Russia Blasts UN Rights Council Resolution on Syria, Defends Arms Sales

Russia and China continue to obstruct and criticize international attempts to address the situation in Syria. On Friday, Russian diplomats criticized a UN Human Rights Council resolution on Syria as an open appeal to military intervention.

The UN rights body resolution passed by a 37-4 margin, with China, Russia, Cuba and Ecuador voting against and six other countries abstaining. Russia’s envoy at the Geneva based body said the resolution was a one sided, politicized attempt to exacerbate the conflict. 

“We are particularly concerned at a number of provisions in the draft which could be interpreted as an open appeal to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs allowing for military actions including military intervention.” Ambassador Valery Loschinin told Council members after the vote.

Loschinin argued the resolution placed full blame on the Syrian government, while ignoring serious crimes carried out by armed anti-government protesters.

But UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay warned that failure to stop the Assad government’s “ruthless repression” could drive Syria into full out civil war. 

“The international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people.”she told Rights Council members. 

On Monday, a UNHRC mandated investigation concluded Syrian security forces had committed crimes against humanity against the country’s civilian population since anti-government protests broke out back in March. The report says the scale and patterns of attack indicates Assad government officials authorized or had knowledge of security force operations. 

Pillay says over 4 000 people have been killed since March, and more than 14 000 remain detained for their alleged role in the uprising. 

The UN rights chief also renewed her earlier calls for the Security Council to refer the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court. 

But Russia’s Ambassador says his country does not consider the Assad government’s actions to be war crimes. 

 “We believe that there are no basis for calling Damascus’s activities crimes against humanity . In any event, this goes beyond the mandate of the Council.” 

 Loschinin said the Council mandated report on Syria was flawed, mainly because investigators weren’t allowed into the country to verify the situation first hand and instead had to rely on witness testimonies. 

In a statement this afternoon, American Ambassador Susan Rice welcomed the resolution  as part of the “ever expanding chorus of condemnation of the Asad regime’s brutality.”

 Rice said she was pleased all seven of the Rights Council’s Arab members had supported the resolution and that the Obama administration would continue to lead efforts to assist the Syrian people.

However it seems unlikely those efforts will result in Security Council sanctions Syrian opposition groups and Western governments have been calling for.

In October, Russia vetoed a European and US backed Security Council resolution on Syria, arguing Western powers would use it to justify military intervention.  

At the time, US Ambassador Susan Rice said the argument about preventing military intervention was:”a cheap ruse by those who would rather sell arms to the Syrian regime than stand with the Syrian people.”

Last week, the League of Arab States announced it had suspend Syrian from the organization and imposed its own set of sanctions against the Assad government.

In a press conference today marking Russia’s Presidency of the Security Council for the month of December, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his government believes the Arab League’s recent actions are counter-productive. 

 “Its very disconcerting that it may damage the opportunity for the Arab League to play a mediating role and a pacifying role in the Syrian situation.”

Churkin also defended Russia’s weapons sales to Syria, arguing that Russia was a minor player in the international arms market compared to some other states and that all transactions were “guided by international norms, rules and laws.” 

“With Syria in particular we have arrangements which would not allow those weapons to be used by those who are not suppose to have them.” Churkin said. “You look at the region and you see reports that this particular country has signed for 120 billion dollars! Lets see things in perspective. If you go ahead and supply 120 Billion dollars of weapons to the region, why should you be worrying  about somebody supplying a few million dollars worth of military hardware?”

UN Rights Chief: Egyptian Army Making Things Worse

The Egyptian military’s crackdown on demonstrators is further destabilizing the country ahead of its landmark election scheduled for next week, says the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. 

In a statement today, the UN rights chief called on Egypt’s military leaders to stop operations against demonstrators and conduct an impartial investigation into the violence that has left at least 30 people dead and injured thousands more over the past five days.

“The actions of the military and security forces, instead of improving security and helping Egypt’s difficult transition to democracy, have once again simply served to inflame the situation, resulting in huge numbers of people taking to the streets to demand their rights. The more they see fellow protestors being carted away in ambulances, the more determined and energized they become.” Pillay said in the statement. 

Pillay says Egyptian protesters have good reason to be angry at the country’s military leaders, who have been slow, and in many cases failed, to implement reform measures they had promised. 

“The lifting of the state of emergency, the implementation of an effective monitoring system during the elections, the full eradication of torture and ill-treatment, the adoption of a comprehensive approach to transitional justice and a comprehensive reform of the security sectors, are among the key future steps identified by the fact-finding mission I dispatched back in April,” she said.

Rights group Amnesty International released a report yesterday detailing actions taken by Egypt’s military leaders, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, since taking over from deposed President Hosni Mubarak’s government in February.

In its report, “Broken Promises: Egypt’s Military Rulers Erode Human Rights”, Amnesty says SCAF has maintained many of the Mubarak regime’s policies and ignored promises to lift the country’s 30 year old emergency law, instead expanding its reach to cover even more potential offenses.

Amnesty International also says the Supreme Council of Armed Forces has continued using arbitrary arrests and torture as a means of intimidating its critics, even hiring groups of “thugs” to attack protesters.

“The Egyptian military cannot keep using security as an excuse to keep to the same old practices that we saw under President Mubarak,” Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa  Philip Luther Director said in a statement posted on the group’s website. “If there is to be an effective transition to the new Egypt that protesters have been demanding, the SCAF must release their grip on freedom of expression, association and assembly, lift the state of emergency and stop trying civilians in military courts.”

UN Rights Chief Says Gov. Perry Dropped Ball On Texas Execution

The State of Texas violated American human right commitments and international law by carrying out the execution of Humberto Leal Garcia, says the United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay.

Garcia, 38, was executed by lethal injection Thursday, hours after the Supreme Court rejected a stay of execution request from the White House. 

The Obama administration had voiced concern over the possible international repercussions of such a decision and had hoped delaying the execution would allow Congress to enact new legislation introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy last month,protecting foreign nationals right to consular access and notification.

“What the State of Texas has done in this case is imputable in law to the US and engages the United States’ international responsibility. I am very disappointed that neither the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles nor the Governor took steps open to them to prevent this breach of the US obligations under international law from occurring.” Pilay said in a statement released earlier today. 

Garcia was sentenced to death by a Texas court in1998 for the murder and rape of a 16 year old girl in San Antonio four years earlier. 

But UN rights officials maintain his trial did not comply with international due process rights because Garcia, a foreign national who had been living illegally in the US for years, should have been informed of his right to seek assistance from his consulate after the arrest. 

A 2004 decision by the International Court of Justice found that by failing to inform of his right to seek assistance from his consulate, state of Texas officials ignored Article 36 of the Vienna convention on Consular relations. 

“Today’s execution will undermine the role of the International Court of Justice, and its ramifications are likely to spread far beyond Texas” warned the UN Human Rights Chief.