Russia has stepped up demands for Nato to account for civilian deaths from the air strike campaign which led to the downfall of Libyan strongman Muammer Gaddafi.
The campaign by Britain, France, the United States and their allies has severely divided the UN Security Council with Nato’s opponents blaming the strikes for the failure to condemn Syria’s clampdown on demonstrators. Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said he would speak to the UN Security Council this week about estimates given to The New York Times saying Nato air attacks this year had killed between 40 and 70 civilians in Libya. Mr Churkin also criticised UN leader Ban Ki-moon for supporting the strikes by the United States, Britain, France and its allies against Gaddafi targets after the strongman’s clampdown on opposition protests.
“We hope that NATO is going to revisit this entire problem, is going to investigate this matter,” Mr Churkin told reporters.
“Unfortunately NATO adopted a pure propaganda stand claiming zero civilian casualties in Libya which was completely implausible first of all and secondly not true,” said the envoy.
“Justice for all” “Equal justice for all” – seems to be a long way off.
So far “justice” seems to apply only to loosers of any conflict.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111221/opinion/The-year-of-the-Arab-Spring.399352