Uniquely Arab

By Salama A Salama

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Arab states appear to share a number of characteristics that are unique to them, something that leaves them vulnerable to an international community that finds it easy to deny them their rights on the mere suspicion that they are breaking the rules of the game.

Think of the multitude of UN Security Council and International Court resolutions that have been issued over the past half-century addressing violations of Arab human and political rights. The international community has shown again and again that it is utterly disinterested in either implementing these resolutions or dealing with the feelings of anger to which such disinterest gives rise.

Nobody is very bothered with how Arabs feel, certainly not over Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and the tragic living conditions of millions of Palestinian refugees -- conditions not that different from those prevailing in Darfur.

And the Arabs seem uniquely accepting of their punishment, no matter how harsh, unjust or one-sided. It is almost as if Chapter 7 of the UN Charter applies only to Arab countries. I struggle to recall those rare occasions when it has been invoked against a non-Arab state.

But then perhaps the Arab states deserve what they get. They comprise, after all, the one region in the modern world where unity and cohesion are crumbling into political, economic and intellectual irrelevancy. They are the one group whose abundant natural resources result only in greater impoverishment of individual citizens, and of the state.

No real advances have been made in laying the foundations for good governance, freedom and democracy. There has been no rise in the standard of education or improvement in quality of life. Alone amongst nations the Arab world's political backwardness and economic failings are seen to constitute a threat to the security of others, necessitating both reform and a military response.

Look at events in Sudan. Over the last few days the Security Council has issued a stream of punitive resolutions, giving the impression that Sudan, and Darfur in particular, is the source of all evil. The resolution promoted by the US, which places an embargo on air travel, prevents individuals accused of war crimes in Darfur from travelling and freezes their accounts. This was followed by a French resolution calling for those involved to be brought before the International Criminal Court, a move that undermines the Sudanese justice system and deprives Al-Bashir's government of the opportunity to clear itself of charges levelled against it.

It is clearly irrelevant that atrocities committed in the name of European colonialism and in America's wars in Vietnam and Iraq are greater than the crimes perpetrated by the Sudanese Janjaweed. It is just as unimportant, too, that a Security Council resolution has exempted American soldiers and dependents from appearing before the same court.

And what of the fact that Al-Bashir has vowed not to release a single Sudanese citizen to the international courts?

The policy of the Sudanese government has been always built on deception, denial and the complete monopoly of power till the Darfur crisis took place.

The problem with the Sudanese government is that its treatment of the Darfur issue is identical to its treatment of the Sudanese people. And this has squandered its credibility and weakened the standing of its judiciary.

Yet Sudan is not a unique case in the Arab world. Look at Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or Libya under Colonel Gaddafi. What about Bashar Al-Assad's Syria, or Lahoud's Lebanon?

If it were just a case of the Arabs being happy or not with their rulers, that would be one thing. But the world today, with its complex balances of power, interests and requirements for membership of the international community, can no longer endure regimes that have no respect for their citizens and no regard for their rights.