UN body's half-baked half-mast gesture

WHERE are Team America when you need them?

They should have parachuted into Geneva this week and raised the flags at the UN's Human Rights Council where they were flying at half-mast to honour the dead dictator Kim Jong-il.

Then they could have gate-crashed his funeral procession and sent the coffin with the Dear Leader's corpse into a sun-seeking trajectory, the world united cheering as Kim did his bit for global warming.

Trust the UN to honour and respect vile dictators and ignore the human suffering they cause. The human rights group UN Watch called on the UN to show equal sympathy for the victims of Kim's ruthless regime.

"We understand that the UN follows diplomatic protocol, but the world body must not forget that its founding purpose is to defend basic human rights, and sadly that message is at serious risk of being blurred," said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director.

"Today should be a time for the UN to show solidarity with the victims - the millions of North Koreans brutalised by Kim's merciless policies of starvation, torture and oppression - and not with the perpetrator."

Astonishingly, a majority in the general assembly approved a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights record on December 19, just before Kim's death was announced, with 123 countries in favour, 16 against. There were 51 abstentions, while three countries were absent.

The resolution expressed the assembly's "very serious concern at the persistence of continuing reports of systematic, widespread and grave violations of civil, political, economic and social and cultural rights".

Supporting North Korea's murderous regime in opposition to the condemnation were Algeria, Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Myanmar, Oman, Russian Federation, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

There is no indication the anointed heir will be any less ruthless than his father. The world should mourn for the North Koreans who face ongoing oppression under the dynastic dictatorship.

Source:The Telegraph.com.au