World dithers

Mohammed L. has a long scar in his face. Earlier this year, a Syrian army bullet smashed his cheekbone, his teeth and his lip. He is from Daraa, a small town near Syria's Jordanian border, where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime began in March. Mohammed L. was there when the protests began.

It was on Friday, April 22, when Mohammed once again joined Daraa street demonstrations, that government soldiers opened fire without warning. Mohammed threw himself to the ground, but could not evade the bullet that hit him in the face.

"It hurt so much that I couldn't cry out for help," he told Deutsche Welle. "I just waved until some random people took me to hospital."

He stayed there long enough for doctors to sew his wound up, but couldn't risk lingering any longer, since the soldiers were regularly entering hospitals to shoot the injured and the doctors who treated them. Mohammed first fled to relatives in the countryside, then to Damascus, before finally making his way to Cairo, Egypt. Here, now in exile, he managed to get more substantial medical treatment.

Survivors are tortured

Mohammed was lucky to escape with his life. Many other Syrian protesters haven't. The United Nations estimates that Assad's forces have killed at least 4,000 people since the uprising began eight months ago, though Syrian opposition groups put the figure at closer to 10,000.

Many of those not killed in the demonstrations face kidnap and torture in government cells. Released prisoners have reported being deprived of food, water and sleep, and say that torturers rip out fingernails and burn out eyes with acid. Women are raped, while men have their anuses burnt with cigarettes. Children are also said to be among the victims.

Human rights activist Bassam Ishaq belongs to the Syrian National Council, the country's most important opposition organization in exile. He doesn't think that the crimes against humanity will end soon - on the contrary. "The situation is getting worse and worse," Ishaq says. "The demonstrations used to be only Fridays. Now they are daily, and so the killings are also every day."

West hesitates

While the Damascus regime apparently balks at no atrocity in its repressive measures, the international community's response has been slow and tentative. Vetoes from China and Russia have prevented the UN Security Council from condemning the violence.

The US imposed the first economic sanctions in April, followed by the European Union in May. Since then, the screws have been tightened further. The EU already has already completed its tenth round of sanctions, with measures now including an oil embargo, account freezes and travel bans. Thirty Syrian companies have now been banned from trading with the EU, and weapons, surveillance equipment and surveillance software can now no longer be exported to Syria.

Meanwhile, the Arab League, the confederation of Arab countries co-founded by Syria in 1945, simply waits, offering Damascus ever-extending deadlines. It allowed eight months of brutal violence to go by before taking action - only suspending Syria from the organization and imposing sanctions in mid-November.

Even those measures were half-hearted - several member states have since announced that they would not be abiding by the sanctions.

Martin Beck, regional director of German political foundation the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Amman, Jordan, thinks the international community's influence on Syria is meager. "If you're not prepared to intervene militarily, then your options are limited," he told Deutsche Welle. "That leaves only one possibility in the medium-term: economic sanctions."

Futility of sanctions

Even if rigorously imposed, many believe sanctions would be unlikely to end violence in Syria. While it is expected to be a long time before Assad feels their pinch, ordinary people are already being affected. Since the start of the uprising, trade has dropped by around 30 percent.

If the US, the EU and the Arab League were to pool their sanctions, it is thought that their measures could potentially push the regime into a financial impasse. A coordinated assault on Assad's finances could force the dictator to cut wages for state officials, which would affect around 30 percent of the Syrian population. This, in turn, could lead more people to join the protest movement.

But according to Ishaq, no sanctions could be deep enough to have any effect. Ishaq is calling for military protection for Syrian civilians. "If we had this protection, we could motivate others to join the protests," he said. As far as the Syrian National Council is concerned, the killing will continue as long as demonstrators aren't protected.

Mohammed, meanwhile, is worried about his family and friends. He says he is on a blacklist - if he returns to Syria, he will be killed. He says he is now resigned to waiting in Cairo, for the day when violence in Syria ends, when human rights are respected once again, and the day when President Assad steps down.

Author: Viktoria Kleber / bk
Editor: Michael Knigge