Libya, UN Security Council member with a two-year term, assumed the rotating presidency for the month of March.
Let's recall Libya's record on "the maintenance of international peace and security" - the Security Council's raison d'etre.
"On August 16, 2003 Libya formally accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in general language that lacked any expression of remorse for the 270 lives lost when the plane exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland...[T]he letter...represented the first official acknowledgment that the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was involved in the bombing, one of the most notorious acts of terrorism in modern times." (New York Times)
Fox News reported today that Libya's UN Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, in a press conference on the Security Council's work under his guidance, compared Gaza to a concentration camp, accused Israel of genocide and called the possible indictment of the Sudanese President for genocide in Darfur a "western ploy."
In addition to being at the helm of the Security Council this month, Libya will also be assuming the next presidency of the General Assembly, beginning in September 2009 for one year, as AFP reported today. The General Assembly Presidency rotates between geographic regions and the nomination for the upcoming session's leader is in the hands of the African states who deemed Qaddafi and his underlings fit for the job.
On January 21, 2009, Qaddafi wrote an op-ed in the New York Times advocating for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which would signify the end of the Jewish state.
And that is what the UN sees as leadership material.
Posted by Rebecca Tobin
