A Syrian woman, purportedly living in the besieged Syrian city
of Homs, obtained the email distribution list for the political coordinators of
the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council, and fired off an angry letter in response
to China's and Russia's veto of a resolution demanding a halt to the violence.
The writer, who identified herself as Yasmine, addressed
her letter to Russia's U.N. envoy, Vitaly Churkin, saying that while she
had once been one of the Russian envoy's "greater admirers" she had been
horrified by his decision to block council action. She pleaded with the Russian
envoy to help secure the release of a 19-year-old cousin.
"I watch TV and see your hand. You veto Arab country resolution
to save my city," she wrote in the Feb. 13 email, which was sent under the
subject line "help Homs." "Your veto is licence [sic] to kill Syria infants, children, women and elderly."
Russia
has come under intense international criticism for its role in preventing the
U.N. Security Council from acting in Syria. For his part, Churkin has
maintained that his government is actively pursuing a negotiated settlement to
the 11-month long political uprising.
It was impossible to verify the woman's identity. But a Security Council diplomat who
viewed the email, which also went to the Russian mission, said, "it is a reminder, as if we need it in
this era of citizen journalists, that what happens in meeting rooms in New York
can have real and sometimes tragic consequences in far away places like Homs."
Follow me on Twitter @columlynch
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