Libya peace initiative blocked

This video from Greece says about itself:

Demonstration against Libya War and new measures in Greece

In the international Book Exhibition in Thessaloniki there was a book presentation by the “war minister” Venizelos talking about democracy…. Of course this could not be accepted by people.

By Tom Mellen:

West blocks Libya peace resolution

Thursday 16 June 2011

Western countries blocked a United Nations resolution on Wednesday that demanded “a complete end to violence and all attacks against and abuses of civilians” in Libya.

The resolution was drafted by the African Union, whose ad hoc committee on Libya – consisting of ministers from South Africa, Mali, Mauritiania, Uganda and the Republic of Congo – pleaded for “an immediate humanitarian pause in fighting” in the closed-door meeting.

The draft noted that a ceasefire would allow aid groups to see to the “pressing needs of the populations affected.”

The AU insisted that the pause “should be followed by a political process, in particular by starting with an inclusive and consensual transition.”

The process “must be conducted and owned by the Libyan people, involving mututal concessions in a dialogue without predetermined conditions,” the committee said.

After the US and its allies on the security council blocked the draft, South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane expressed disappointment that AU peace efforts have been repeatedly ignored.

She said that “all forms of military intervention and bombing must stop now.”

Ugandan minister Ruhakana Rugunda told the security council that Nato’s military intervention in the oil-rich African state was “a return to colonialism.”

He said that it “is wrong to characterise every violence as genocide or imminent genocide so as to use it as a pretext for the undermining of the sovereignty of states.

“Sovereignty has been a tool of emancipation of the peoples of Africa who are beginning to chart transformational paths after centuries of predation by the slave trade, colonialism and neocolonialism,” he said.

Mr Rugunda warned that “careless assaults on the sovereignty of African countries are tantamount to inflicting fresh wounds on the destiny of the African peoples.”

Britain’s ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said later that that “a ceasefire with Gadaffi in place would not be credible” and that Nato will keep bombing until Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi “stops killing his own people.”

Warplanes continued to strike Tripoli today. It was not clear what was hit or how many casualties there were.

Members of Congress sued US President Barack Obama on Wednesday over his decision to drag the country into the conflict in Libya without congressional authorisation: here.

As the theatre of conflict unfolds across the whole of the Middle East and north Africa it is clear that Saudi Arabia is becoming the most active economic and military power – and the one closest to the thinking of Nato and both the Obama and western European governments: here.