Xolisa Mabhongo, South Africa’s deputy ambassador to the UN in New York, made clear that his government would stick to its neutral position on the war in Ukraine, implicitly refusing to identify Russia as the aggressor.
South Africa on Thursday once again abstained in a United Nations vote on the war in Ukraine, this time on a resolution in the General Assembly to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council because of its alleged atrocities against civilians in Ukraine.
The resolution passed with 93 votes in favour, 58 abstentions and 24 votes against.
It was prompted by reports and photos from Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, of hundreds of civilians found dead in the streets and in mass graves after the withdrawal of Russian forces.
Several of the civilians appear to have been executed in cold blood, shot in their heads while their hands were tied together.
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Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, urged countries to support the resolution. The UN reported him as saying: “Bucha and dozens of other Ukrainian cities and villages, where thousands of peaceful residents have been killed, tortured,…
