We condemned Khadafy for terrorism; why not Putin?
Muammar Khadafy and Vladimir Putin are two of the worst tyrants of the modern age, and both have been the subject of international efforts to stop their bad behavior.
The similarities between the two men are stunning.
Both Khadafy and Putin have been fingered for destroying civilian aircraft in flight. Khadafy was sanctioned, while Putin might never be, reflecting the unfortunate reality that not all nations are equal before the law.
Khadafy was responsible for the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 259 people, as well as destroying UTA Flight 772 over the Sahara Desert, killing 169 innocents.
Putin is responsible for the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, which exploded over eastern Ukraine when a Russian-made Buk missile hit it, killing 283 passengers, including 80 children.
Both Libya and Russia rejected the findings of criminal investigations into these acts of terror, calling them biased and politically motivated.
It’s crucial to compare how the UN Security Council reacted in each of these cases — and why it took action against Libya but has failed to similarly punish Putin.
In Khadafy’s case, three years after the bombings, the Security Council, acting on the information gathered by the FBI and the Scottish territorial police force, adopted two resolutions unanimously: Resolution 731, condemning Libya for not accepting responsibility for the attacks; and Resolution 748, the first of its kind, imposing economic sanctions on a member state for acts of terror.
As president of the Security Council during this time, I had the responsibility to consult on and negotiate the terms and scope of Resolution 748 with different UN blocs, in particular with the Arab and African Groups.
The information provided to the president and Security Council members by the sponsors of the resolution was not sufficiently factual, making the negotiation process difficult. The alleged facts were largely accepted by the Council members in an act of good faith and trust towards the sponsors of the resolution.
Because of the lack of precedent for a terrorism case being brought to the Security Council, I requested the advice of the International Court of Justice on the course we were about to take.
A few days after the Council had already voted, the ICJ issued its ruling unanimously: The Security Council resolution had precedent over any other international agreement, reinforcing its authority and legitimacy.
There is no comparison at all between the disputed information we had to proceed with in the Libyan case and what is now available regarding Russia’s role in the downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight thanks to the 15-month investigation led by the Dutch and including representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine.
This criminal investigation concluded that there is no doubt that a surface-to-air missile — specifically a Buk missile system launched from the eastern part of Ukraine from territory held by pro-Moscow separatists — downed MH17. They are also sure that the missile launch vehicle was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation, and was returned to Russian Federation territory the day after the attack.
In light of this report, the same procedure followed in Libya’s case should be applied to the Russian Federation by the Security Council
:
First, the Security Council should instruct the UN secretary general to request a response from the Russian Federation addressing the grave conclusions reached by the Joint Investigation Team. Russia must effectively contribute to the elimination of international terrorism and cooperate to establish responsibility for the terrorist act.
Such a request is even more important now that the Russian Air Force is conducting war crimes in the continued bombings of hospitals and civilians in Aleppo, war crimes that have prompted Germany’s government to consider economic sanctions against Russia as a way to quell the Syria conflict.
We must hold Putin to the same standard to which we held Khadafy, and punish Russian terrorism just as we punished Libyan terrorism.
If we do not, Putin’s list of crimes will only continue to grow.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/diego-arria-condemned-khadafy-terrorism-not-putin-article-1.2840299