Russia said on Sunday that the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on the Houla massacre in Syria went beyond its mandate and contradicted the U.N. Security Council's May 27 statement.
"The text of the U.N. Human Rights Council resolution goes beyond its mandate and actually runs counter to the U.N. Security Council Statement of May 27," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"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 U.N. Security Council, and also exploit the tragedy in their own interests and foil the implementation of the plan of the U.N. and special envoy Kofi Annan, cause very serious concerns," the statement said and added "our country speaks against involving the U.N. Human Rights Council for 'triggering' a use-of-force scenario in Syria."
The final resolution adopted by the UNHRC 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," Russia's state media quoted the statement as saying.
Over 100 people, many of them women and children, were killed in a cluster of villages in Syria's western Homs province on May 25-26. The massacre had triggered worldwide condemnation resulting in the expulsion of Syrian envoys from several countries.
At its emergency session on May 27, the U.N. Security Council condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the massacre of civilians. On June 1, on the initiative of Western nations, the UNHRC convened for a special session to condemn solely the Syrian government for the tragedy, the report said.
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