It is prudent to bring Malaysians back from Syria
PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said on Saturday that the government has decided to evacuate all Malaysians from Syria. To be sure, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has been urging Malaysians to leave since September last year because of concerns over the security situation in Syria. But the tone of the prime minister's statement indicates how badly the situation has deteriorated and how urgent it is for Malaysians to come back without further delay. Though the Foreign Ministry's advisory of March 18 "to voluntarily return home as the security situation is likely to become worse" was suitably sombre, this could not compare with its stark prognosis on July 21 that the situation "will continue to deteriorate further given the increasing acts of violence and heavy fighting".
In fact, this grim assessment is shared by many countries. Like Malaysia, most countries have advised their nationals not to travel to Syria. Many have also urged their citizens who are already there to pack their bags and leave. Most of the Chinese workers in Syria have returned home. Indonesia and the Philippines have been evacuating their nationals over the last few months. On Friday, Brazil withdrew its diplomats in Syria to Lebanon, Chile asked its citizens to leave, and Argentina contemplated closing its embassy as it prepared to repatriate its nationals. And they are not the only ones taking flight. Thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria have returned to their country over the last few days. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said more than 30,000 Syrians crossed the border into Lebanon on Thursday and Friday.
What is clear is that the conflict in Syria has moved way beyond the "protests and demonstrations" observed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry in its advisory of Sept 7 last year. The spiralling bloodshed bolsters arguments that this is a civil war. In fact, last month, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous characterised the fighting in Syria as a "full-scale civil war". Though this lends support to the government's decision to evacuate Malaysians immediately, it remains to be seen, however, whether those still in Syria will avail themselves of the opportunity to be delivered from danger as obviously they have stayed on despite the risks. Whatever their reasons for remaining in Syria, it is hoped, for their own sake, that, this time, they will heed the government's call. With the fighting showing no signs of easing and the situation so dire that the government has been moved to consider closing the Malaysian embassy in Damascus and withdrawing our diplomats, this would be the sensible course of action.