… we must not forget that armed conflicts also tear up other parts of the world.
Blog by Jack Tannock, Media Volunteer
The number of conflicts around the globe at any given time is truly shocking. So far 2013 has seen conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Central African Republic and increased violence and lawlessness in Southern Madagascar. To these can be added on-going conflicts in Darfur, Senegal, Western Sahara, Kurdistan, Kashmir and Nigeria to name but a few.
These conflicts often go on for years; the Casamance Conflict in Senegal began in 1982 and is yet to be resolved.
Even when talking of the countries affected by The Arab Spring, Syria isn’t the only one still seeing violence on a day to day basis. For example the uprising in Bahrain has seen aproximately 100 deaths since it began in 2011 and the protests against the regime seem set to continue. It might seem a small number, but for a small island nation like Bahrain, the numbers are considerable. At the same time Egypt is facing new demonstrations and new violence after things seemed to have settled. Libya, too, has a hard time finding its feet after the revolution.
The horrors of war
The chemical weapons used against civilians in Syria a month ago, and the on-going brutality of the Assad-regime is deeply disturbing to say the least, but it should not be assumed that these other conflicts around the world are less brutal. Conflicts across the world in 2013 have seen thousands killed and many thousands more displaced. The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on-going since the late 90s, has seen a death toll that is estimated to be more than 5 million people – the highest death toll of any conflict since World War 2. Tragically 2.7 million of the dead are children.
These conflicts often involve much violence against women with rape often used as a tactic of war or as a by-product of it. An estimated 200,000 women and girls have been raped during the conflict in The D.R. Congo. There is also often the exploitation of children with an estimated 250,000 child soldiers currently fighting worldwide. It must be stopped.
Why we forget
These conflicts drop out of the news for a variety of reasons. In some cases they are simply not widely reported in the first place. The longer the conflicts last, the less attention they get from the media. They are no longer news. News agencies may find that a civil war in a far off country fought for reasons that seem diffuse to a Western audience is only of minority interest. And when you hear the same story too many times, it stops being news-worthy: When new suicide bombs explode in Iraq the death tolls hardly make the headlines.
People can only take so much misery.
But that doesn’t mean the conflicts aren’t happening: Every day more refugees emerge from conflicts they never asked for. Most of these people’s stories will go untold.
And while we are very pleased to see the conflict in Syria finally getting the attention it so desperately needs, it definitely doesn’t mean we should allow ourselves to forget.
