Syria
Commission of
Inquiry
Extended,
Terrorism
Amendment
Rejected, Kofi
Qs
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 23 --
Before the UN
Human Rights
Council voted
to
extend the
mandate of its
Commission of
Inquiry on
Syria, Russia
proposed
amendment,
including on
the "terrorist
acts in
Damascus
and Aleppo."
Qatar,
Saudi Arabia
and Belgium
spoke against
the
amendments,
and they
failed with
only four
votes in
favor, nine
abstaining and
33 against.
At
least one wag
remembering
9/11 noted the
irony of Saudi
Arabia voting
against
language
condemning
terrorist
attacks. But
the place of
terrorism in
Syria has
become a
political
football,
including when
the UK
Presidency of
the Security
Council for
March is said
to have
delayed
the Russian
drafted press
statement
until the
March 21
Presidential
Statement also
passed.
In
Geneva, the
resolution
extending the
Commission of
Inquiry on
Syria based
with 41
in favor,
three against
and two
abstaining,
including
Ecuador which
spoke citing
the Universal
Periodic
Review as the
appropriate
mechanism for
these issues.
An
argument
raised
against the
Russia
amendments was
that terrorism
is a subject
for the
Security
Council in New
York, whose
members got a
closed door
briefing
Thursday from
the members of
the Commission
of Inquiry. As
Inner City
Press
reported,
Security
Council
members were
told that
Kofi Annan
should push to
get the
Commission
access to
Syria.
Inner
City Press
has asked the
spokesman for
Joint Special
Envoy Kofi
Annan:
yesterday
outside
the Security
Council's
Arria formula
meeting with
the
International
Commission of
Inquiry on
Syria, a
number of
Permanent
Representatives
told me of
calls that the
JSE should
both insist
that
any monitoring
mechanism
include human
rights
monitoring and
reporting AND
that the JSE
should be
pushing the
Assad
government to
allow entry
into Syria by
the
International
Commission of
Inquiry.
Please
respond.
Also,
is there any
answer yet to
the question
of whether the
Kofi Annan
Foundation has
solicited (and
if so, if it
has received)
funds in the
past three
years from
Qatar, Saudi
Arabia or the
UAE or
government
aligned
business
interests or
businesspeople
in these three
countries?
Can
you disclose
any more of
the
individuals in
the JSE's box
of
consultants,
even if not
yet deployed
or paid, but
certainly if
deployed or
paid? What is
Mr. Nicolas
Michel's
status?
When
responses are
received they
will be
reported on
this site.
Footnote:
there
is more than a
little
duplicity in
the Human
Rights
Council.
Thailand, for
example, which
spoke and
voted against
yesterday's
resolution on
Sri Lanka,
whose
government
killed some
40,000
civilians in
2009, loudly
voted "yes"
against Syria,
of
which Amnesty
International
says it has
7200 names of
killed
civilians. Is
the difference
just the
region in
which the
killing
took place?
Watch this
site.
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