At
Geneva HRC,
Code Words on
Syria Range
from Ruthless
to Regime
Change, Saleh
and Sri Lanka
Not Shown
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 28 --
The debate on
Syria at the
Human Rights
Council in
Geneva Tuesday
morning
proceeded
mostly as
expected.
China
and Cuba both
used the term
"regime
change," at
least in
translation.
Portugal
for the
European Union
and later EU
member Austria
both called
the Assad
"regime...
ruthless,"
though
Portugal's
Foreign
Minister
pronounced it
"roose-less."
(When he
referred to
humanitarian
actors, one
wag wondered:
George
Clooney?)
India's
speech,
telling the
Arab League
that its role
is to bring
about
dialogue in
Syria, seemed
to some to
vary from its
recent votes
at
the UN
General
Assembly
and Security
Council in
New York.
More
clearly
inconsistent
was Thailand,
which called
for "strong
action" on
Syria. The day
before, on Sri
Lanka where
more
civilians were
killed,
Thailand urged
a "homegrown"
Sri
Lankan
solution.
Similarly,
Maldives
even in the
midst of what
many call a
coup d'etat
trashed Assad
for
killing
civilians,
while in New
York it appears
to defend Sri
Lanka
including its
appointment,
through the
Asia Group, of
General
Shavendra
Silva,
whose 58th
Division is
depicted in
Ban Ki-moon's
Panel of
Experts report
as engaged in
war crimes, as
a member of
the
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations.
Speaking
for the US
was not
Ambassador to
the UN in
Geneva
Donahoe, but
Esther
Brimmer,
in from
Washington.
One wondered,
when will
Brimmer and
the US State
Department
belatedly send
their
replacement
for UN
Department of
Political
Affairs cheif
Lynn Pascoe,
left swinging
like a lame
duck
in the breeze
for months
now?
There was much
talk that
"there can be
no impunity,"
including from
countries
which accepted
or supported
the impunity
deal for Ali
Saleh in Yemen.
(c) UN Photo
HRC: does
cash-strapped
Spain want to
take its $25M
ceiling home?
Mauritania
for the
Arab Group
called for
humanitarian
corridors.
Syria said the
head of
the
International
Commission of
Inquiry has
said such
corridors are
impossible,
that one must
talk with the
Syrian
government as
the Red
Cross is
doing.
Syria also
said that it
is the Free
Syrian Army
which blocked
the extraction
of foreign
journalists
from Homs. "No
Shalgam or
Dabbashi, he,"
one wag
commented,
referring to
the
Gaddafi era
Libyan
diplomats who
defected
during that
conflict.
At
the
UN in New
York, the head
of protocol is
leaving as
scheduled on
February 29.
Will a move be
made against
the
credentials of
Syrian
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari?
Watch this
site.
, 
