Volgograd
Bomb
Condemned by
UNSC Without
Citing Human
Rights; CAR
Silence
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 29 --
The UN
Security
Council
quickly issued
a
press
statement on
December
condemning the
suicide
bombing in the
Russian city
of Volgograd
earlier in the
day.
The Council is
able to
circulate and
approve such
statements
quickly
because,
members say,
there is a
standardized
statement
including that
"any acts of
terrorism are
criminal and
unjustifiable,
regardless of
their
motivation,
wherever,
whenever and
by whomsoever
committed."
But
as Inner City
Press reported
in 2011
and remains
the case now,
the
terrorism
statements are
NOT standard.
Earlier
this
week, the
Council press
statement on
the bombing in
Beirut that
killed among
others the
former finance
minister
Mohammed
Chatah
cited
the need for
Lebanon's
fight against
terrorism to
comply with
human
rights:
"The
members
of the
Security
Council
reaffirmed the
need to combat
by all
means, in
accordance
with the
Charter of the
United Nations
and all
obligations
under
international
law, in
particular
international
human rights,
refugee and
humanitarian
law, threats
to
international
peace and
security
caused by
terrorist
acts."
The
invocation of
human rights
is in the
statements the
Security
Council
has directed
in 2013 at Libya
(May 13),
Somalia
(July 29),
Kenya
(September 21),
Mali
(December 14)e and Yemen
(December 5),
for example,
but was not
included in
2011 with
respect to
then-Council
member India.
Some
say the
proponents of
this phrase in
the Council
only direct it
at
less powerful
countries.
Countries like
the US and
Russia as
recently
of the October
suicide
bombing in
Volgograd can
simply say, we
don't
want a
statement.
There
is also the
matter of
which Council
member does
the initial
draft of
a statement.
On that, Inner
City Press has
for days
asked, with at
least eight
African MISCA
peacekeepers
killed in the
Central
African
Republic in
recent days,
why has no
Security
Council press
statement
been drafted
by France,
which is both
President of
the Council
for
December and
has the pen in
its former
colony CAR?
Watch this
site.
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