UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly on Friday gave Libya’s UN seat to the National Transitional Council which toppled Moamer Kadhafi.The 193-member assembly voted 114 to 17 to let representatives of the council take over Libya’s UN mission in the face of opposition from left-wing Latin American governments. Some African nations called for a decision to be postponed. (AFP)
UN General Assembly backs TNC as official representative of Libya
The UN Security Council was also prepares a resolution, which once adopted would deploy a mission to support the TNC for an initial period of three months.
Haaretz
The UN General Assembly voted 114-17 on Friday to recognize the Transitional National Council as the official representative of Libya in the United Nations.
The 193-nation assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing the council’s envoys to take over the UN seat of the Muammar Gadhafi regime and to participate in the debates of the 66th session.
There were also 15 countries that abstained, including Saudi Arabia.
The 17 countries that opposed the TNC inclusion included African countries such as South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe and Latin American countries including Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia.
Nicaragua said it objected because the Libyan revolution against the Gadhafi regime was backed by NATO and it was “not a real revolution.”
“Revolution cannot be but authentic, not made by proxy or can never be seized by a cupola of states with clear hegemonic interests,” said the Nicaraguan envoy Maria de Chamorro.
The assembly in April suspended Libya’s membership in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in protest against Gadhafi’s alleged killing of civilian protesters.
The UN Security Council was also preparing a resolution, which once adopted would deploy a mission to support the TNC for an initial period of three months. The mission’s tasks would include post-conflict reconstruction and the restoration of institutions, drafting a new constitution and organizing elections.
