Russia criticises UN over NATO role in Libya
Geneva, 11 Mar – (ANA) - Russia has criticised U.N. investigators for failing to adequately probe deaths caused by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombs during the uprising against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year.
Independent investigators for the U.N. Human Rights Council last week issued a report saying NATO had caused civilian deaths, but added the organisation had taken "extensive precautions to ensure civilians were not killed".
Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva, a diplomat at the Russian mission to the U.N. in Geneva, said that the report omitted civilian deaths caused by NATO air strikes in July and August last year, including children and Libyan journalists.
"The report should have given an adequate assessment of these acts and the members of the commission should have been more insistent on demanding information from NATO," she said in a meeting on the report's findings.
"In our view, during that (NATO) campaign many violations of the standard of international law and human rights were committed, including the most important right, the right to life," she added.
Russia had criticised the U.N. Security Council-authorised military intervention in Libya which it says should have been limited to protecting civilians and not to helping protestors overthrow Gaddafi.
More recently, Moscow has shown support for long-time ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have cracked down on an uprising inspired by Arab Spring protests in Libya and across the Arab world. (ANA)
FA/ANA/11 March 2012-------