UNITED NATIONS – In its first substantive action on Syria’s five-month-old uprising, the UN Security Council yesterday censured human rights violations and use of force against civilians by Syrian authorities.
In a rare but not unprecedented move, Syria’s neighbour Lebanon, where Damascus’s influence is strong, disassociated itself from a formal statement agreed by the other 14 members of the council.
A Lebanese envoy said the Western-drafted statement would not help the situation. Statements are meant to be unanimous, meaning Lebanon could have blocked it, but by simply disassociating itself Beirut allowed the statement to pass.
The statement, read out to a council meeting by Indian ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, this month’s president of the body, “condemns widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities”.
The document, agreed after three days of hard bargaining instead of a full council resolution that the West would have preferred, also urges Damascus to fully respect human rights and comply with its obligations under international law.
The council called for “an immediate end to all violence and urges all sides to act with utmost restraint, and to refrain from reprisals, including attacks against state institutions”.
That phrase was a gesture to Russia and other countries that had called for a balanced statement that would apportion to both sides blame for the violence in the uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
A resolution on Syria drafted by west European countries had been languishing in the assembly for two months, blocked by opposition from Russia, China and several nonaligned countries.
The Europeans resurrected it this week, galvanised by weekend violence in the Syrian city of Hama in which more than 80 people died.
Russia and its supporters eventually agreed to assembly action but insisted it be just a statement, which carries less clout than a resolution, diplomats said. – (Reuters)