UN Must Make the Perpetrators of Violence Pay for the Many Famines

Famine owing to the fury of natural calamities is understandable where very little are in the hands of the humanity. It could be owing to drought, floods or arid climate that may destroy the chances of cultivation to cause hunger. Under such circumstances the entire humanity must stand with the fellow men & women faced with the famine. However, famine and hardship created on humanity due to violence, conflicts and wars is something avoidable. In the 21st century when Human Rights issues can be applied to anyone and everyone, the innocent public cannot be made to suffer due to the idiosyncrasy of a group or State. When violence created by these groups or States creates refugees to flee the conflict zones, the entire cost of their humanitarian aids must be apportioned on to the group that made them insecure and thus flee.

It has become a trend in the recent years…the perpetrators make the innocent suffer with their livelihood and earnings terminated; their personal safeties and social securities challenged. Under such threats they have no alternative but to escape from their own territories. At the refugee camps, they become totally dependent on the NGOs, the State and the international humanitarian organisations to survive. The UN Food Mission must come to their assistance to prevent hunger and death. In the recent years and decades, far too many groups and nations have indulged in creating such conflict zones from where the innocent civilians had to flee be it Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, Sahel region (Mali, Morocco, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Algeria), South Sudan and so on.

In most of these nations inhuman atrocities have caused hardships and the perpetrators are largely the Islamic radicals and the Jihadists. Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, Sahel region (Mali, Morocco, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Algeria), are the examples of the Jihadists making the population flee to save their lives or the honour. On the other hand, there are non-Jihadist groups to creating the intense conflict zones amounting to genocides. There could be religious tinge in the violence or it could be sectarian. In the last few decades, we have witnessed the religious forms of genocides committed in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir…for the non-Muslims to flee. We have also seen the Muslims being massacred in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Christians in the Middle-East (Report be British Home Secretary Geremy Hunt refers). Another religious tinged mass exit of the refugee was glaring from the Rakhine state of Myanmar. However, many conflict zones also had other sectarian violence…like between Hutu & Tutsi in Rwanda, Nuer vs Dinka in South Sudan and of warring groups in Congo.

In most of the cases where violence caused the people to flee, the villain has been the gun-tottering Jihadists. In most of the cases, they are fighting because someone has asked them to indulge in bigotry and fascism in their religious books. How can the world body allow it? If they have money to buy the sophisticated arms and ammunition to fight, why can’t they be compelled to compensate the innocent citizen who have to flee? A gun-tottering jihadi poster on the walls have become a common sight in many nations combines with a war cry “Alla-hu-Akbar”. Why should not they be forced by the international community to pay for the humanitarian aids?

In Yemen both Sunni and Shia have been fighting for years to gain control of the nation and in turn, most if not all civilian population has suffered to the extremes of poverty. The former Jihadists are supported by Saudi and the latter by Iran. They have jointly killed about 2.5 lakh people, most as a result of direct violence and others succumbing to lateral causes. In Syria, the ISIS Jihadists are fighting with the Govt Forces. Even USA, Israel and Russia are in the war trying to kill one or the other group. NATO allies are directly or indirectly aiding the anti-govt forces. The net result is the complete destruction of Syria with millions fleeing the war zone. Somalia is riddled with Al-Shabab jihadi groups trying to commit genocide against the Christians and some other religious minorities. In Nigeria Boko Haram Jihadists are trying throw-out the more-or-less secular-looking govt forces with Muslim majority and Christian minority. In Sahel region, the Jihadist forces of Mali, Morocco, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Algeria have created a political instability, where economy of those nations have suffered immensely, further complicated by the unpredictable environment causing draught.

Innocent lives lost in the name of Jihadists are inexcusable. Why should the god of ‘jihad’ be sued and taken to task? In a lighter vein, just like the Hindi film “OMG”, why should not numerous cases be filed against the founder of jihad…whether that be the Allah or Mohamed whom they call a prophet. How can they wage a war, commit genocide against the believers of other religions? Their religious books certainly spread hate, intolerance, bigotry and fascism against the believers of other faiths (The Counterviews, Issue 3:07; published at https://articles.thecounterviews.com/issues/issue_03_07/) …something that has put the entire world in the never-ending fire of violence against the humanity…of one sect of Islam vs another, of Islam vs Christians, Islam vs Hindu, Islam vs Sikhs and so on. Today, Islam is at conflict with the most if not all other religions of the world. Why should the international bodies pay for the crimes committed by the jihadists?

Same or similar are the situations in South Sudan and Congo the two major States where non-Jihadists are warring to cause hardship among the population. There the warring groups belong to the different sects of Christians but unlike the Jihadists, their wars are not for religion but hate and animosity against the other sects. Luckily, Christianity does not have hate and intolerance as inculcated in Islamic Jihad. In South Sudan it is ‘Nuer vs Dinka’ communities that are at the loggerheads after gaining freedom from the radical Islamic North Sudan. In Congo, which otherwise is blessed with very rich fertile grounds, the traditional sectarian rivalries are making the security situations precarious, unsuitable for the farmers to undertake cultivation and flee from the conflict zone.

It is the atrocities of the intolerant beasts who make the weaker groups to flee for their lives. These are the people who need humanitarian assistance because the stronger factions have put the others at risk. Most if not all factions or sects of Islam want to dominate over the others. There is hardly any sect that believes in peaceful and cordial living. There are 73 sects in Islam and there are more than 175 Jihadi organisations having allegiance to one or the other sects.

Most of the Islamic nations have committed genocides of their religious minorities to the extent that they have vanished in thin air…and none have been held accountable, none brought to justice. Such is the fear of the barbaric Jihadists that the weaker factions invariably flee. So why should they not be held accountable for the misery of the weaker section who flee for their lives? In todays’ world, the Jihadists are armed with some of the most lethal weapons including guns, bombs, rockets, missiles and so on. The worst…they use brainwashed people to lay down their lives for the sake of Islam…as human bombs. They have huge sums of money to buy all these weapons. It is believed that in the nations harbouring Jihadists, there are sophisticated automatic weapons in almost all homes although food grain may not be there to feed the family. What makes them to spend so lavishly on the lethal weapon but can’t purchase food grain? It is because they know that UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) will surely come to their aid. They have been using these tactics for decades. There are 57 Islamic countries to raise voice for the fellow Muslims.

If there is famine due to the natural causes, beyond the control of the humanity in any part of the world, the WFP must take lead to render timely assistance to prevent hunger death. WFP rendering nutritional assistance to school-going children through the mid-day meals in the various nations, is surely a welcome step for the cause of the humanity. However, if the famine is due to the violence/war caused by groups or nations, the WFP outreach should be conditional…to make them pay for it. The UN / UNSC must incorporate this provision in the charter of the WFP. If the warring groups are not ready to reimburse the cost, UNSC must compel them to do so. Why should the world body and donor nations pay for atrocities committed by others?

The map published in the year 2020 having ‘Hunger’ data of 2015-19 is placed above. Many Asian nations figure in the list and so are the Africans. It is also significant that most of the above nations having significant numbers of the Muslim population among whom the proportions of the Jihadist groups have been rising fast. It is well known that the Jihadists pose greater threats to the non-Islamic populations in the Muslim dominated nations with just one exceptions where the Jihadists have been made to bite the dust (Myanmar).

It is unfortunate that United Nations, its Security Council, the various Human Rights Groups and the World Food Program has been ignoring the huge human and financial costs imposed by the Jihadists in the recent decades. Some of the non-Jihadist violence too have been the reasons of suffering in other nations. The time is come when the warring groups considered responsible for the famine, must be asked to compensate. Of course, Islamic Nations with 57 votes at the UN will surely try to scuttle any such proposal. However, it is the need of the hour that for the grave famine in nations like Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Sahel, South Sudan and elsewhere, the warring groups and their supporters must be made to compensate with or without the assistance of the Security Council. Their international assets could be seized, their bank accounts could be frozen, their aids could be stopped…in fact any measure that could make them pay the cost of suffering that they inflicted, will be justified. If none of these actions are enough, then Security Council may form an allied force to cease their complete assets of war machinery.