The savage siege of the Syrian city of Aleppo appears to have ended at an appalling cost in lives. Rebel fighters had become encircled inside a few square kilometres in the eastern part of the city along with as many as 50,000 civilians, and forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad have delivered the ominous warning to surrender or die.
It remains unclear – and will probably never be known – how many people have been killed in the prolonged fighting. Yet the shift in military fortunes is obvious. A little over a year ago, Assad's regime had teetered towards collapse, but Russian military intervention has dramatically and murderously tilted the war in his favour. It was Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, who announced military action in the city had ended.
A graveyard in east Aleppo. Credit: AP
Aleppo has been pounded to rubble by Russian warplanes and pro-Assad forces, with alarm raised about persistent reports of atrocities. Senior UN humanitarian official Jan Egeland has rightly warned that Russia is as culpable as the Syrian government in any rights abuses. The passage of urgent assistance to those people in need should be facilitated as quickly as possible.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop called on Wednesday for a brokered peace and demanded a full investigation of any massacres. Ms Bishop also branded the situation in Aleppo "one of the worst humanitarian disasters that we have witnessed in many, many years".
Her choice of the word "witnessed" is perhaps most telling about the sad impotence of the international community when confronted by such conflicts. The world has known full well the horrors approaching as Assad regime forces ground towards Aleppo, and yet has been unwilling to act in a determined effort to halt the carnage. All the promises of "never again" in the wake of bitter past experiences – such as Sarajevo in the 1990s or Darfur more recently – have rung hollow once more.
There is no easy answer to the question of how the international community might have better responded to the gathering danger in Aleppo. Syria's civil war is already beset by outside interference, not only from Russia, but by the US, Iran, Turkey and other regional players, as well as terrorist groups such as Islamic State.
The call from some quarters, including US President-elect Donald Trump, to deploy even more foreign military force in the search for peace willfully ignores the lessons from places such as Libya, where violence continues despite the imposition in 2011 of a no-fly zone.
Yet the obvious difficulty in deciding how to act ought not become an excuse to do nothing. More determined and sustained diplomatic pressure could have been brought to bear on the Assad regime and Russia to allow a truce – and there is still a chance to apply this pressure now. All nations must share the moral responsibility to stop gross human rights abuses and this obligation must be properly understood if that challenge of preventing the next atrocity is finally to be met.
The test may come soon enough. Many rebel fighters, including some from declared terrorist organisations, and civilians are fleeing from Aleppo to the nearby city of Idlib. UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has said he fears Idlib will be the next target for the regime, but that in Aleppo there is already enough tragedy to confront.
The world might be beset by uncertainty and rivalry, but the guiding principles of respect for human rights should not be abandoned. Aleppo might become another byword to denote international failure, but it should also be another reason to work harder to prevent another catastrophe.