Bosnia lessons for Syria

[tabatha]

JERUSALEM | Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:55am EST
(Reuters) - Cold-blooded sniper killings, indiscriminate shelling, surgery by flashlight, death, fear and hunger in a darkened city under the ruthless hammer of a superior force. In its random cruelty, the conflict in Syria starts to resemble the war in Bosnia 20 years ago, when Serb, Muslim and Croat forces tore the Balkan country apart and the besieged people of Sarajevo buried thousands of dead in sports fields.

Bosnia's carnage was broadcast globally month after month by 24-hour satellite television news then in its early days. The slaughter in the Syrian city of Homs has been playing out to the world almost hourly on mobile phone and amateur video. Images of dead babies, severed limbs, blood running in the gutters and people driven mad by grief provoke horror, followed by demands for armed foreign intervention.

But French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday ruled out direct intervention, saying that in Syria "the revolution will not be led from outside ... it must be led from the inside."

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says that, even with a U.N. mandate and Arab backing, he doubts the alliance would get involved.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/19/us-syria-bosnia-lessons-idUSTRE81I05920120219

[Odin2005]

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[Louisiana1976]

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