On Saturday 26th February the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose an arms embargo on Libya and freeze the assets of Muammar Gaddafi and other leaders.
The resolution is largely symbolic and is too little & too late to actually assist the demonstrators fighting for their lives in Tripoli as they are mowd down by Gaddafi forces armed with weapons provided for years by many of those same members of the Security Council i.e. Britain, France, Russia, et al
The lazy British & US
"lamestream' media has been almost as conspicuously silent on this gratuitous hypocrisy
as the guilty arms-sellers themselves. It seems it is perfectly OK to sell
weapons to a psychotic dictator for decades as long as he imprisons, tortures,
& murders his own people in private rather than in front of the rest of the
world's media. It may also salve consciences if that same thug provides regular
oil supplies and transfers most of his personal wealth to places like London, Paris, & New York.
The Council also imposed a travel
ban on Gaddafi which means we are unlikely to see him taking tea in London with his good
friend, ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. This will be a blow for hypocrite
watchers everywhere who have been waiting for a repeat performance of when another
former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, entertained Chilean thug
& ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet back in 1999.
The Security Council also directed the Libyan authorities to "cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court in its investigations of the situation in Libya since 15 February 2011 --. (which) are clear cut violations of all norms governing international behavior and serious transgressions of international human rights and humanitarian law'?
Again, you have to wonder what has changed so suddenly, apart from the fact that Gaddafi's thugs now kill and crush all opposition openly rather than in the more diplomatically acceptable style of secret arrests, covert prisons, silent torture, hidden murders, and unmarked graves. The hypocrisy is sick-making and should be a warning to the world that the United Nations is an organization well past its use by date which needs tooth and branch reform if it ever to make any honest impact on the world of human rights.
Many of the world's leaders and ex-leaders such as Tony Blair must be hoping that Gaddafi actually makes a final stand & is killed in the revolution. The last thing they want is an arrest & public trial in the International Criminal Court where all sorts of highly embarrassing information could come out. Details of secret arms deals, hidden bank accounts & oil deals, backhanders, and other favors provided etc. Not forgetting the most controversial & highly suspect release of Pan Am plane bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi.
