By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 21 -- During the last of Security Council kabuki theater about Gaza and the Congo, the issue of Syria has largely fallen off the UN's map.
On Wednesday alongside statements on Gaza and ceasefires, the Syrian Mission to the UN filed another letter with the Council, this time naming 143 "Foreign and Arab individuals who were killed in Syria while carrying out terrorist activities."
Inner City Press has previously obtained and published Syria letters, for example of 108 who'd been killed.
But Syria's November 21 list contains more nationalities, including "Qatari, Saudi, Tunisian, Egyptians, Sudanese, Libyans, Afghani, Jordanians, Turks, Yememis, Iraqi, Azerbaijani, Chechnya, Kuwaitis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Algerians, Chadian and Pakistani."
Chechnya, of course, is not a country. Among the names on Syria's list are Nihat Sagdic, M. Ollaz Kuvdish and Kalbind Dovca.
Meanwhile some point out that the French-requested resolution on the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo casts an ever stranger light on that country's and others approach to Syria.
If it is wrong for other countries in a region to fund or equip rebels in another -- as Rwanda and Uganda are alleged to have helped the M23 -- what of the assistance to Syrian rebels?
The answer might well be a comparison of Syria's Bashar al Assad and DRC's Joseph Kabila. But this still admits that there is no principle at work: it is simply a political decision, of liking one rebel group and disliking another. We'll have more on this.
