I

n late February, Filippo Grandi,

the Commissioner General of
UNRWA, the United Nations agen-
cy tasked with the welfare of the
Palestinians, visited Yarmouk, a neigh-
bourhood in Damascus, Syria. When he
entered Yarmouk, the people came to
greet him and to collect much-needed
supplies. They emerged, he said, like
ghosts fromthe depths of Yarmouk, as if
froma medieval siege. For months, the
residents of this neighbourhood had eat-
en animal feed and burnt furniture to
survive. The stark greyness of the peo-
ple reminded Mr. Grandi, who has
worked at UNRWA for a decade, of
black and white archival pictures of the
1948 expulsion of the Palestinians from
their land.
Mr. Grandi and his team visited Yar-
mouk days after the United Nations Se-
curity Council unanimously passed
resolution 2139, a detailed text that lays
out specic measures that the Syrian
government and the rebels need to take
to ensure unhindered humanitarian ac-
cess to the Syrian people. It is the rst
major unanimous resolution from a
Council divided about Syria. The resolu-
tionwas not passed under Chapter VII of
the UN Charter, which would have al-
lowed military action if the parties failed
to uphold its recommendations. It men-
tions particular areas that have lan-
guished under siege, such as the Old city
of Homs and Yarmouk, and under-
scores the need for the parties to agree
on humanitarian pauses, days of tran-
quility, localised ceaseres and truces.
It is such a localised truce that allowed
Mr. Grandi and the UNRWA team to
enter Yarmouk.
The war toll
The Syrian civil war is like a massive
tidal wave which swept across the coun-
try leaving behind widespread devasta-
tion. Buildings bear the physical marks
of the damage. More than half of the
Syrian population now live in poverty,
says a study by the Syrian Centre for
Policy Research, with the unemploy-
ment rate now near fty per cent. Half of
Syrias children have dropped out of
school, with many Syrians unable to ac-
cess health care. In the second quarter of
2013, Syria lost 174 per cent of the equiv-
alent gross domestic product of 2010. Six
and a half million Syrians out of 21 mil-
lion are internally displaced; two and a
half million are refugees (UNHigh Com-
missioner for Refugees Antonio Gu-
terres told the Council that Syrians will
soon overtake Afghans as the largest ref-
ugee population). When Mr. Grandi says
that the people of Yarmouk seemed to
appear froma medieval siege, he is not
exaggerating. Many people now say that
Syria has precipitously in a thousand
days slid backwards centuries.
It is this situation that pushed the UN
Security Council to nally act. UN Secu-
rity Council chair Rai-
monda Murmokaite
(Lithuania) said this res-
olution albeit overdue
provided a moment of
hope for the people of
Syria. The war in Syria is
messy, with no clear bat-
tleeld or frontline. It is,
as Mr. Grandi put it, a
mosaic of areas, the con-
trol of which is uctuat-
ing. o expect a UN
resolution to have an im-
pact in such a chaotic
battleeld is idealistic.
Nonetheless, it has sent a
clear message to Damas-
cus and to the Syrian op-
position that
humanitarianism must
be a key consideration;
whether this will have any impact on the
local commanders is another matter.
Whether this will even be a consider-
ation for the radical Islamists is an even
greater concern.
Short-lived ceaseres
Over the past few months, there have
been almost 50 signicant local cease-
res that have lasted from a month to a
week. These ceaseres emerged for a va-
riety of reasons, notably the sheer ex-
haustionof the parties to the conict and
the rapid ascendancy of one side over the
other. While these ceaseres have been
essential for delivery of humanitarian
aid and for the evacuation of trapped
Syrians, they have not beenforged onthe
basis of a commitment
to peace. Warfare re-
mains the dynamic in
Syria. These local cease-
res are useful, Mr.
Grandi notes, because
they create a pattern, a
frame of mind that pro-
motes trust amongst the
people. He says that the
Yarmouk ceasere came
about as civilians thrust
themselves forward
against the combatants.
But this has been a vola-
tile ceasere, withthe ci-
vilians in a subordinate
position to the logic of
war and its adherents.
In Rif (rural) Damas-
cus, local ceaseres have
held for several months,
largely because both sides seem to have
come to see the warfare as futile. Ziad
Haydar of As-Sar reported (on Febru-
ary 24) that the ghters were exhaust-
ed. A total incapacity has struck the
armed men at the front. Despair that
the stalemate will not shift and concern
at the inltration of the armed radicals
has led to a situation where yesterdays
enemies will turn into tomorrows al-
lies, reports Haydar. Others are not so
optimistic. Some sense that the overall
war in Syria might go on for a decade,
muchlike the war inAlgeria inthe 1990s.
In the interstices of the war, these small
ceaseres will allow people to survive. It
is a morbid thought. It suggests that the
logic of war continues to dominate in
Syria. The leadership of all sides believe
that they can either win or can inict
further grievous harmon their enemies.
It is at the local level that such con-
dence has begun to falter. That is why
local truces have beenrelatively easier to
establish than country-wide ceaseres.
Importance of small gestures
UN resolution 2139 recognises that
the only way forward is a political solu-
tion. Everything else local ceaseres,.
humanitarian access, humanitarian dis-
tribution points are the triage neces-
sary to stop the bleeding. They will not
heal the situation. Local ceaseres, how-
ever, are a valuable mechanism to help
reinsert non-combatant civilians into
the political process, people who had
been sidelined by the ghting. These
small gestures are capable of building
the condence of people whohave other-
wise lost the will to believe in a Syrian
future. The UNresolutionby itself will of
course not do any of this, Mr. Grandi
says, but its importance will lter
down to the local level combatants. And
the local truces in some parts of the
country might send a message to the
leadership of all sides and their foreign
backers that Syrians no longer wish to
destroy their lives for the agenda of oth-
ers. Syria is, to paraphrase the poet Agha
Shahid Ali, a shadow chased by sear-
chlights in search of its body. The UN
resolution and the local ceaseres are
torches to light its way.
(Vijay Prashad is the Edward Said
Chair at the American University of
Beirut.)
Rising from the Syrian ashes
EXHAUSTED BY WAR: For months, the people of Yarmouk survived on animal feed and burnt furniture.
Here, they throng the streets to receive supplies from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in
Damascus, Syria. PHOTO: AP/UNRWA
Local truces might send a message that Syrians no longer wish to destroy their lives
for the agenda of others, nds Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of UNRWA
Vijay Prashad
People emerged
like ghosts from
the depths of
Yarmouk, as if
from a medieval
siege
Filippo Grandi
AFP
CM
YK
ND-ND
11 THE HINDU SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
DELHI
COMMENT
>>In Centre likely to take call today on Presidents Rule in AP (Feb. 28,
2014), there was a reference to the Supreme Court judgment of 2004 in S.R.
Bommai versus Union of India case. The correct year is 1994.
>>It is Naveen Jaihind. It is not Naveen Jindal, as stated in AAP elds
Rajmohan Gandhi in Delhi East (Feb. 28, 2014), who will contest from
Rohtak.
>>Inthe Sports page report, Former boxer kidnapped (Feb. 28, 2014), the
picture of the boxer Antonio Cermeno was left out inadvertently.
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
F
irst the American teenager sur-
vived a rare cancer. Then she
wanted to study it, spurring a study
that helped scientists nd a weird
gene aw that might play a role in
how the tumour strikes.
Age 18 is pretty young to be listed
as an author of a study in the presti-
gious journal Science. But the indus-
trious high school students efforts
are bringing new attention to this
mysterious disease.
Making that idea work required a
lot of help from real scientists for
Elana Simon her father, who runs a
cellular biophysics lab at the Rocke-
feller University; her surgeon at Me-
morial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center; and gene specialists at the
New York Genome Center. A second
survivor of this cancer, who the jour-
nal said didnt want to be identied,
also co-authored the study.
Together, the team reported on
Thursday that they uncovered an
oddity, a break in genetic material
that left the head of one gene fused
to the body of another. That results
in an abnormal protein that forms
inside the tumours but not in normal
liver tissue, suggesting it might fuel
cancer growth, the researchers
wrote. Theyve found the evidence in
all 15 of the tumours tested so far.
Its a small study, and more re-
search is needed to see what this gene
aw really does, cautioned Dr. San-
ford Simon, the teens father and the
studys senior author.
YouTube video
But the teen-spurred project has
grown into work to get more patients
involved in scientic research. Scien-
tists at the National Institutes of
Health are advising the Simons on
how to set up a patient registry, and
NIHs Office of Rare Diseases Re-
search has posted on its website a
YouTube video inwhich Elana Simon
and a fellow survivor explain why to
get involved.
Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular
Carcinoma. Not easy to pronounce.
Not easily understood, it says.
Ms Simon was diagnosed at age 12.
Surgery is the only effective treat-
ment, and her tumour was caught in
time that it worked. But there are few
options if the cancer spreads, and Ms
Simon knows other patients who we-
rent so lucky.
A high school internship during
her sophomore year let Ms Simonuse
her computer science skills to help
researchers sort data on genetic mu-
tations in a laboratory studying an-
other type of cancer. AP
Teen helps scientists study
her own rare disease
Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to
Friday);
E-mail: readerseditor@thehindu.co.in
W
hen AamAadmi Party (AAP) lead-
er Yogendra Yadav was conduct-
ing workers meetings in Haryanas
districts sometime ago, he was asked
how the established political parties in
the State are viewing the AAPs entry.
Oh, they are dismissive of us and think
that our party has a reach only in urban
areas. In a way this complacency suits us
and we can continue to expand our pres-
ence undisturbed, Mr. Yadav said. After
Sundays overwhelming show of
strength in Rohtaks HUDA ground, the
AAP does not have this luxury anymore.
The party has arrived with a bang and
political talk in the State now revolves
around estimations of how many people
came for the AAP rally. In a State where
the turnout at political rallies is seen as a
measure of a partys popularity and a
crowd of 10,000people canbe exaggerat-
ed to one lakh or more by enthusiastic
party people, even the AAPs worst de-
tractors, namely the Congress and the
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), con-
cede that Arvind Kejriwals maiden po-
litical rally outside Delhi drew 15,000 to
20,000 people.
A different approach
But the signicance of the AAPs mega
show is not so much in the numbers, but
that they came on their own, spending
their own money on fuel, transport and
food, as the cash-strapped party made it
clear that unlike other parties, it has no
money to buy crowds. The other differ-
ence was the composition of the crowd.
The professional rally types gave it a
miss and instead, teachers, students,
young professionals, some farmers, and
the poor turned up.
The fact that the top leadership of the
party Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Yadav
hail from Haryana is one reason for the
draw of this new entrant, as also its de-
clared intent that after Delhi, it aims to
capture power here. Dilli hui hamaari
hai, ab Haryana ki baari hai (Delhis be-
come ours, now its Haryanas turn), is
the most popular slogan.
The party has a two-fold approach for
Haryana, where its leaders are devoting
the maximumtime. The idea is to put up
a good show in the Lok Sabha election
and build up momentumfor the eventu-
al goal the Assembly election due later
inOctober. Mr. Yadav is personally over-
seeing the campaign in Haryana and is
also contesting the Gurgaon Lok Sabha
seat. Recalling the old favourite Jai Ja-
wan, Jai Kisan of the seventies is there-
fore a carefully thought-out move
because farmers and retired soldiers
comprise a signicant chunk of the Ha-
ryanvi vote bank.
The privilege of enunciating the par-
tys promises for Haryana was also given
to Mr Yadav. Video graphing of inter-
views for government jobs, investigating
land scams of the last twenty years and
giving a voice to women in whether li-
quor vends in their village should be per-
mitted or not are Haryana-specic
issues that touched a chord with the
people.
Natural choice
Haryana as the AAPs next target is a
natural choice. Even before the AAP
came into being, Mr. Kejriwal had cam-
paigned against the BJP and the Con-
gress in the 2011 by-election for the
Hisar Lok Sabha constituency. He hails
fromSiwani inBhiwani district and grew
up in Hisar. During the Anna Jan Lokpal
andolan too, a large chunk of those who
had gathered at the Ramlila Maidanwere
supporters fromHaryana. Most of them
have turned into AAPworkers. The eight
lakh members (more than in any other
State) that the party enrolled in the last
month or so is due to this workforce. A
handful of IAS and IPS offi-
cers have also joined in the
last few days and in the same
manner in which they gath-
ered for the Delhi elections,
expatriate Indians have be-
gun taking leave from their
overseas jobs to work for the
party in Haryana.
The State also offers a fer-
tile ground for a new entrant
due to the political vacuum
that has been created here lately. Bhu-
pinder Singh Hoodas Congress govern-
ment, after tenstraight years inpower, is
facing an anti- incumbency wave on ac-
count of rampant corruption, misgov-
ernance and land scams.
The opposition INLD is now hobbling
with its top leadership Om Prakash
Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala in
jail for a jobs scam. The BJP which has
tied up with the Haryana Janhit Con-
gress (HJC) of former Chief Minister
Bhajan Lals son Kuldeep Bishnoi does
not have a base in rural, Jat-dominated
areas. Ideally it would have liked to ally
with the INLD, which commands a sub-
stantial Jat following, in addition to the
HJC, but the corruption taint prevents it
fromdoing so.
Bumpy road ahead
But making inroads into the Jat vote
bank that comprises almost 25 per cent
of the population is not easy. The AAP
has made it clear that it is against caste-
based politics. So Naveen Jaihind, the
partys candidate from Rohtak who has
been chosen to take on Mr. Hoodas son
Deepender Singh Hooda claries that he
has taken on Jaihind as his surname so
that no one knows my real caste. The
sentiment could nd resonance in urban
areas and among the youth, but in Ha-
ryanas Jat heartland, few are impressed.
Mr, Kejriwal and Mr. Yadav are not Jats
and conventional reasoning dictates that
the face of a party that wants to make it
big in Haryana should be a Jat.
However Dalits with a 21 per cent
composition come a close second to the
land-owning Jats and the AAP is reac-
hing out to them. Mr. Hoodas pro-Jat
policies and a series of atrocities against
Dalits in recent years have alienated this
section from the Congress. This is just
one of the several oat-
ing groups in Haryana
which is looking for a
place to drop anchor.
As a Congress legislator
wryly admitted: The
AAP is pulling in those
people who are outside
the hardcore vote
banks of established
parties. And this oat-
ing vote [group] can go
up to [a] substantial 40 per cent.
After succeeding in metropolitan Del-
hi withthe help of tech-savvy youngsters
and the internet, the acknowledged chal-
lenge for the AAP is to reach out to rural
voters whose concerns, aspirations and
means of communicationare very differ-
ent. If the attendance and sentiment at
the Rohtak hunkar rally (war cry) is any
indication, the AAP seems to be over-
coming this handicap quite well.
chander.dogra@thehindu.co.in
AAPs big Haryanvi splash
ROARING SUCCESS: The AAPs overwhelming show of strength in
Rohtaks HUDA ground proves that the party has arrived in Haryana
with a bang. PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT
After succeeding in metropolitan Delhi, the partys challenge is to reach out to rural
voters whose concerns, aspirations and means of communication are very different
Chander Suta Dogra
Haryana offers a
fertile ground for
a new entrant
due to the
political vacuum
that has been
created lately
H
enry Kissinger once pointed out that since Peter the Great, Russia
had been expanding at the rate of one Belgiumper year. All undone,
of course, by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Russian President
Vladimir Putin called the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th]
century.
Putins mission is restoration. First, restore traditional Russian
despotismby dismantling its nascent democracy. And then, having
created iron-sted stability, march.
Use the 2008 war with Georgia to detach two of its provinces, returning
themto the bosomof mother Russia (by way of Potemkin independence).
Then late last year, pressure Ukraine to reject a long-negotiated deal for
association with the European Union, to draw Ukraine into Putins
planned Eurasian Union as the core of a new Russian mini-empire.
Turns out, however, Ukraine had other ideas. It overthrew Moscows
man in Kiev, Viktor Yanukovych, and turned to
the West. But the West the EUand America
had no idea what to do.
Russia does. Moscow denounces the
overthrow as the illegal work of fascist bandits,
refuses to recognise the new government
created by Parliament, withholds all economic
assistance and, in a highly provocative
escalation, mobilises its military forces on the
Ukrainian border.
The response? The EUdithers and Barack
Obama slumbers. After near total silence during
the rst three months of Ukraines struggle for
freedom, Obama said on camera last week that
in his view Ukraine is no Cold War
chessboard.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what it is for
Putin. He wants Ukraine back.
Obama wants stability, The New York Times
reports, quoting internal sources. He sees
Ukraine as merely a crisis to be managed rather
than an opportunity to alter the increasingly
autocratic trajectory of the region, allow
Ukrainians to join their destiny to the West and
block Russian neo-imperialism.
Sure, Obama is sympathetic to democracy.
But it must come organically, frominternal
developments, you see. Must not be imposed by
outside intervention, but develop on its own.
But Ukraine is never on its own. Not with a bear next door. American
neutrality doesnt allow an authentic Ukrainian polity to emerge. It leaves
Ukraine naked to Russian pressure.
What Obama doesnt seemto understand is that American inaction
creates a vacuum. His evacuation fromIraq consigned that country to
Iranian hegemony, just as Obamas writing off Syria invited in Russia,
Iran and Hezbollah to reverse the tide of battle.
Putin fully occupies vacuums. In Ukraine, he keeps aunting his
leverage. Hes withdrawn the multibillion-dollar aid package with which
he had pulled the now-deposed Ukrainian president away fromthe EU.
He has suddenly mobilised Russian forces bordering Ukraine. His health
officials are even questioning the safety of Ukrainian food exports.
This is no dietary hygiene campaign. This is a message to Kiev: We can
shut down your agricultural exports today, your natural gas supplies
tomorrow. We can make you broke and we can make you freeze.
Kissinger once also said in the end, peace can be achieved only by
hegemony or by balance of power. Ukraine will either fall to Russian
hegemony, or nally determine its own future if America balances
Russias power.
How? Start with a declaration of full-throated American support for
Ukraines revolution. Follow that with a serious loan/aid package say,
replacing Moscows $15 billion to get Ukraine through its immediate
nancial crisis. Then join with the EUto extend a longer substitute
package, preferably through the International Monetary Fund.
Secretary of State John Kerry says Russian intervention would be a
mistake. Alas, any such declaration fromthis administration carries the
weight of a feather. But better that than nothing. Better still would be
backing these words with a naval otilla in the Black Sea.
Whether anything Obama says or does would stop anyone remains
questionable. But surely the West has more nancial clout than Russias
kleptocratic extraction economy that exports little but oil, gas and vodka.
The point is for the U.S., leading Europe, to counter Russian pressure
and make up for its blandishments/punishments until Ukraine is on rm
nancial footing.
Yes, $15 billion is a lot of money. But its less than one-half of one-tenth
of 1 per cent of the combined EUand U.S. GDP. And expending treasure is
innitely preferable to expending blood. Especially given the strategic
stakes: Without Ukraine, theres no Russian empire.
Putin knows that. Which is why he keeps ratcheting up the pressure.
The question is, can this administration muster the counterpressure to
give Ukraine a chance to breathe? 2014. Washington Post.
Putins Ukraine gambit
WORLD VIEW
American
neutrality doesnt
allow an authentic
Ukrainian polity
to emerge. It
leaves Ukraine
naked to Russian
pressure.
CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER