美国国家公共电台 NPR Global Powers' Commitment To Intervene In Genocides May Be Waning

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

The Responsibility to Protect is a doctrine¹ in the United Nations calling on world powers to step into countries and stop atrocities². But in places like Syria and South Sudan, it is clear the concept is just an aspiration³, as NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE⁴: At his final news conference as U.N. secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon described Syria as a gaping⁵ hole in the global conscience. He said South Sudan's leaders betrayed their people in a country now on the brink⁶ of genocide. And the fires are still burning in Yemen, Mali and Central African Republic.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BAN KI-MOON: The reason, clearly - lack of solidarity⁷, global solidarity.

KELEMEN: Ban says he's sorry to leave so many unresolved conflicts to his successor, and he blames world powers for failing to work together.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORIDNG)

BAN: Unfortunately, member states have shown some stepping back from their firm agreement on Responsibility to Protect.

KELEMEN: The Obama administration was an early advocate of the concept that world powers need to step in to save civilians⁸ from genocide when governments are unable or when they're the ones carrying out the atrocities. President Obama set up an atrocities prevention board and made this pledge to the U.S. Holocaust⁹ Memorial Museum back in 2012.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BARACK OBAMA: Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America.

KELEMEN: The Obama administration invoked¹⁰ the Responsibility to Protect in Libya in 2011, when the then-leader, Moammar Gadhafi, was threatening a massacre¹¹ in the city of Benghazi. But the fallout was not what the U.S. wanted, says Cameron Hudson, who runs a genocide prevention center at the Holocaust Museum.

CAMERON HUDSON: Those interventions¹³, they drag on, and they often morph, and they often change. So in the case of Libya, what became an intervention¹² to save civilians in Benghazi morphed into what essentially¹⁴ became regime change and now essentially the dissolution of the Libyan state.

KELEMEN: And he fears the Obama administration, in his words, overlearned the lessons from Libya, where terrorism is now a major threat. It has been hesitant to get drawn¹⁵ into Syria, even to stop mass atrocities there. President Obama told reporters earlier this month that he spent many hours in meetings with his advisers¹⁶ on Syria but ultimately came to this conclusion.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

OBAMA: Unless we were all-in and willing to take over Syria, we were going to have problems.

KELEMEN: The U.S. has intervened to fight ISIS in Syria and in Iraq. And in some ways, that started as a humanitarian¹⁷ intervention, says Hudson of the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The U.S. saw ISIS carrying out a genocide against Yazidis and other religious and ethnic¹⁸ minorities.

HUDSON: In the case of ISIS, we've seen an intervention to save Yazidis on a mountaintop morph into a much broader effort to roll back an ISIS threat all across northern Iraq and Syria.

KELEMEN: And some Yazidis say the world isn't paying much attention to their plight¹⁹ now. Nadia Murad, who was held as a sex slave by ISIS, has been urging the U.N. Security Council to launch an international investigation²⁰ to document war crimes.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

NADIA MURAD: (Through interpreter) I don't understand how there is no court that can prosecute²¹ the perpetrators of the crimes against the Yazidis or an independent body to investigate them. I don't understand why the corpses²² of my murdered mother and brothers still lie in mass graves, unprotected and un-examined.

KELEMEN: She worries that evidence is disappearing while Security Council members focus more on the terrorism threat to them than on the fate of religious minorities.

Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.

1 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。

2 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 gaping   

adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大

参考例句：

• Ahead of them was a gaping abyss. 他们前面是一个巨大的深渊。
• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 brink   

n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿

参考例句：

• The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
• The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。

7 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

8 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

9 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

10 invoked   

v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求

参考例句：

• It is unlikely that libel laws will be invoked. 不大可能诉诸诽谤法。
• She had invoked the law in her own defence. 她援引法律为自己辩护。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

12 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

13 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

14 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

15 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

16 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

17 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

18 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

19 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

20 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

21 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

22 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说