By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, December 23 -- When Russia circulated a draft press statement on Friday about the bombings in Damascus, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the press that it omitted two words from the "standard" Security Council condemnation of terrorist attacks, that should make it palatable to even the most anti-Assad members.
Sure enough, when the approved Council press statement was emailed out past 5 pm on Friday, it expressed "deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the victims of these heinous acts and to their families, and to the people of Syria" -- but NOT the Government of Syria.
This differs from other recent statements, which for example expressed condolences to "the people and Government of India" (Delhi bombing, September 2011), to "the people and Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria" (Abuja bombing, August 2011) and to "to the people and Government of Morocco" (Marrakesh bombing, April 2011).
It's worth noting that each of those three are ongoing, outgoing or incoming Security Council members; Syria is not.
Also in the Syria press statement, unlike recent press statements on India and Russia, is the sentence reminding "States that they must ensure that measures taken to combat terrorism comply with all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law."
(Click here for Inner City Press' modified story on omission of human rights in the Council's August 2011 India statement.)
