India and 14 other members of the UN Security Council have agreed to hold yet another meeting of the powerful body to consider sanctions against the Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya to end the brutal crackdown by forces loyal to him against anti-government protesters.
The UNSC, which met in an emergency session on Libya yesterday, will again hold talks from 9:30 pm IST tonight to discuss a draft resolution aimed at imposing sanctions on the Gaddafi regime.
The Council would consider the draft resolution, "including specific targeted measures aimed at putting an end to violence, helping achieve a peaceful solution to the current crisis, ensuring accountability and respecting the will of the Libyan people," the UNSC President for this month, Brazilian Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, said.
Meanwhile, French ambassador to the UN, Gerard Araud, ruled out the military option to deal with the Libyan situation right now and sought a strong international response to the crisis.
"Military operation is not an option at this stage, very clearly," Araud told reporters outside the UN Security Council. "The continuing brutal and bloody repression against the civilian population is appalling in Libya."
"As noted by the President of the French Republic (Nicolas Sarkozy), we follow these events with horror and compassion. Such use of force (by the Libyan regime) against its own people is shameful," he said.
The international community cannot remain a spectator faced with these massive violations of human rights, he said.
Araud's remarks came after the UN Security Council's emergency meeting yesterday, during which it discussed the draft resolution, introduced by the British Ambassador to the UN Sir Mark Lyall Grant. On sanctions against Libya.
"I was encouraged by the response from other Council members. We now need to move forward with the urgency that the situation demands. We need to act to bring an end to the violence as soon as possible," the British Ambassador said in a statement.
"The seriousness of the situation in Libya requires a strong response from the international community. We have prepared with our British, German and US partners a draft resolution. It has been circulated among the members of the Security Council," he said.
"We have had the first consultations right now on this text and I can say, quoting the Russian Ambassador that we have seen there is a large communality of views among the members of the Security Council," Grant said.
Araud said that "We want a robust text ... Which sends a clear message to the Libyan authorities," hoping that there is unanimity among Security Council members on sanctions.
"As for sanctions, there is absolutely no problem, everybody will agree on it. I can bet there is no problem on arms embargo... I don't see any reason why we wouldn't get a resolution tomorrow," he said last evening.
"As for the sanctions it will be sanctions on targeted assets, and visa ban, all these usual sanctions. We have already a list of people who will be targeted by these sanctions. And of course, at the top of the list, there is the Gaddafi family. But you don't have only the Gaddafi family, you have the main members of the leadership," Araud said adding that the list includes some 20 people.
The options against Libya include economic sanctions, travel bans, asset freezes, establishing a no-fly zone and even referring the country to the International Criminal Court.
"We need a courageous resolution from you," Mohamed Shalgham, the Libyan ambassador to the UN who has turned against Gaddafi, told the Council.
The draft resolution against Libya, which has been prepared by France, Britain, US and Germany, came as UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on the 15-nation body to take "concrete action" against those perpetrating the violence.
"When a State is manifestly failing to protect its population from serious international crimes, the international community has the responsibility to step in and take protective action in a collective, timely and decisive manner," Ban told the Council. "The violence must stop."
"Those responsible for so brutally shedding the blood of innocents must be punished."
On Monday, Ban will travel to Washington to meet President Barack Obama to discuss measures for stopping the violence in Libya.
Navi Pillay, the UN human rights chief, said that some sources indicate that thousands of people may have been killed in Libya.
"The crackdown in Libya of peaceful demonstrations is escalating alarmingly with reported mass killings, arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of protesters," Pillay said in Geneva yesterday.
With thousands of people fleeing Libya, the UN is urging the international community to support Egypt and Tunisia, which are accommodating the refugees. Both the North African nations recently overthrew their leaders.
"We are seeing unprecedented support being offered by ordinary people who are driving to the borders of both countries to offer help," Melissa Fleming, chief of the UN body on refugees, said in Geneva.
