UN issues

As you’ve probably all heard by now, Libyan Ambassador to the UN Mohammed Shalgham has denounced his former friend Qaddafi as “Pol Pot” and “Hitler,” which is the most definitive end to a friendship I’ve ever seen. Hard to make up after that, though I doubt Qaddafi will be around much longer anyway.

What I really don’t get from the UN are these statements from the French Ambassador:

2240: The BBC’s UN correspondent Barbara Plett tweets: “#UN French ambo waxing lyrical: says Libyan ambo emotional speech “historical moment,” shows [Security Council] must meet its “rendevous with history”.

2243: Another tweet from the BBC’s Barbara Plett at the UN: “#French UN ambo: no chance of military intervention in #Libya; also no talk of a no fly zone: bad memories from Bosnia”

This puzzles me in several ways.

First, if you’re going to make a dramatic speech about the Security Council needing to meet its rendezvous with history, and then rule out military action, in the present case that doesn’t leave much room for a rendezvous with history.

Second, what do the bad memories of Bosnia have to do with a no-fly zone? My understanding of Europe’s bad memories of Bosnia is that it had bad memories of sitting around doing nothing for a very long time, allowing Srebrenica to happen, and so forth.

Third, other than the number of atrocities I don’t really see the parallels between Bosnia and Libya. Bosnia is part of Europe and was being attacked by superior forces and wanted help. Libya is outside Europe, in an area of the world particularly sensitive to European colonialism, and it’s not even clear that the Libyan rebellion wants Western military assistance. In fact, the opposite seems closer to the truth. A no-fly zone enforced by the West doesn’t seem like it would taint the grass-roots Arab authenticity of the rebellion very much, but we’re also several days past the point when it would have been helpful: I haven’t read any reports of aerial attacks since around the middle of the week. Maybe I’m missing some stories, but it now sounds like nothing but bloody street battles. Even Qaddafi probably won’t launch airstrikes on Tripoli itself; his own forces are too mixed in with everyone else there.