The UN Transition Assistance Group set up in South Africa at the end of apartheid rule was instrumental in ensuring that the people of South Africa had the means to elect their own leadership and have a peaceful society in their country.
Today the people of Syria require a similar peacekeeping mission. At every side of their border, imperialists are excited at the possibility of taking over a piece of Syria. Inside their borders, rogue forces are kidnapping and spreading terror throughout the land.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly known as the al-Qaeda splinter group al-Nusra) staged a coup removing Assad from power and afterwards banned opposition parties, kidnapping and executing members of the opposition and spreading terror in Syria. The current ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has worked with ISIS and al-Qaeda before becoming part of HTS, has stated that there will not be elections for at least four years. Based on their actions, and both now and in the past, HTS should be understood not as reformers bringing democracy to Syria, but as terrorists seeking to create the next Jihadist theocracy in the Middle East.
This situation is unfolding similarly to what happened in Afghanistan when the government of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan was illegally overthrown by the Mujahideen coalition in 1986. For the next decade, Afghanistan was a war-torn country with Mujahideen
factions vying for control of the country. Ultimately, the Taliban came out on top and left Afghanistan fraught with atrocities against women, children and racial minorities. It was pure chaos and a breeding ground for extremist reactionary ideologies.
The world must make sure this does not occur again. This is why the American Peace Information Center is calling for the UN Security Council to send a peacekeeping mission to stabilize Syria, ensure the protection of civil liberties and security, and oversee free and fair elections.
