Editor:
I, too, welcome Michil Ibrahim and Rita Rihani and their children to our community. I respect their opinions on the civil war in Syria as representing one perspective from the many ethnic and religious groups caught up in the horrors of the Syrian civil war. There are no “good guys” in the conflict, but there are way too many civilian victims.
However, I was aghast at the naïve, simplistic and dogmatic analysis in Mr. Lagassé`s letter of May 18 where he whitewashes the transgression of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Warfare (OPCW) have all carried out extensive investigations of Bashar al-Assad. Their findings of human rights abuses include, amongst many others, widespread summary executions of prisoners, unrestricted and deliberate attacks on civilian targets including medical facilities, denial of safe passage to civilians and the use of chemical weapons against his citizens.
Mr Lagassé’s notion that the U.S. should join Russia to investigate the recent use of chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun makes no sense. Given Vladimir Putin’s extensive record of internal violence and human rights suppression, such an investigation would have no credibility. The right organization to carry out the investigation is the OPCW and that investigation is already underway. The OPCW in conjunction with the UN investigated a series of chemical attacks in 2014-15 and found that the Syrian regime under al-Assad had carried out the attacks in violation of international law. Given the similarities of the atrocities, it is very likely that the current investigation will come to the same conclusion.
I find it ironic indeed that the leader of the so-called Sunshine Coast Peace Group has chosen to associate himself with the most notorious war criminals of the 21st Century.
Keith Maxwell, Sechelt
