration of the end of the ceasefire was immediately followed by a most dastardly attack on the convoy conveying much needed United Nations humanitarian supplies to the besieged people of Aleppo, an attack which killed several humanitarian workers and volunteers.   

Opinions have been expressed in some quarters that the attack on the aid convoy and the killings of humanitarian workers therein amounts to war crimes. There is nothing wrong with that line of thought, so long as it also accepts that the perpetrators of the precipitating factor of the attack, the airstrikes on the Syrian soldiers in Deir al-Zour, should likewise be held accountable as accomplices to the crime.

It appears quite clear that forces outside of Syria and the control of Syrians are intent on ensuring the continuation of  war in Syria, and bombing this most historic of countries back into the dark ages. To end the multiplicity of conflicts raging concurrently in Syria, it is incumbent on the sitting Government of Bashir al-Assad to begin to exercise genuine leadership by firstly requesting all foreign forces not in sync with its authority to depart from Syrian territory and follow up with spirited extermination of the ISIS forces in its territory. Genuine peace overtures should thereafter be extended to the myriad of warring elements operating in Syria, some of which are affiliated to extremist Islamist entities, with a view to getting them on board a ‘transitional unity government’. The current Syrian Government and those willing to work in collaboration with it should not be deterred in frontally confronting any forces, internal or external, which continues to meddle in Syrian affairs after the olive-branch had been offered to all concerned.

The continuing carnage in Syria is a shame on all humanity.

The Syrian Government under Bashir al-Assad have a duty to stop, as soon as possible, the continuing bleeding of Syria and its peoples.

Picture: Continuing devastation in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city.

The Vultures are Gathering....

by Eze Eluchie,

Informed observers and commentators on the Nigerian socio-economic and political terrain, indigenous and foreign, all agree on one fact regarding the swift collapse of the national economy – Nigeria’s economic depression is policy-induced! It certainly is not by accident that a country of several million dynamic and hardworking peoples, that had successfully begun to diversify itself from a uni-product economy to one hinged on diverse sources suddenly awakes to find its fortunes violently depleted and reversed, with the supervisors of the national economy each passing day churning more regulations geared towards causing more harm and creating more confusion domestically and causing disinterest from foreign investors.

Those not familiar with the geo-politics of Africa’s erstwhile largest and fastest growing economy will wonder as to how any Government will be willing to deliberately ruin a national economy, cause great harm to the citizenry, heighten prospect of internal chaos, and ultimately destroy economic prospects and potentials. Well, welcome to the oddity of the Nigerian federation.

When at his assumption of office, the present Nigerian ruler, Muhammadu Buhari, a former dictator who had in his erstwhile stint in office over 30 years ago driven the economy into depression, embarked upon a global frolic of major capital cities of the world telling whosoever cared to listen that he was now presiding over the ‘most corrupt people in the world’, in one instance, agreeing with the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s categorization of Nigeria as being ‘fantastically corrupt’; and with the damaging effects of such self-deprecation just beginning to manifest the regime rolled out conflicting fiscal pronouncements, particularly in the area of accessing foreign exchange, amounting to policy somersaults which served scare off hundreds of multinational companies from Nigeria (including Airlines, Manufacturing and service-sector conglomerates); and eventually capping the dire situation by deliberate acts of maligning the Judiciary and Legislative arms of government creating an impression before all and sundry that Nigeria was a banana republic where powers resided and emanated from one single individual; the hand writing on the wall was clearly discernible to all who were discerning – Nigeria was being systematically and serially depleted with cynical ulterior motives.

Finally, those who doubted reality are now able to have a glimpse at the wider picture via the recent kite flown by those who are profiting tremendously from the deprecation of Nigeria: having succeeded in pauperizing the Nigerian State, depreciating the value of the country and its national assets, reeking in enormous profits from a fraudulent foreign exchange regime, suggestions are now being arrogantly floated that the remaining real assets of the Nigerian State should be auctioned off for peanuts to supposedly ‘reinvigorate the economy’. Really? Nigeria’s prime national asset, the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) operations is now being particularly targeted by these hawks. Also in their sights are the Refineries, and other critical national infrastructure such as Water projects and Roads.

If these vultures are so smart and so rich, why don’t they build their LNG and Refinery Plants and other critical infrastructure and compete with those built  with public funds?

Knowing how the fraudulent system works in Nigeria, an avalanche of ten-a-dime ‘experts’ (local and foreign) will be assembled to support the floated idea, more punitive fiscal and socio-economic policies will be rolled out to squeeze the populace into believing that anything that brings in whatever amount of foreign currency into the system is good, and pronto, the LNG Plants and Refineries, and other major critical infrastructure would be auctioned for peanuts to spurious portfolio-companies registered in some offshore tax havens by unscrupulous who will suddenly turn up in ‘Forbes list of the richest’, whilst the poverty caused locally will unleash more domestic unrest and conflict.

As these vultures gather, is there anything a Government populated by vultures and or their stooges can do to forestall an impending disaster? Nothing! The people have to decide what they want of themselves by themselves. The people where these assets are located have every right to resist brigandage in the name of governance or government policies.

Restructuring and renegotiation of the Nigerian contraption will minimize these vile practices.

Picture: Nigeria’s Liquefied Natural Gas plant, Bonny, one of the assets now in the sights of the vultures.

Crimes Against Culture as a War Crime

by Eze Eluchie,

The recent arraignment, admission of guilt and conviction of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a member of the Taureg extremist Islamist militia, Ansar Dine, before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing ‘crimes against culture’ via the destruction of ancient religious artifacts, structures and literature and ‘historical monuments or buildings dedicated to religion’, as a war crime in contravention of Article 8(b)ix of the Rome Statute, is a monumental and welcome development in international criminal law.

The recognition that when a peoples culture is destroyed, their very being, existence and life is depreciated, irreversibly diminished, thrown into turmoil and their ability to make meaningful progress adversely impacted, ranking pari passu with such other vile acts as genocides, mass rapes and systematic torture amongst several other war crimes, will serve to put into proper context similar crimes against culture committed elsewhere which have seemingly been overlooked by civilizations and mankind.

The recent prosecution for ‘crime against culture’ and the rationale given as reason for the landmark prosecution of the Malian terrorist in question by the ICC, should serve as a prism through which the world may yet begin to understand the extent of harm inflicted upon and suffered by the so-called emerging economies and countries and brings to mind the wrongs done to the various peoples of the African continent by foreign missionary and colonialists who traversed the continent.

   

For centuries, crimes against culture were perpetuated against several indigenous peoples, particularly across Sub-Sahara Africa, with such high level of impunity and brazenness that the heinous crimes gained currency as norms. One prime activity Islamic and Christian missionaries who first set foot on Sub-Sahara African soil engaged in was the systematic desecration and ultimately destruction of traditional symbols of religious and temporal authority, artifacts and whatsoever items that served for purposes of communal identification, unity and cohesion of the various peoples and communities they sought to conquer, convert, rule and or colonize.

An integral part of the political conquest (under the guise of colonization) of the indigenous people who own the various territories the colonialists seized was the total annihilation of whatsoever traditional instruments of authority and or religion/worship of ‘colonized peoples’ – in other words, colonization in a nutshell, was a prolonged Crime Against Culture, a prolonged War Crime.

This practice of destruction of people’s cultural heritage and identity has rather than abate, continued till date with greater frenzy and violence – at times supported by instrument of State authority. Till date Islamic and Christian groups, acting independently of one another but unified by their hatred of traditional culture and religions, take pride in public destruction of Traditional Masquerades, Religious Charms and Amulets, and Shrines dedicated to various Gods in traditional communities. Ironically, some States in Sub-Sahara Africa acting under the influence of the two religious bodies which institutionalized crime against culture in the continent, now serve as instruments to deepen crimes against culture against their own peoples, passing legislation's which seek to ‘criminalize’ traditional heritage, indigenous cultural practices and religions.

Considering that the devastation and harm caused by crimes against culture is a continuum, and that the crimes were so endemic and coordinated as to be deemed to be perpetuated in perpetuity, it would be interesting to know what the opinion of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the ICC itself would be towards investigating and ultimately prosecuting the principal custodians of the Islamic and Christian faiths and the present beneficiaries of years of commission of crimes against culture against peoples of Sub-Sahara Africa (to wit: the King of Saudi Arabia/Custodian of the Two Holy Temples {Islam}, the Pope of the Catholic Church and the Head of the Church of England/Anglican Communion {Christians}, and the complicit governments.

If the destruction of one mosque in Timbuktu will result into a conviction for Crime Against Culture, how would the ICC treat the obliteration of a peoples religion, culture and way of life?

Picture: A traditional masquerade (representative of the Gods) amongst the Igbo ethnic nationality in Nigeria.