By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 4 -- When the UN Security Council convened on Wednesday morning to consider January's program of work, getting a briefing on Syria and on the violence in South Sudan were on the schedule. But in the closed door session another issue arose: how to "get closure," as one Deputy Permanent Representative put it to Inner City Press," on civilians casualties caused by NATO's bombing in Libya.
After the meeting, Russian Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin called the response of those resisting the assessment of NATO "overblown." He cited a Memorandum of Understanding that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had signed with NATO -- which had been criticized nearly immediately by Russia -- as now providing a way to proceed with an assessment "even before January 25."
On January 3, Inner City Press learned and reported that those Council members interested in assessing NATO planned to ask UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Navi Pillay to address the issue at a January 25 meeting. But now Churkin of Russia says it will be raised, including under the rubric of Ban's MOU with NATO, before then.
As Chinese Permanent Representative Li Baodong told Inner City Press, "this concerns the credibility of the [Security] Council," since NATO was operating under UNSC Resolution 1973. Watch this site.
