Dictators in Russia and China protecting a butcher in Syria

Your editorial rightly draws focus onto the continuing plight of the Syrian people and we can clearly see the Bashar al-Assad shares the same taste for butchering his people that his father before him did.

It was the late President Ronald Reagan who coined the phrase the “evil empire” which in essence was given to communism’s role in the world at that time. It seems to me that the axis of Russia and China and their despicable behaviour in the UN in vetoing the resolution condemning the bloody slaughter of his own people by Bashar al-Assad can now comfortably jointly assume that mantle as their behaviour is totally morally bankrupt and utterly repugnant.

We have seen the highly questionable parliamentary election results in Russia a steady stream of revelations of corrupt practices at polling stations, yet Putin steadfastly denies any wrongdoing by his party and has deftly removed a rival from the upcoming presidential election. I listened to him on the BBC justifying his veto in the Security Council. I do not think I have listened to such disingenuous lies in all my life. He is nothing more than a dictator who will undoubtedly steal the upcoming presidential election.

As for the Chinese, they are but a desperate tyrannical regime determined to hold on to power at any cost with an appalling human rights record. The hideous thing is that the “civilised” world is unwilling to do anything outside of the Security Council to censure the Russians and Chinese. I found it utterly nauseating to see pictures of a smug Barack Obama sitting next to an equally smug Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and saying he was looking forward to future cooperation.

There must come a time when decency says that this slaughter cannot continue under the protection of Russia and China, and the nonsense of “it is not right to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state” is debunked once and for all when civilians are being slaughtered. I go further that Secretary Clinton in saying for certain that Bashar al-Assad is a war criminal and should be indicted as soon as possible to face trial for what are most certainly crimes against humanity. How many times must the world watch as such inhumanity is perpetrated. Has the horror of the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995 been quietly forgotten and no lessons learnt? Surely the world at large has a humanitarian duty to stop this and damn those that continue to give Bashar al-Assad and his vile regime succour.

Dr Daniel W Delaware

Bangkok