By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 13, updated -- During the Syria resolution meeting of UN Security Council member "experts" on the morning of Friday the 13th, the buzz among higher level diplomats was how many in reality were killed in Tremseh?
A non-Western, non-Permanent Five member of the Security Council told Inner City Press that his country's intelligence service put the number killed at "less than two dozen." He hastened to say this is still "bad," and criticized the Assad government for using heavy weapons.
But the disparity in casualty figures -- 200 to "less than two dozen" -- highlights the differences in the Security Council. It was Syrian Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari who said, on UN TV, that he and "many Syrians" do not believe Al Jazeera. He has added, Saudi-funded Al Arabiya. But who do you believe?
More troubling, the UNSMIS report on the Houla massacre appears to have been buried, at least to some Council members. Inner City Press has asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesmen about it a number of times, and each time they have said that Ban distributed it to the UN's human rights experts to look at before giving to the Security Council. How long can this take?
Some Security Council member accuse the French chief of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous of "sitting on" the Houla report. Ladsous does not speak to the Press -- or media, other than in the most controlled settings -- so his role and even side of the story cannot yet be told.
Update: as the experts level meeting broke up at noon on Friday, experts told Inner City Press that the previously scheduled (all 15) Perm Reps meeting for the afternoon has been changed to "Permanent Five only." Watch this site.
