http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/16/africa/nations.php
Libya and Vietnam elected to UN Security Council By Warren Hoge Tuesday, October 16, 2007 UNITED NATIONS, New York: Libya and Vietnam, countries once shunned by the West, were elected overwhelmingly Tuesday to two-year terms on the United Nations Security Council beginning Jan. 1. Also named to the powerful panel in secret balloting of the 192-member General Assembly were Burkina Faso, Costa Rica and Croatia. Burkina Faso, Libya and Vietnam all ran unopposed to represent their regions and won on the first ballot. Costa Rica and Croatia succeeded after competitors for the Latin American and European seats - the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic - withdrew. That action was greeted by sustained applause after a second, indecisive ballot gave Costa Rica 119 votes to 70 for the Dominican Republic and put Croatia ahead of the Czech Republic by 106 votes to 81. Countries must get a two-thirds majority of those voting to win places on the council. On the first ballot, Libya was elected with 178 votes, Vietnam with 183 and Burkina Faso with 185. In the formal balloting after the two withdrawals, Costa Rica scored 179 votes and Croatia had 184. The 15-member Security Council is action central at the United Nations, with the power to adopt binding resolutions, impose sanctions and send peacekeeping missions around the world. Competition for membership is intense and campaigning goes on in overseas capitals and UN corridors for months before the voting. The council has five veto-bearing permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and 10 nonpermanent members who serve for two-year periods. Each year, five countries leave the council to be replaced by five others from the same regions. Departing at the end of this year are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia while those elected last year, Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa, will remain on the panel for a second year. Libya served on the council once before, in 1976 to 1977, but the United States actively and successfully opposed its effort to join in 1995 and 2003. At the time, Tripoli was under UN sanctions stemming from its role in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. The U.S. acceptance of Libya's candidacy this year furthered a pattern by which the Libyan leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi, has sought to gain international respectability by abandoning a weapons of mass destruction program, promising to help fight international terrorism and becoming a mediator in his volatile region. The United Nations lifted its sanctions against Tripoli in 2003 and the United States resumed full diplomatic relations in 2004. Groups of family members of victims of the Pan Am crash have protested Washington's decision not to oppose Libya. In a statement Tuesday, one of the groups, Justice for Pan Am 103, said that it was "horrified" by the U.S. inaction. Vietnam and Croatia will be council members for the first time. Burkina Faso, has been a member once before, in 1984, the year it changed its name from Upper Volta, and 1985. Costa Rica has sat on the council twice before, in 1974-75 and again in 1997-98. One of the likely causes of the unaccustomed outburst of applause that greeted the two withdrawals was relief at the cooperative spirit of the outcome. Last year's balloting lasted three weeks because of the heated contest between Guatemala, backed vigorously by the United States, and Venezuela, whose leader, Hugo Chávez, wanted the seat to give a higher international profile to his anti-American campaign. After 47 ballots failed to produce a winner, both countries withdrew and Panama was elected as a compromise candidate.
