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After US Bombing in
Afghanistan, At UN Russia Puts Out Draft
Condemnation
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, August 26 -- Russia
has introduced a draft press statement for the Security Council to
"deplore" the August 22 bombing of civilians in Afghanistan by the
U.S.-led
Operation Enduring Freedom.
Inner City
Press has obtained the draft and puts it online here.
Prior to the conflict in
Georgia and South Ossetia, there had been numerous other "collateral
damage" incidents in Afghanistan and Iraq, but Russia did not put
forward
in the Security Council documents which would condemn them. But as Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told
the Press last week, when asked about Russia's previous acceptance of
reference
to Georgia's territorial integrity in Security Council resolutions,
"That
was then, this is now."
So too with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's
decision to now
recognize the declarations of independence of South Ossetia and
Georgia.
President George W. Bush urged Medvedev not to recognize the
declarations. As
many have pointed out, the U.S. was urged by Serbia nad Russia not to
recognize
Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence earlier this year. What
was
that again, about Kosovo not being a precedent?
Russia's Churkin and US' Khalilzad -- that was then
The Russian draft statement on Afghanistan, attached, is
indicative of
the new mood in the Security Council, the heightened tension between
Russia and
the U.S. (and secondarily with France and the UK). Good luck on Iran
sanctions,
one wag at the Council stakeout said.
But now a wider range of issues on the Council's
agenda may be impacted.
The draft "underlines
the need for the OEF coalition, the [ISAF] as well as all parties in
Afghanistan to comply fully with their obligations... killing and
maiming of civilians is a flagrant violation."
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia),
this, on
Russia-Georgia,
and
this --
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