Post date: Feb 25, 2011 11:29:26 PM
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urges the Security Council to act quickly on a proposed package of U.N. sanctions aimed at forcing Libyan leaders to end their violent crackdown in the country. After the open meeting of the council, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations is brought to tears.
UNITED NATIONS (FEBRUARY 25, 2011) UNTV - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday (February 25) urged the Security Council to act quickly on a proposed package of U.N. sanctions aimed at forcing Libyan leaders to end their violent crackdown in the country.
"It is time for the Security Council to consider concrete action," Ban told the 15-nation council. "The hours and thedays ahead will be decisive for Libyans."
Chronicling the violence of the past days, Ban told the Security Council: "There have been continuing reports of violence and the indiscriminate use of force. Estimates indicate that more than 1,000 people have been killed. The eastern part of the country is reported to be under the control of opposition elements who have taken over arms and ammunitions from weapon depot. There are daily clashes in at least three cities near Tripoli. The streets of the capital are largely deserted. People cannot leave their houses for fear of being shot by government forces or militias. Colonel Gaddafi's supporters are reportedly conducting house-by-house searches and arrests. According to some reports they have even gone into hospitals to kill wounded opponents. Today clashes have broken out again with high casualties reported. In their public statement, Colonel Gaddafi and members of his family continue to threaten citizens with civil war an possibility of mass killing if the protests continue. There are other allegations of the killing of soldiers who refuse to fire upon their countrymen. Let us speak frankly: these accounts from the press, from human rights groups and from civilians on the ground raise grave concerns about the nature and scale of the conflict."
"It is time for the Security Council to consider concrete action. The hours and the days ahead will be decisive for Libyans and their country with equally important implications for the wider region," he added.
Libya's ambassador to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Shalgham, who over the weekend did not sign onto a statement opposing Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, changed tune during his statement to the Security Council.
Libyan Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi and most other diplomats at Libya's U.N. mission announced on
Monday (February 21) they were no longer working for the Gaddafi government and represented the country's people.
But Shalgham did not sign onto the anti-Gaddafi statement.
Shalgham's change in tone on Friday brought Dabbashi to tears and saw the Libyan diplomats exchange embraces at the end of the session.
"Today I listen to him (Gaddafi) telling his people: 'Either I rule over you or I kill you, I destroy you. Don't be afraid. Libya is united. Libya will remain united. Libya will be a progressive state.' But I tell my brother Gaddafi: 'Leave the Libyans alone,'" Shalgham told the council.
After the meeting he briefed reporters and added: "What's important for us, for the Libyan people (is) that the Security Council should have now real decision to stop what's going on in our country, the bloodshed, firing on the innocent civilians and I hope that within hours, not days, that they can do something tangible, effective, to stop what they are doing there, Gaddafi and his sons, against our people, our innocent, unarmed people."
He predicted a future change across the Middle East, saying: "When Gaddafi will flee, or I don't know what will happen, all the Arab world will move quickly for freedom and we had slogans for Arab unity by the tyrants, no, now the people will do it. Now all the Arab world from the ocean, Morocco to the Gulf and Bahrain, supporting Libya, all of them in the streets supporting Libya, all of them and after tomorrow, when we finish what's going on in Libya and Libya will be free, it will start in another country and within one year you will have another Arab world."
Shortly after Shalgham's press briefing, Security Council members told reporters that a draft resolution would be further discussed on Saturday (February 26).
The text, drafted by France and Britain and circulated to other members of the U.N. Security Council on Friday, calls for an arms embargo against Libya as well as travel bans and asset freezes for the country's top leaders.
The six-page draft, which was obtained by Reuters, says that "the widespread and systematic attacks currently taking
place in Libya against the civilian population may amount to crimes against humanity."
A vote on the draft resolution, which will be amended during closed-door negotiations, could happen as early as Saturday.