Arab League mission in Syria sets precedent for future action

Editorial

January 28, 2012

An Arab League observer arrives at a Mass in Damascus held in memory of a 10-year-old… (JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images)

EVEN BEFORE the Arab League observers arrived in Syria last month, they found themselves the butt of jokes and widespread scorn. Syrian opposition expressed skepticism that the unarmed, untrained observers - dressed in bright orange vests that resemble lifejackets - would stop President Bashar al-Assad’s forces from killing civilians. Human rights activists pointed out that the group’s leader - Mustafa al-Dabi, a Sudanese general with close ties to a regime that has been accused of genocide in Darfur - hardly boosted its credibility. Indeed, the estimated death toll in Syria over the past month is one of the highest since violence in Syria began.

Still, it would be a mistake to declare their mission a failure. The fact that they were sent in at all represents an important accomplishment for the Arab League, which has long been unwilling to play a role in the internal affairs of its member states. As recently as last April, Arab diplomats shied away from votes at the United Nations condemning Assad for attacking his own people. Their decision to send a group of observers - and to put forth a plan that calls for Assad to step down - is an unprecedented sign of a greater willingness to take responsibility for stabilizing their tumultuous region.

There is reason to hope that the Arab League will get better at this over time. While it is true that the observers were ill-equipped for their mission - for instance, they lacked secure communication devices by which to report abuses without being overheard by Syrian intelligence - many nonetheless performed bravely.

CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer writes that some of the delegation - particularly the lawyers, military officers, and doctors - served as human shields for reporters, courageously leading “the way into opposition areas that would otherwise have been too dangerous or off-limits.’’

Critics of the mission should realize that no matter how well-equipped or experienced observers are, they can’t stop atrocities in places where combatants are bent on committing them. All they can do is document what they see happening and raise the alarm. More than 1,400 observers deployed to Kosovo in 1998 could not end attacks on Kosovar Albanians. But their discovery of mass killings helped build support for the air campaign that followed.

If the Arab League observers are able to document what is happening in Syria, then their continued presence there serves a purpose. If they are not granted the freedom to do that, then it is time for their mission to end. Either way, their presence in Syria has helped lay the psychological groundwork in the Arab world for more forceful actions to protect the lives of civilians.