Nobel laureate's call to prosecute Saleh

 

Reuters
Sunday 23 October 2011 21:44 BST
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The Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakul Karman has made an impassioned plea at the United Nations to repudiate a plan that would grant immunity to her country's "war criminal" President.

Ms Karman, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with two Liberian women this month, arrived in New York as the five permanent members of the UN Security Council circulated a draft resolution urging the swift "signature and implementation" of the plan under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh would be immune from prosecution.

"The peaceful revolution is against the Gulf Co-operation Council initiative, especially because it gives immunity to Saleh and his family," Ms Karman told reporters at a demonstration near the UN, where she was greeted by a cheering crowd.

"We don't think that the Security Council will be trapped in a resolution that will give immunity to the regime," said Ms 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 would have the council stress "that all those responsible for violence, human rights violations and abuses should be held accountable".

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