Before
123-13-46
Vote on Syria,
Bulgarian
Chair Cuts Off
Ja'afari,
Sartre at UN
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 19 --
Before the
vote on the Saudi-drafted
Syria
resolution
in the UN's
Third (Human
Rights)
Committee,
Saudi Arabia's
Permanent
Representative
used his
speech to
predict what
his Syrian
counter-part,
Bashar
Ja'afari,
would say.
When
Ja'afari was
called on by
the
Committee's
Bulgarian
chair, he said
that Saudi
Arabia is
interfering in
Syria just as
its Permanent
Representative
is trying to
interfere in
his thoughts.
He spoke of
Saudi Arabia's
human rights
record, and of
the Al Qaeda
bombing of
Iran's embassy
in Beirut --
and then the
chairperson
cut him off.
He
protested that
he had tried
to contact the
chair ten
times without
success,
asking him not
to take sides.
When he was
elected, his
past
as a
translator of
Jean-Paul
Sartre was
played out.
But which of
Sartre's books
did this most
resemble?
In
the run-up to
the vote, Cote
d'Ivoire asked
to speak only
to say that
on
instructions
from the
capital,
Abidjan, Cote
d'Ivoire
should no
longer be
listed as a
co-sponsor of
the
resolution.
(The Rev.
1 of the resolution,
still online
after the
vote, lists
Cote
d'Ivoire.)
Nigeria
said
that the
resolution
does not point
to peace, and
it is against
country-specific
resolutions,
and so would
abstain.
These
abstentions,
though,
weren't
reported when
the result was
called
overwhelming
by the UK's
Permanent
Representative:
123 yes, 13
no.
And
46
abstentions.
By that logic,
leaving out
abstentions,
the vote
in
the Security
Council on the
Africans'
resolution to
defer for a
year
the
International
Criminal
Court's Kenya
proceedings was
yes 7, no
zero:
overwhelming.
Earlier
Tuesday
by the
Security
Council,
Ja'afari asked
Inner City
Press
rhetorically
if the UK
Ambassador had
become a
Syrian, to
speak of
who should
lead the
country. The
UK is
everything,
the response
was,
including Sri Lanka.
As
dusk fell on
Tuesday,
Argentina
which was
among those
abstainers
explained its
"yes" vote on
the Syria
resolution by
pointing out
parts that it
does not agree
with. Upstairs
in the
Security
Council,
speeches
continued
about Kosovo.
Watch this
site.
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