The UN Human Rights Council resolution on the Houla massacre in Syria goes beyond its mandate and contradicts the UN Security Council’s May 27 statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
The Houla massacre on May 25-26, when over 100 people, including dozens of children and women, were killed in a cluster of villages in Syria’s western Homs province, triggered worldwide condemnation.
At its emergency session on May 27, the UN Security Council condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the massacre of civilians. On June 1, on the initiative of western nations, the UN Human Rights Council convened for a special session to condemn solely the Syrian government for the tragedy.
“The text of the UN Human Rights Council resolution goes beyond its mandate and actually runs counter to the UN Security Council Statement of May 27,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The attempts by some countries to name the culprits without waiting for the findings of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) regarding the Houla events and therefore exert pressure on the UN Security Council, and also exploit the tragedy in their own interests and foil the implementation of the plan of the UN and LAS special envoy Kofi Annan, cause very serious concerns,” the statement said.
“Our country speaks against involving the UN Human Rights Council for ‘triggering’ a use-of-force scenario in Syria,” the statement said.
The final resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council denounced “solely the (Syrian) government” for the massacre.
“Russia, and also China and Cuba, voted against this resolution because the text of this document “is imbalanced, biased and contains a number of one-sided assessments.”