At
UN,
Only Brazil,
Canada &
Slovakia Raise
Egypt, Bolivia
on
Spying, Robot
Terror
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 19 --
With over 50
speakers in
the UN
Security
Council Monday
on the
"Protection of
Civilians,"
less than
a week after
hundreds of
unarmed
civilians were
killed in
Egypt, how
many countries
would raise
it?
Only
three, it
seems. When
Egypt's
Permanent
Representative
Mootaz
Ahmadein
Khalil, who on
August 15 told
Inner City
Press of the UN's
Jeffrey
Feltman's trip,
spoke past 5
pm he
criticized "three
delegations"
for raising
Egypt in their
speeches.
(Inner City
Press is putting
his prepared
speech, which
did not
specify the
number of delegations,
online here.)
One
of these,
Canada, did so
to focus on
"unconscionable
attacks on
Coptic
Orthodox and
Anglican
churches and
on Baptist and
Franciscan
institutions,"
through its
Permanent
Representative
Guillermo
Rishchynski.
Another,
Slovakia,
mentioned it
-- but was
confused with
Slovenia by
more than
one other
delegation.
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Regina Dunlop
of Brazil,
expert in
Responsibility
While
Protecting,
said that "the
escalation
of-violence
against
civilians
demonstrating
in Egypt is a
source of
grave
concern... We
call for
dialogue and
conciliation
so that the
legitimate
aspirations of
the Egyptian
people for
freedom,
democracy
and prosperity
be achieved
without
violence, with
respect for
human
rights and
with the full
return of the
democratic
order."
It
was not Brazil
that brought
up the UK's
nine-hour
detention of
Brazilian
citizen David
Miranda,
partner of
Guardian
journalist
Glenn
Greenwald
-- it was
Bolivia's
Permanent
Representative
Sacha Llorenti
who did.
But the UK did
not offer any
right of reply
at the end:
this was left
to Israel,
disagreeing
with Navil
Pillay about
Gaza,
and then
Syria, which
cited the
occupied
Golan.
Namibia
expressed
its opposition
to the use of
robots to
protect
civilians.
The
philosophical
stand-off or
loophole was
captured by
Turkey, which
argued that
counter-terrorism
is not "armed
conflict."
But
who gets to
define it?
Egypt says,
emblazoned on
its state TV,
that
it is fighting
terrorism, as
does Syria
pointing at Al
Nusra and
ISIS. Sri
Lanka said it
did what it
did in the
north as
counter-terrorism.
The Democratic
Republic of
Congo called
the M23
rebels
terrorists.
This is the
UN. Watch this
site.
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