In the Al Jazeera live blog on Libya I looked at the comments and one of the commentors mentioned that we should bring in the UN to stop the carnage of Gadaffi using automatic weapons and rockets on his own people as well as employing out-of-country mercenaries to do his dirty work.
So I went over to the UN web site for the middle east and I can see that they are up on the situation; what is on their “breaking news” section except headlines chiding Israel and talking about Gaza and Palestine, a situation that they have done nothing to solve over the last 60+ years.
Why don’t they call out Gaddafi for his murderous activity? Where are the frenzied resolutions? Where is the outrage? Nowhere, I guess, since of course Gaddafi is one of the types of anti-Western media-friendly yet murderous and thug-like regimes that they adore.
I guess all the resolutions and outrage only apply to Israel; they just sweep the dirty news about their favorites under the rug.
Buh buh but, I thought Guhdaffy got his position on the UN human rights comission because he was such a kind ruler.
The irony is Libya was the first country to acquire “freedom” under the UN’s mandate following WWII (1952, I think) and the British agreeing to permit Libyan “freedom.” The Brit action was a reward to then King Idris of the Senussi clan for his help defeating the Italians and Germans. Idris was deposed on Sept 1, 1969 in a strange coupe by Gadaffi, the pro Idris forces were to take over Libya while the King was in Greece, the young Colonels led by Gaddaffi accerated the timing of their coup and took over the country, Gadaffi was 27 at the time. A revolutionary council was formed by the 7 coup leaders to rule the country – the night sky around Tripoli filled with tracers as the military fired into the air celebrating the announcement of the revoluntary council. I think Gadaffi executed several of the original council and some fled. Idris was a pretty good, fair ruler, for that part of the world.
Carl from Chicago is misinformed. The UN has in fact “called out” the Libyan dictatorship vociferously for its violence against peaceful protesters. Here’s the information, from reliable sources:
From the Washington Post / Associated Press, Februay 18th: “UN rights chief condemns Libya, Bahrain crackdowns”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/18/AR2011021803224.html:
See also the conservative news blog “Rise of the Right for further confirmation:
http://www.riseoftheright.com/2011/02/un-rights-chief-condemns-libya-bahrain-crackdowns/
I was misinformed? Did I “spoof” the page from the UN site on the middle east where they couldn’t be bothered to take down their anti-Israel vitrol for one minute in order to call out Gaddafi for massacring unarmed civilians?
The point isn’t that SOMEONE who is SOMEWHERE within the UN doesn’t think that it is bad for Gaddafi to massacre unarmed protestors with heavy weapons; the point is that as an organization they view this as a minor dust-up in comparison, to, say that stupid ship from Turkey that Israel took over. They aren’t trying to convene specific meetings or calling on the UN to take decisive action.
And they aren’t apologizing for putting Gaddafi on their human rights panel, either.
The point is – they are not treating this as an important event because it does not meet their “axiom” for an important event which is something against the West or Israel. Everything else is treated as an “internal matter”.
Anonymous,
A single individual speaking out means nothing. The “Human Rights Chief” has no legal authority to officially declare a human right violation. What we’re looking for is the incredible speed in which the UN manages to produce a formal, voted on declaration against Israel.
That isn’t going to happen to until after Gadaffi is out the door or universally recognized as hopelessly headed in that direction.