THE INNOCENT AND THE DEMOCRACY: THE MAIN VICTIMS OF ANY WAR
Napoléon Bonaparte said that “nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” This is the situation Europe is facing, especially France, as they must take difficult decisions after the new terrorist attacks in Paris Daesh. Should Europe close its boarders to refugees due to the real risk about the presence of jihadists between the crowds of refugees?
After all, Middle East refugees are also victims of Daesh, nowadays.
This is a terrible and cruel effect from the terrorism, caused especially by the war in Syria. Daesh has adavanced during the last four years, occupying territories in Iraq and Syria. Furthermore, during the last several weeks it developed a high capacity to kill innocent people in terrorist attacks around the world against those considered their enemies, such as Russia, Lebanon and France. Daesh’s goal is not only fighting against these countries, but mainly against the democratic and liberty values. If democracy is not perfect, especially related to social issues and to the difficulty to harmonize interests due to its pluralism, it is still the political regime in which the authorities and laws can be questioned, criticized and improved by the legal and dialogic way. The caliphates sought by Daesh are fundamentalist and totalitarian regimes under the Sharia Law system and the whahabism or salafism idelogy, which must be fought.
The latest terrorist attacks against Russian, Lebanese and French people are, above all, an attempt to destroy the democratic values and freedoms.
The innocent victims were killed not because of any reason ther than the simple fact of existing and for living under the democratic rule of law and believing in freedom. The countries and the fighters (eg, the curdish peshmerga) that are facing and fighting Daesh in Iraq and in Syria, are trying to destroy a powerful terrorist group (it is not a State, even less a Muslim State. Religions preach love, not hate and intolerance). Daesh kills innocent people by cruel ways, rape and enslaving women; destroying important monuments of humanity heritage and the legacy of countless people; and, even worst, they committed genocide, against the Yezidis, for example, like the mass Yazidi grave discovered after Iraq’s Sinjartaken from Daesh, last Saturday and represent one of the most serious threat since the Nazi regime, capable of even generating collaboration between traditional geopolitical opponents such as Russia, the United States, Iran, Syria, Turkey, France, England, etc., just like it happened during World War II.
The attacks committed in Paris this weekend are, of course, a declaration of war not only against France, but also against democracy, thus military actions against Daesh will probably be intensified by a broad coalition, which will involve the mentioned countries.
The responsibility for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression must be punished, and leaders responsible for such atrocities must be submitted to trial under international criminal law.
Similar case is, for example, the destruction of the Armenian church and genocide memorial by Daesh in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor.
The security measures in Europe must become more severe, especially around the European boarders. The far right political movements and Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (PEGIDA) in Germany, for example, should collaborate against this global threat notwithstanding their political priorities.
To give more drama to this human tragedy, refugees will be the most affected innocent population as a result of these consequences. They are fleeing from the religious extremism, which threw them to the clutches of political radicalism. The main victims that suffer most from any war are always innocent people.
P.S. Flávio de Leão Bastos Pereira Attorney at Law, Professor of Constitutional and Human Rights Law at Mackenzie University (São Paulo-Brazil), Master Degree in Political and Economical Law, Member of International Network Genocide Scholars – InoGS, Researcher at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), at the Research Group Wars, Massacres and Genocides at the Contemporary Era. Member of Inter-American Bar Association – IABA [email protected]
