syria and conflict

Conflicts in Syria have culminated in a seven-year-long civil war that has taken the lives of over a million civilians. The war is being waged between soldiers defending Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, and rebels who do not want the president to remain in office. The violence began in 2011 in the Syrian city of Deraa. The dispute started after 15 young people were arrested for writing anti-government graffiti on a wall. Initially, the marches were peaceful, pleading for the release of the five children, rights for people, and democracy (Phillips, 2015). However, the response from the government was hostile, on March 18th, 2011; the military attacked the protesters killing four of them. The next day, at the victim’s funeral they shot at mourners and killed another person. This made people angry, and the unrest extended to different areas of Syria. People demanded the president to resign which he refused, and this made protesters even angrier.
Violence increased, and Syria went into civil wars with radical brigades being formed to fight government forces with aims of controlling different towns, countryside, and cities within Syria. By 2012 the fighting had already reached Damascus the capital as well as the second city of Aleppo. Currently, the conflict is more than just a battle between the supporters and opponents of Mr. Assad. The clash has now gained sectarian overtones, leaving the nation’s Sunni against the Assad's Shia Alawite sect (Phillips, 2015).According to the United Nations, every party involved in the conflict has committed war crimes which include torture, rape murder as well as enforced disappearances. The parties are also using civilian suffering like blocking the access to water, food as well as health services through blockades as war techniques. Security councils have called for the parties to end the use of weapons in any populated area, but it has been revealed that civilians are still dying in large numbers. A lot of people have been murdered by the barrel bombs that are used by governmental aircraft on people in rebel-held regions attacks which constitute massacres.
The parties are also accused of waging terror campaigns as well as inflicting severe punishments on people transgressing or refusing to agree to their rules and regulations. Mass killings of rival armed groups have been experienced in Syria where members of the religious minorities, as well as security forces, are beheaded (Phillips, 2015).
Possible Solutions to the conflict
It is evident that the conflicts in Syria have brought in its wake a disaster with an immense destruction of the country as well as its infrastructure. Following the conflicts, over 200,000 civilians are dead, and approximately 6.7 million are internally displaced. The country is yet to come up with a real consensus on how to deal with the conflict, but it is imperative to stop the rebels in their attacks before they become an unstoppable global menace. Research has indicated that the divergence of opinions concerning the best ways of solving the conflict has less to do with the military as well as the political realities of the conflict. Instead, it reflects on specific interests of those holding them. To start with there is a need to stop those who have been supplying weapons as well as offering financial supports to the rebels. This is so because the money ends up in the hands of the extremist groups that pose a threat to the regional stability of the country (Phillips, 2015).
Secondly, the major powers supporting the regime as well as the opposition camps needs to change their self-interested policies which will allow them to engage in meaningful talks that will lead to real concessions as well as compromises. The results of this will be some forms of transitional power-sharing between the two parties that will address their grievances. The transitional authority will be in a position to defeat extremism in the country with support and help from the wider international community (Phillips, 2015).Additionally, there can be a settlement reached by having negotiations between the representatives of the popular movement and the regime.
Since neither side is able or willing to impose a significant defeat on the other, it is clear that it is only a political resolution that can end the conflict. There is a need for the country to implement the 2012 Geneva Communiqué which calls for a transitional ruling body with some executive powers developed by mutual consent.
If all the above solutions fail to end the conflict, the country will have no option other than cementing a less desirable but viable scenario for the long term. This is a solution similar to the one that brought to an end the long-running civil war in Lebanon: a shotgun wedding as well as a delicate balancing of the diverging political and sectarian interests and possible self-rule with no territorial break ups.
It is therefore evident that the conflict in Syria has cost the country so much when it comes to the infrastructure as well the economic arena. There is a need to contain the violence as soon as possible through international peacekeeping forces as well as dialogues between the two conflicting parties.






References
Phillips, C. (2015). Sectarianism and conflict in Syria. Third World Quarterly, 36(2), 357-376.