How very poignantly appropriate that a cruel dictator of several decades- who is drawing nigh to his own end of selfish rule- is shown playing a game of chess; a game that always has an end one way or another; a game at which the player who is facing a much more adept adversary can only most realistically expect defeat, while striving and hoping for at least a draw. Mr. Dictator Gadhafi: You are nearing the end of your game, and you have already foolishly forfeited the opportunity to force a draw. Do you care so little for you fellow citizens that they possess no more worth to you than the chess pieces on a chess board? I personally and honestly must presume that you do not.

If Medvedev thinks this this event was supposed to be part of an effort of "Russian diplomats to help mediate Gadhafi's departure," then either Ilyumzhinov didn't get the message or Medvedev's private goals are the complete opposite of his public goals. Ilyumzhinov, the former autocrat, said in an interview with the Echo of Moscow radio station: "it really is true that it's nonsense when people demand he [Gadaffi] goes. He's not the president, not a minister, not the speaker of parliament. He's simply the leader." Giving further aid and comfort to Gadhafi, Ilyumzhinov also offered this perverse and disgusting remark: "the world doesn't hear and doesn't want to hear the voice of the Libyan people."

Open Letter to Russian Foreign Minister from a Syrian friend* New York City, 12 June 2011 Dear and Highly Esteemed Sergey Viktorovich, You and I had worked together in the past for the successful outcome of visits by UN Secretaries-General (both Boutros Ghali and Kofi Annan) to Moscow– you in your capacity as Russian Permanent Representative to the UN and I as Director of the UN Information Center, representing the Organization in Moscow. And I, along with many Syrians, have applauded your pro-Palestinian work at the Security Council and later as Foreign Minister. I remember telling you, half seriously, following one of your blazing statements at the Council that "you are now a national hero of the Arabs." I can hardly say the same now. For the news today, again, is that on Saturday (11 June), your representatives have "boycotted" a Security Council consultation on Syria. I painfully watch as, every time you open your mouth, the Syrian regime feels more emboldened. Every time you say something about Syria more Syrians are killed and tortured. Why? In the eighties, I mentioned the massacre in Hama, my home-town, to the late Ambassador Oleg Troyanovsky, the then Soviet Permanent Representative to the UN. He opined at the time that the situation was undoubtedly exaggerated– for it was "unthinkable" that such things would happen in the last quarter of the twentieth century! Was it convenient ignorance or perhaps simple Soviet pragmatism? We now know better. And the Russian people and you know better. We know that in Hama, in 1982, some 40,000 Syrians were slaughtered by the regime of President Assad, the father. We know that he had active Soviet support in his suppression of the Syrian people. That was in the Soviet past. But today, the Russian people, and you, could not have missed the horrifying pictures of Hamza, the 13 year old boy tortured to death by the regime. You could not have missed the chants, "freedom, freedom", of the heroic bare-breasted Syrians braving regime tanks in Dara'a, Banyas, Duma, Homs, Hama, Tal-kalakh and elsewhere in Syria. They are only demanding basic human dignity in their own country. So what are you waiting for? A Rwanda-style massacre? A recurrence of Hama-82? Well, the "unthinkable" may be happening again: We're already witnessing mass graves in Dara'a and helicopter gunships (probably Russian-made) raiding peaceful demonstrators in Ma'ara. The 1,400 death toll figure circulating today can not be but the tip of an emerging iceberg. That is why the regime reviles international media coverage and blocks UN investigators. That is why President Assad, the son, can not even take calls from the UN Secretary-General. All that while the Russians are effectively foiling a Security Council minimal resolution that does not call to attention but the gravity of the situation. Neither the Council, nor the Syrian People, would call for intervention. The resolution's basic demand is only to stop the killing. The possibility of a Libyan-style intervention, which seems to be a Russian preoccupation, is not even implied. I appeal to you, Mr. Lavrov, to tear down that cold-war wall, re-erected in the Security Council. The Syrian people are not asking you to aide them in their struggle. All they want from their Russian "friends" today is to stay silent: Abstain and allow the Security Council to condemn one of the worst atrocities of this century, committed by one of the last Soviet-style party regimes in the World. Is that too much for the Syrians, historically the friends of the Russian people, to ask? I think not. For the Russian revolution that swept away the Soviet past has reached us now: We are claiming the same rights and freedoms that you had claimed in the nineties. What the Syrian people are urging you to do is to stand on the side of history. For the Syrian regime will fall. Do it, Sergey Viktorovich, out of pragmatism, if not out of the lofty ideals of the Russian people that we love and respect. The Syrian regime will fall, and sooner than later. But the Syrian blood, shed today with Russian acquiescence will NOT be recovered. Nor it will be forgotten. Rather, it will stay unforgivable and haunting. Yours respectfully, Samir Shishakli * Until his recent retirement, the writer was the most senior Syrian staff member at the UN, having worked for the UN Secretariat (not for Syria) under four Secretaries-General since 1979. He resides in New York City. This letter is written in a personal capacity. (samirshishakli@gmail.com)