The UN and Assad’s Stockholm Syndrome

When the Syrians raised banners bearing slogans saying: “Down with the Security Council... Down with the world,” they had not yet read the British newspaper The Guardian’s investigative report about the millions paid by the United Nations to the regime of Bashar Assad, but they were technically living the actual meaning of international complicity towards their tragedy.

The paper’s investigation explained the experiences of those who were trapped in Darayya, Aleppo, Homs and other Syrian governorates in which many lives paid the price for the Assad regime’s brutality and the world’s inaction that has reached the level of actual complicity.

Here, there is no real value for talk of which an official at the United Nations tried to respond to the information on the contracts for tens of millions of dollars between the international organization and organizations and personalities close to the Assad regime, and Assad himself, under the name of aid and relief. Therefore, what does it mean when the United Nations says it is obliged to work with a small number of partners approved by Assad and that it is doing its best to ensure the money is spent accordingly? It means that certain contracts are being conducted with figures such as Rami Makhlouf and Asmaa Assad who are on the list of European and American sanctions.

Hence, what kind of gimmick is that and what kind of aid will reach via such figures who only seek for the Assad regime to absolutely control the money and aid that has not been reaching many Syrians. Instead, the aid has been reaching  the Syrian population in trivial amounts under the monitoring of the regime.

However, the timid response of the international official regarding the scandal of those contracts seemed as a mere reread of the principles of the international organization posted on its website promoting peace, relief and justice.  Any Syrian living inside Syria will realize that this speech is contrary to the truth.

The academician – who prepared the investigative report – reviewed dozens of contracts compiled by the United Nations in Syria and met with a number of relief workers associated with the organization and were present in Syria.  The academician then reported that a number of United Nations officials showed strong signs of Stockholm Syndrome, a syndrome which is a psychological phenomenon reflecting sympathy with the oppressor or enemy and in some cases, showing signs of loyalty and empathy towards the person who caused him/ her harm. 

How accurate does this description seem about the international compliance with the terms of the Assad regime and its blackmail on the pretext that international organizations want even access to all those in need.

Consequently, what is the meaning of this dubious relationship between the international body and a regime which is the administrator of this major humanitarian disaster. The aid which the world body wanted to deliver to the victims of the Assad regime has fallen into the hands of the regime that  is the very source of the ordeal.

Since the outbreak of the revolution six years ago and its subsequent transformation into an international war, the United Nations was only able to risk losing its effectiveness and this is a battle it actually lost. The aid has become confined to the Assad regime areas, not covering everything needed by the Syrians. Herein lays the actual moral bankruptcy of the United Nations and the developed world, which the United Nations is supposed to represent. Instead of seeking to reach the most vulnerable groups in Syria, the international organization has contributed to strengthening a regime responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of its countrymen.

The Guardian’s report revealed what is already known, but it is useful to show such investigations in the Western press for the West to witness, once again, the shame that has characterized the response of the world towards the Syrian pain.

There is a stain on the forehead of the world named Syria, and the culture of silence that enveloped the relationship between the United Nations and the Assad regime ought to unfold.

If the scandal today is exclusively in contract with the United Nations – since it is publishing the names of whom it is dealing with – then  what will it be like if the reality of other relief organizations is revealed, especially since many of these bodies do not reveal the names of those that it deals with.

This article is not aimed at negating the tasks carried out by the missions and respectable international relief agencies, but seeks to draw attention to the role required by the international community in eliminating  what is actually taking place in Syria.