ninme

The Times - West suffers historic defeat as China and Russia veto Zimbabwe sanctions

Britain’s diplomatic strategy in Zimbabwe collapsed last night in an historic defeat for the West in the UN Security Council that will have repercussions across Africa and beyond. …

Britain and the United States forced the draft resolution to a vote because they counted on the support of the nine members needed to secure adoption. In a dramatic show of hands, the draft did indeed earn the requisite nine votes to pass, with five against, but was not adopted because of Russia’s and China’s block. South Africa, Vietnam and Libya also voted against, while Indonesia abstained.

Wow, great. Mark Steyn has a favourite line, that if such-and-such “is the right thing to do, it doesn’t become the wrong thing to do because the Chinese guy refuses to raise his hand.” So …bah. So it’s too late to do anything practical, because the election came and went without anyone trying to help, and now the UN option is gone, so it’s basically too late to do anything. I suppose the Zimbabwean cricket team might be excluded from a few matches, but I also suppose people will decide not even to do that, really.