Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Jim Wallace Greenbelt speaker - on Syria


Jim Wallis: Tackle refugee crisis, don’t drop bombs

Jim Wallis: Tackle refugee crisis, don’t drop bombs
Military intervention could make the situation in Syria worse, according to US Christian writer and political activist Jim Wallis.
Jim was a speaker at The Greenbelt Festival and was loud and strong on the BBC Radio programme broadcast live from the festival.
"I'm suspicious of military strikes because they often have unintended consequences," he said. "Inevitably, they take civilian lives: those Tomahawk missiles aren't as accurate as they say, they could bring other players into the conflict, things could escalate quickly.
"You might end up having to respond in a deeper way and we've got to get out of the old straight jackets, and look for other solutions, because they didn't work in Iraq and Afghanistan."
His comments come as the extent of the refugee crisis in Syria becomes apparent, with two million refugees now in other countries and 4.3 million internally displaced.
Antonio Guterres, head of the UN High Commission for Refugees, said: "Syria has become the great tragedy of this century – a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history."

The number of refugees is 10 times what it was 12 months ago, with most fleeing to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. This surge equates to 5,000 people leaving every day, and there are now more Syrians forcibly displaced than from any other country. One camp in Jordan is now effectively the country's fourth largest city, with 120,000 inhabitants.

Wallis commented on the refugee crisis, saying: "So if Lebanon has four million people and I'm hearing one million Syrian refugees already, half of them children, that's where we might decide to first intervene, mobilise around those refugees and children and win the hearts and minds of the Syrian people.
"Then put Assad on trial, in the international criminal court, put him on trial, prove him to be the criminal that he is, and use that to completely isolate him and surround him with dissent, and eventually remove him from power through international opinion."