Thursday’s overwhelming vote in the UN General Assembly (137-12 with 17 abstentions) to condemn the Syrian regime for its brutal repression of anti-government protests and to support a plan for Bashar al-Assad to step down as president is of course only symbolic. And many of the countries which voted for the resolution are very far from pure themselves.
But it’s worth putting on the record which countries could not bring themselves to condemn a regime which since March has murdered thousands of its own citizens and committed some of the most horrific crimes imaginable. So here they are:
Voting no: Belarus, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.
Abstaining: Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Cameroon, Comoros, Fiji, Lebanon, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent, Suriname, Tanzania, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vietnam.
And of course Hugo Chavez continues to support his dear friend Assad by sending a cargo of diesel which can be used to fuel the Syrian military in its crackdown on the opposition.
Asked on Thursday about the shipments to Syria and whether they could be used for military purposes, Chavez said Venezuela never asked the United States what it did with the fuel that Venezuela sold it, and that no one could dictate to Caracas.
“We are free. We are a free country,” he said, standing with his friend Sean Penn, the U.S. actor, who is visiting Venezuela.
Come on, Sean. Haven’t you reached your limit yet with this guy? Is there anything he could say or do that would be too much for you?
(Hat tip: DaveM)
Update: In an interview with CNN, citizen journalist “Danny,” now out of Syria, describes what he witnessed in Homs and calls for other countries to intervene, “even the Israelis.”
