Betwa Sharma/PTI / United Nations Oct 16, 2009, 10:50 IST
In a near unanimous election, five countries have joined the UN Security Council to work as new non-permanent members for two years.
Brazil, Nigeria, Gabon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Lebanon will join the UN Security Council as non-permanent members to begin their work on Jan 1, 2010.
"It's going to be an even stronger Security Council next year. We have two large countries in Brazil and Nigeria who carry the weight of being a regional power," UK envoy to the UN, John Sawers told journalists after the results were announced.
"We have two countries in Lebanon and Bosnia who have been through conflict and can bring their own national experiences to the Security Council," he added.
The Council has 15 seats- 5 permanent and 10 non-permanent.
The latter are filled by regional group for a term of two years. The General Assembly elects five of these members each year. To be elected, a country must receive two-thirds majority in the 192-member General Assembly where members vote by secret ballot.
GA President Ali Treki read out the number of votes won--186 for Nigeria, 184 for Gabon, 183 for Bosnia, 182 for Brazil and 180 for Lebanon. Both Lebanon, and Bosnia and Herzegovina have had suffered widespread ethnic and political conflict back home and tensions and divisions are still simmering.
"It is recognition of Bosnia's long path from being a subject of the Security Council scrutiny to become a member of this world body," Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sven Alkalaj said.
The minister stressed the need for "preventive diplomacy" to "never allow the crisis and loss of human life to happen ever again as we experienced in Bosnia".
In the nineties, following the break-up of former Yugoslavia, ethnic conflict within the country claimed 260,000 lives and 1.8 million were displaced.
"We hope that our seat on the Security Council will help us to also promote not only the rule of law but the dialogue of culture and civilization and to help us work for a more just and democratic system," said Nawaf Salam, Lebanon's envoy to the UN.
Meanwhile, Treki has called on the resumption of talks for the expansion of the Security Council's permanent seats, which have been going on for more than a decade but are believed to have gathered momentum in the last year or so.
"We're also working at the same time for Security Council enlargement and reform," Egypt's envoy to the UN, Maged A. Abdelaziz told reporters. "Let's not forget," he said.
Responding to friendly comments that Brazil had won too much, hosting the World Cup in 2014, the Olympics in 2016 and now a chair at the Security Council, the country's envoy to the UN, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti said, "I think they're all very good and positive achievements and we will work to deserve them all".
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