From Ahmet of Tunisia: "Asad,
it makes you wonder what is afoot in the Syrian conflict, some
highlights from an interesting read :
""The entire weight of the argument in the U.N.’s Resolution 1973 rested on the claim of “heavy civilian casualties”. News comes from the Libyan Ministry of Martyrs and Missing Persons Affairs that the total number of rebels and civilians killed during the conflict of 2011 is 4,700, with 2,100 additional people missing. This number does not include the dead among Gaddafi’s forces (and likely the dead in Gaddafi strongholds, such as Sirte). Miftah Duwadi, the ministry’s Deputy Minister, told Libya Herald on January 7 that this is not yet an “exact figure” but it is what they have for now. It is likely that the final numbers will not be far from these provisional ones.
""The entire weight of the argument in the U.N.’s Resolution 1973 rested on the claim of “heavy civilian casualties”. News comes from the Libyan Ministry of Martyrs and Missing Persons Affairs that the total number of rebels and civilians killed during the conflict of 2011 is 4,700, with 2,100 additional people missing. This number does not include the dead among Gaddafi’s forces (and likely the dead in Gaddafi strongholds, such as Sirte). Miftah Duwadi, the ministry’s Deputy Minister, told Libya Herald on January 7 that this is not yet an “exact figure” but it is what they have for now. It is likely that the final numbers will not be far from these provisional ones.
These findings from the current
Libyan government contradicts, in every aspect, the news reports from Al-Arabiya
and, of course, from the National Transitional Council, whose consistent claim
had been that tens of thousands of civilians had been killed by the Gaddafi
regime in the first month of the uprising. It now appears that this is
not the case, and indeed, the numbers are far below the threshold for genocide.
This is a cautionary note for those who uncritically accept what comes to them
from the media, which have specific interests in the outcome of conflicts. It
also begs the question as to how the U.N. arrives at some of its figures.
The U.N. Human Rights Council also
made claims about genocide and crimes against humanity in February and March
2011. It now turns out that the private firm hired to collect, but not evaluate,
the casualty figures is Benetech, which is funded in part by the U.S. Department
of Defence. Not only does Benetech not critically evaluate the figures that it
touts, but its own interests might not be as plainly scientific as it
claims.
The U.N. had refused to enjoin an
evaluation of the NATO intervention based on reports of civilian casualties from
its bombing raids (as I had noted in “When Protector Turned Killer”, The
Hindu, June 11, 2012). There are no signs that the U.N. will consider an
evaluation of the way in which its R2P doctrine was suborned to create a U.N.
resolution to justify NATO intervention, particularly in light of these new
Libyan numbers."
