IMA statement on the possible foreign intervention of Syria
Respect the rights, lives and dignity of Syrian People!
No foreign intervention in Syria!
The International Migrants’ Alliance (IMA) and Commission 16 of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle call on the international community and all peace-loving individuals to support the growing global campaign to stop any attempt of foreign military intervention of Syria.This statement the IMA and ILPS Comm 16 release in the light of a ballooning populace of refugees and internally displaced Syrians as a result of the more than two-year Syrian civil war.According to the United Nations and other sources, the registered refugees of 8,000 in December 2011 have skyrocketed to 353,290 in December 2012 and already more than 2 million in September this year. By registered, it means that they have registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, or the UN Refugee Agency.The refugees have fled to nearby countries like Lebanon (at 714,069), Turkey (at 458,837), Jordan (500,579), Iraq (160,082) and Egypt (110,569). Three-fourths of the refugees have been said to be women and children while those internally displaced in Syria have reached 4.25 million.Also, there are more than 120,000 migrant workers living and working in Syria (according to the International Organization for Migration).Any foreign military intervention, especially the one proposed and later temporarily shelved by the US government, would only mean the worsening of the political crisis that the Syrian people are already facing and would contribute not only to more refugees but massive civilian deaths as well.We recall the horrors that the Iraqi and Afghan people have been subjected to when the US military forces invaded and occupied Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. Not to mention the death and destruction, more than 2.2 million have fled Iraq since the US war of aggression on Iraq in 2003 and around 3-5 million for Afghanistan.Not only is the attempted military intervention by the US government malicious, unjust and unpopular. It is also a direct affront to the rights, lives and dignity of the Syrian people.Nonetheless, we should continue to remain vigilant. That while the US President Barrack Obama’s plan of direct military intervention was shelved due to a growing national and international opposition to it, its ally, France, has not ruled out the threat of foreign military intervention of Syria.We urge the United Nations and all its member states to respect the sovereign right of the Syrian people to decide on the fate of their own country. Any further intervention or occupation, as proven by recent history, would only aggravate the problem and violate the many collective rights of the Syrian people, including national sovereignty, patrimony and their integrity.