Blog 12: Syrian Troops Fire Across Turkish Border in Clash Near Refugee Camp

Any lingering questions of Syria's status on the global human rights abuse front was answered Wednesday, when Syrian forces crossed the Turkish border to attack a refugee camp.  In this week's article, Neil MacFarquhar and Sevnem Arsu detail the growing tension in the region amid Syria's refusal to conduct the various cease fire agreements.   In the latest atrocity committed by Syrian forces, two refugees were killed and another twenty-three people were injured in the shooting in the Turkish town of Kilis.  Syria is demanding a written guarantee that the opposition forces will dismantle before Assad will institute any cease fire agreement. 

Inside Syria, the fighting is not stop, but intensifying.  Opposition groups are reporting numbers civilian casualties at the hands of the Assad regime.  Human Rights Watch released a report that Syria has murdered at least 100 people in extrajudicial killings.

The worst human rights abuses invariably happen at the hands of the state, because of the state's monopoly on power.  While sometimes that power is justified, the ongoing violence against civilian populations by the Syrian government has created numerous human rights abuses and raised serious concerns in the international community.  The international community has considered various solutions to this problem, from providing humanitarian aid, arming the opposition, or outright military involvement.  The various cease fire agreements were the first real action on Syria, and escalation is sure to occur if the Assad regime continues to disregard the agreements.  The border-crossing violence on Wednesday fully qualifies the "Syrian problem" as a global social problem.