At
UN,
Thick Syria
Draft
Circulated
"Noting" ICC
Referral
Recommendation
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 23 --
When the
Security
Council
emerged from
closed
door meetings
Tuesday on
Syria and
Libya,
ambassadors
tried to match
each other in
not making
news. Five
days previous,
the four
European
members and
the US said
they would
circulate a
resolution
about
Syria.
And
sure enough on
Tuesday, they
gave the other
members of the
Council a
surprisingly
thick draft,
including an
arms embargo
and sanctions,
but no
explicit
referral of
Syria to the
International
Criminal
Court.
Rather the
draft welcomes
the Human
Rights
Council's
resolution of
earlier in the
day -- on
which Russia
and China
voted no, and
India
abstained --
and "notes"
the
recommendation
by High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Navi
Pillay that
"the Security
Council
consider
referring the
situation in
Syria to the
International
Criminal
Court." (See
photo
before of
first page,
more
foreseeably to
follow.)
Inner
City Press
asked Council
president for
August Hardeep
Singh Puri,
India's
Ambassador, if
the omission
of a referral
to the ICC
might make his
country, a
proponent of
"incrementalism,"
more likely to
vote for or
abstain on the
draft.
"I
don't like
sanctions in
the best of
times," Puri
said, adding
that he would
study the
draft.
Russia's
Permanent
Representative
Churkin too
said as he
climbed the
stairs up
from the
Council he
would not
discuss the
draft in the
Council, but
merely send it
back to
Moscow. On his
way in, he'd
said that
Russia
is
"comfortable"
keeping things
in the scope
of the
Presidential
Statement
adopted August
3. He joked
with the press
about the
day's
earthquake,
saying he was
in Moscow for
one, and also
in Greece.
When
the
session was
over, the UK's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Philip
Parham came
out, speaking
off camera
"like Churkin
did." He
was asked if
Bashar al
Assad is on
the proposed
sanctions
list. He
replied that
"those
responsible"
for the
crackdown are,
and
nodded.
Later
the
representative
of another
European
country not
currently on
the
Council told
Inner City
Press that
Assad must be
scared by
what's
happened to
Gaddafi in
Libya. Yes --
but what will
it make Assad
do?
Inner
City Press
asked Parham
about Libya:
when will the
Council ask on
Ban Ki-moon's
request for a
new UN mandate
regarding the
country?
Parhan
said that
Ian Martin --
also from the
UK -- is
meeting with
the National
Transitional
Council to ask
what they want
from the UN,
and that
after that the
Council will
take it up.
There'll be a
meeting about
Libya in New
York on
Friday, with
the Arab
League,
European
Union,
Organization
of the Islamic
Cooperation
and apparently
African Union.
We'll be
there.
, 
in