Libya gets security council seat
Colonel Muammar Gadafy 's Libya wins seat on UN security council
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Wednesday, 17, Oct 2007 11:54
Libya has banished its reputation as a western pariah by claiming a seat on the UN security council.
The north African country, led by Colonel Muammar Gadafy, won a place on the influential body along with Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia and Vietnam.
The five countries will begin their two-year non-permanent terms in the security council in the new year when the memberships of Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia expire.
Over the last two decades the US has twice blocked Tripoli's accession to the UN's highest body, with the country only being removed from Washington's list of state sponsors of terror last year.
Families of the victims of the Pan Am flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 - for which Libya admitted civil responsibility - had supported the US' stance.
But in a reversal of cold war attitudes, the US made no moves to prevent either Libya or Vietnam from being elected to the security council by the UN general assembly.
From 2008 onwards the security council's newest non-permanent members will join Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa in determining whether to impose sanctions or to deploy peacekeepers to troubled world spots.
Although non-permanent members do not possess the veto of China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - the council's mainstays - they can block motions if they have the support of six or more members.