Before
UN
Excludes Libya from Rights Council, Sources Say Unanimous, 4 to Speak
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 28 -- The night before the March 1 vote in the UN
General Assembly to expel Libya from the UN Human Rights Council, a
well placed member state involved in the pre-vote negotiations told
Inner City Press that the decision to expel Libya will be “by
consensus” -- that is unanimous, without a vote.
After
the decision
there will be explanations of vote by Venezuela (which was expected
to oppose the exclusion), Egypt, China and Russia.
On
February 28,
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez spoke in favor of Gadhafi, in a way seeming
incongruous with agreeing to exclude Libya from the Human Rights
Council.
There
is also this
question: if the UN continues to recognize the Libyan diplomats who
have denounced Gafhafi, like Permanent Representative Shalgam and
Deputy Permanent Representative Ibrahim Dabbashi, why exclude them?
But
on the bottom
of screen scrolls on Al Jazeera and CNN, the vote at the UN General
Assembly to exclude Libya has become a big media item. Watch this
site.
* * *
In
UN
Libya
Resolution, US Insistence on ICC Exclusion Shields
Mercenaries from Algeria, Ethiopia
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February
26 -- After passage
of a compromise Libya
resolution by the UN Security Council on Saturday night, Inner City
Press asked French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud if
mercenaries aren't let off the hook by the sixth operative paragraph,
exempting personnel from states not members of the International
Criminal Court from ICC prosecution.
Araud
regretted
the
paragraph, but said the the United States had demanded
it. He said, “No, that's, that was for one country, it was
absolutely necessary for one country to have that considering its
parliamentary constraints, and this country we are in. It was a red
line for the United States. It was a deal-breaker, and that's the
reason we accepted this text to have the unanimity of the Council.”
While
a
Bush
administration Ambassador to the UN in 2002 threatened to veto a UN
resolution on Bosnia if it did not contain a similar exclusion, the
Obama administration has maintained this insistence on impunity,
which in this case applies to mercenaries from Algeria, Tunisia and
Ethiopia, among other mercenary countries.
(In the case
of Algeria,
there are allegations of official support for Gadhafi).
While
Inner
City
Press was able to ask UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant about the
exclusion for mercenaries from non ICC countries, US Permanent
Representative Susan Rice did not take a question from Inner City
Press, and none on this topic, despite having mentioned mercenaries
in her speech.
Obama, Hillary & Susan Rice: mercenary impunity not shown
When
Libya,
but
no longer Gadhafi, diplomat Ibrahim Dabbashi came out to take
questions, Inner City Press asked him which countries the mercenaries
used by Gadhafi come from.
He mentioned
Algeria, Tunisia and Ethiopia
-- highlighted by NGOs as non ICC members -- as well as Chad, Niger,
Kenya and Guinea. So some mercenaries could be prosecuted by the
ICC, and not others, under language demanded by the US Mission to the
UN. Watch this site.
Here
is
the
US-demanded paragraph:
6.
Decides
that
nationals, current or former officials or personnel from
a State outside the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya which is not a party to
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court shall be subject
to the exclusive jurisdiction of that State for all alleged acts or
omissions arising out of or related to operations in the Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya established or authorized by the Council, unless such
exclusive jurisdiction has been expressly waived by the State.
, 
