Yemeni Nobel laureate to UN: No immunity for Saleh - AlertNet

Yemeni Nobel laureate to UN: No immunity for Saleh - AlertNet

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"The youth's peaceful revolution is against the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) initiative, especially because it gives immunity to Saleh and his family," Karman told reporters at a demonstration near the United Nations, where she was greeted by a cheering crowd of around 150 Yemeni supporters.

"We don't think that the Security Council will be trapped in a resolution that will give immunity to the regime," said Karman, who dedicated her Nobel prize to the Arab uprisings and to those killed in the upheavals.

While it urges implementation of the GCC deal, the draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, would have the council say it "stresses that all those responsible for violence, human rights violations and abuses should be held accountable." It did not give any details on how accountability would be achieved.

The human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticized the immunity deal that is central to the GCC plan as well.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky also rejected the idea of an amnesty for Yemen, saying: "It's vital that there should be no impunity." A spokesman for the U.N. human rights office in Geneva said international law prohibits amnesties for gross violations of human rights.

'CRIMINALS'

Council diplomats told Reuters that they hoped the draft resolution, which was penned by Britain in consultation with France, the United States, Russia and China, would be put to a vote and approved before the end of the week.

Russia and China, which vetoed a European-drafted resolution condemning Syria's crackdown, are not planning to block the Yemen resolution, council diplomats say.

In Yemen's capital Sanaa, at least six people were killed in the capital on Tuesday in an intensifying crackdown by security forces on protesters demanding an end to Saleh's 33 years in office, witnesses said. That brought the number of people killed to at least 34 over the last four days, along with 100 injured.

Karman read the crowd a letter she has written to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council demanding their support for peaceful protesters in Yemen and Syria, where a government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters has killed over 3,000 civilians, according to U.N. figures.

"We're here calling on the United Nations to stand up for human rights and democracy, which are the principles it was founded upon," she said through interpreters.
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