I am fed up of reading about Syria and seeing people citing 'ancient hatreds' as an explanation for the violence and as an excuse for not intervening.
People used to say this about Bosnia. They said the conflict started there (20 years ago this month) because of ancient ethnic animosity. In other words it didn't matter what happened - the region was always destined for war because it was what had always happened.
I'd just like to say what total and utter bollocks. Seriously. If you choose to use that argument then the world is doomed. Lets have a little look at Europe. Hmm, no ancient hatreds there. We've never slaughtered the Scots/Welsh/Irish/French/insert European country here. No, it has all been peaches and cream.
But most of all it is utterly disrespectful to the Syrians/Bosnians. It makes them out to be unlike us, not developed, unable to curb their primative instincts to violence. It doesn't understand that these countries are full of people who live together, laugh together, drink together. They get married and have children. They work together, do deals together, play chess together. They have their differences, but they aren't cause for war.
War is caused by present inequality, driven by individuals who are able to spin the perception that whole groups of people are being victimised (and therefore need a strong man to protect their interests). The International Community can be guilty of buying into this ancient ethnic hatred notion because it means that they don't have to get involved. They can take the humanitarian instinct, shrug and say 'nothing we can do that will make any difference'.
The argument was not true in Bosnia 20 years ago - and it is untrue in Syria now.
I agree totally. The same excuse (read helpless shoulder shrug) is trotted out in response to conflicts all over Africa too. How convenient, in that it absolves us of having to look at how inequality the world over is fueling these wars.
ReplyDeleteWe couldn't even bring ourselves to call our own civil war what it was - we had 'The Troubles'. No ancient hatreds there then.
Florence Hartmann, ex spokesperson and Balkan adviser to Carla Del Ponte, quite snapped at Carl Bildt (mediator in the Balkan conflict, European Union's Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia, co-chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference) at the conflict's 20th anniversary (Red Line performance).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTQATrhPzBQ&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLF1210A93F63DD8E7
Yes this convenient argument means we don't have to identify too much with what's happening. It makes the people in the country somehow different to us. Although Afghanistan is a different scenario, its problems are often dismissed with 'it's an ancient tribal thing' and a wave of the hand. What enrages me is the inconsistency with which the UK (and international community) handles these things. In Libya (where I get the impression things didn't get as bad as they are in Syria but I could be wrong) - we were in there like a flash 'enforcing a no fly zone'. We all knew at the time, and it's obvious now, that the issue was oil. As Syria doesn't have such a valuable commodity we just let it continue, just as have done in many other countries of little or no use to us.
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