Syria resists calls to end bid for UN rights body

* Arab League, Asian states endorsed Syria's candidacy
* U.S., Europe urge Kuwait, others to oppose Syria

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 (Reuters) - Syria, accused of massive human rights abuses, is resisting pressure from many U.N. delegations to withdraw from the race for a spot on the top U.N. human rights body, Western diplomats said on Monday.

Syria is one of four candidates vying for the same number of spots on the 47-nation Human Rights Council in the Asian category, along with India, Indonesia and the Philippines. The four have been endorsed by Asia's U.N. voting group and the Arab League.

But Syria's violent crackdown against pro-government protesters has prompted some U.N. members to suggest that it has no business being on the rights body when it is facing accusations of gross violations, Western envoys say.

"It is not really the time for Syria to become a member of the council of human rights," French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch urged the U.N. General Assembly, which holds its annual election for the council on May 20, to strongly reject Syria's candidacy.

"Syria's candidacy is an affront to all those facing its brutal repression, and to human rights supporters everywhere, and should be decisively rejected," Peggy Hicks, the group's global advocacy director, said in a statement.

Neither the Asia group nor the Arab League has moved to officially withdraw their endorsement of Syria. Asian, Arab and Western delegations, however, have been quietly urging Syria to withdraw from the race, diplomats told Reuters.

But Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters on Monday that Damascus had not changed its plans to run for a seat on the U.N. rights body.

U.S. ANGER

The United States and its European allies have been encouraging other Arab and Asian nations to run against Syria, diplomats said. Several have expressed interest but none has officially agreed to enter the race against Syria.

Last year, the United States and its European allies encouraged East Timor to run against Iran when it was included on the Asian group's list of endorsed candidates for the board of a new U.N. women's agency. In the end, Iran was the only candidate on the Asian list that failed to secure a seat.

Among the possible counter-candidates to Syria are Kuwait, Mongolia and Nepal. The Arab League, Western diplomats say, is worried that it could lose a seat on the council to an Asian country if Syria fails to secure the support of a majority of the 192 General Assembly members during next week's vote.

But the Arab states would like Syria to voluntarily back out and do not want to force it to do so, diplomats said.

The United States under President George W. Bush had shunned the rights council as a tool of anti-Israeli forces at the United Nations. But two years ago, President Barack Obama reversed that policy, saying the United States could improve the rights council from within. It ran for and secured a seat.

But U.N. diplomats say that Washington and other Western powers might have to consider boycotting the council if Syria was elected to it.

U.S. officials say privately that Washington is incensed that Syria's candidacy for the commission has progressed this far, and say stopping it will be crucial for the future viability of the council itself.

U.S. and European officials complain that the Arab League, which supported the recent suspension of Libya's membership in the Human Rights Council over its brutal crackdown on protesters, has not taken as strong a stance against Syria.

"If Syria gets elected to the Human Rights Council, things will be very complicated," a diplomat said. "Let's just hope that Syria will realize that now's not a good time and will decide to postpone its candidacy for a year or two." (Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington; editing by Eric Beech)

Source: Alertnet.
Link: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/syria-resists-calls-to-end-bid-for-un-rights-body.