By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 10 -- When
two suicide
vehicle bombs
killed more
than 50
people in
Damascus this
morning, the
day after a
bomb went off
near a
convoy of UN
observers
injuring at
least a half
dozen Syrian
soldiers, a
fast UN
Security
Council press
statement was
expected.
On
their way into
the Council
for a
previously
scheduled open
debate on
terrorism,
Portugal's
Ambassador
Cabral said
nothing had
yet been
circulated.
Germany's
Ambassador
Peter Wittig
while
condemning the
Damascus bombs
said that
Assad's
"failure to
comply" had
"fueled"
this.
Inner
City Press
asked Russia's
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
about this
moments later;
Churkin
stopped and
pulled out a
piece of paper
and read the
Council's
boilerplate
language about
all acts of
terrorism
being
criminal and
unjustifiable.
He told Inner
City Press he
would
circulate a
draft press
statement with
this language.
While
the open
debate lurched
on, with
speeches by
Israel and
Syria, Armenia
and the
Council's
President for
May
Azerbaijan, a
silence
procedure was
opened on
Russia's draft
statement.
While
at least
one delegation
-- Pakistan --
proposed
changes,
apparently
Germany
did not.
Because as
soon as the
open debate
was over,
right after he
replied to
Armenia's
charges about
Nagorno
Karabakh, the
Azerbaijani
Ambassador
came and read
out the press
statement,
with the "all
acts of
terrorism are
criminal and
unjustifiable"
language in
place.
(Another
on again,
off again
phrase about
complying with
human rights
law while
combating
terrorism was
also in.)
Inner
City Press
understands
that Pakistan
proposed that
the statement
be expanded to
include the
May 9 bombing
near the
UNSMIS
observers, but
that others
opposed the
inclusion,
saying it is
not clear if
the UN
observers
were targeted.
Pakistan
countered,
what does it
matter? But
they did
not break
silence, in
order to allow
this fast
Council
reaction.
Meanwhile
Syrian
Ambassador
Bashar
Ja'afari told
the Council
that he has a
list of 12
terrorists
killed in
Syria,
including one
each from
France,
Belgium
and the UK. He
chided the
UN's Lebanon
mission,
UNIFIL, for
doing
nothing to
stop a ship of
weapons coming
from Libya to
fighters in
Syria.
Afterward
Inner
City Press
asked Ja'afari
what he meant
about UNIFIL's
inaction.
"UNIFIL is
only to
protect
Israel,"
Ja'afari said.
He said
the other dead
foreign
fighters were
from Tunisia,
Libya and
Algeria.
Of
the 26
previously
mentioned (by
Ja'afari)
terrorists
captured
alive,
Ja'afari told
Inner City
Press they are
from Libya,
Tunisia,
Jordan
and Palestine.
Inner City
Press asked
the
Azerbaijani
president of
the Council if
this list, and
the brandished
CD, has been
turned in
to the
Council.
"I
didn't see
it yet," he
replied.
Earlier, on
his own issue,
he told the
Council he'd
submitted a
letter
yesterday to
Ban Ki-moon
about
Armenia's
"bloody
terrorism" and
"propaganda."
Armenia's
Ambassador
stopped and
told Inner
City Press
that
Azerbaijan is
"not ready for
an open
debate."
Israel's
Ambassador Ron
Prosor spoke
of "draining
the swamps of
hate,"
and of plots
in Bangkok and
Baku. And so
it goes at the
UN.
