By Raja Kamal

Atrocities are being committed in Syria. The United Nations estimates that at least 8,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict – with other estimates putting the number of victims much higher – including many women and children. Meanwhile, the more civilized nations continue to issue harsh condemnations of the brutality of the Syrian regime, which is intent on prolonging the Assad dynasty. But they are also struggling to find an effective response to end the carnage.
 
Although most Arab regimes, too, have voiced concerns over the Syrian crackdown, the level of the criticism has been relatively mild compared to that coming from the West. Why? Because the human rights bar in the Arab world remains so low that citizens and their leaders have been accustomed for decades to an abysmal status quo. Thousands of political prisoners languish in Arab jails without due process of law. Women in much of the region remain marginalized, with religion used as powerful justification for this state of affairs.
 
Human Rights Watch reports periodically on the abuse of citizens in the Arab world. However, the region consistently ranks as the worst monitored in the world. Many Arab leaders, already wary due to the fate of their counterparts in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, are wondering when their turn will arrive. Officials in countries such as Sudan and Bahrain are unlikely to condemn the crimes of President Bashar Assad in Syria when their own human rights records are so appalling.
 
President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, for example, has the dubious distinction of being the first sitting head of state to have been indicted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He is accused of complicity in the deaths of over 250,000 people in Darfur, and is believed to have embezzled state funds amounting to $9 billion. Although a warrant has been issued for his arrest, he continues to visit Middle Eastern and African countries freely.
 
Ironically, earlier this year Sudan sent inspectors to Syria as part of an observer mission established by the Arab League. The head of the mission, General Mustapha Dabi, once served as the head of Sudan’s directorate of military intelligence. To select such a man to monitor events in Syria was tantamount to appointing a gangster as a judge.
 
If you’re looking for a solution to end the crisis in Syria, then don’t look to the Arab world. The region lacks the moral stature to serve as an honest broker, or to act as a conduit for humanitarian assistance. The Syrian regime is determined to crush the rebellion quickly and to restore the distinctly brutal version of law and order that it has enforced for over four decades of Assad tyranny. An end to the Syrian tragedy requires international intervention from outside the region – intervention that signals to the other Syrias of the world that massacres like those committed in recent months will no longer be tolerated.
 
Unfortunately, Russia and China have exercised their veto power in the U.N. Security Council to protect the Assad regime. The United States continues to have influence in the Middle East, but Russia has been eager to bolster its commercial and military interests in Syria.
 
Moscow’s commercial interests, however, are secure only if the Syrian regime is able to make good on its financial responsibilities. An isolated Syria with a devastated economy would be unlikely to meet its obligations, and Russia has already had to write off $10 billion in unpaid debt going back to the days of the Soviet Union. Militarily, the attractiveness of Syria to Russia is retaining access to its base at the Syrian port of Tartous – the last Russian Mediterranean naval asset.
 
For its part, China has been attempting to establish a greater presence throughout the Middle East and Africa. Its motives have primarily been economic. For example, its relationships with Iran and with Sudan are strategic in nature, and mirror the nature of China’s outreach in other countries around the world. The need for energy to fuel the rapidly growing Chinese economy underlies much of the nation’s foreign policy. For instance, Beijing’s $20 billion investment in Sudan is largely energy driven, while human rights are of little apparent concern.
 
A year after the beginning of the Syrian conflict, well-intentioned diplomats meet, commentators gravely hold forth, and politicians make noble speeches. However, thousands of Syrian civilians, trapped in the wrong place in the wrong era, are paying the ultimate price in full view of the world. This is indeed an unacceptable tragedy.
 
Raja Kamal is senior vice president at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging (www.thebuck.org) in Novato, California. He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR.