Thread by @HillelNeuer

On this day 11 years ago, April 17, 2009, the ambassador of Qaddafi's Libya was all smiles as Chair of the U.N.’s Durban II World Conference on Racism. But she went into shock when we brought a famous victim of Libyan torture to take the floor & call out her own country’s racism.

The Libyan Chair of the UN session was Najjat Al-Hajjaji. She finally took a point of order from...Libya. Her colleague said the victim, Ashraf El Hagog, was not speaking on the correct agenda item. She used the objection as an excuse to cut him off. MORE:

Here's what happened.

The U.N. human rights council had chosen Qaddafi's Libya to head the planning & main committees of the U.N.'s 2009 Durban II Racism Conference, notwithstanding the obscenity of naming an egregious human rights violator to chair a human rights conference.

Representing Qaddafi was Libya's Najjat Al-Hajjaji. The U.N. said she had experience: in 2003, she served as Chair of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

So on April 17, 2009, opening the Durban II Racism Conference, she began in great spirits.

She had no idea what was to come.

The New Republic was there, and reported:

“Amidst the anti-Israel rants from all the usual NGOs, Libyan ambassador Najjat Al-Hajjaji (who was chairing the meeting) gave the floor to UN Watch…”

“But sitting in their chair was not Hillel Neuer, the group’s executive director and usual mouthpiece, but Ashraf El Hagog, the Palestinian doctor who was falsely accused and sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV (along with 5 Bulgarian nurses).”

“El Hagog and the nurses were held in Libya on death row for nine years, mistreated and tortured, until their release was negotiated by France last year.”

“Madame Chairman,” El Hagog began, staring steely eyed at the Libyan ambassador. “I dont know if you recognize me. I am the Palestinian medical intern who was scapegoated by your country, Libya, in the HIV case in the Benghazi hospital, together with the five Bulgarian nurses.”

Al-Hajjaji immediately started banging her gavel. “Stop… stop…. I ask you to stop,” she yelled, first looking miffed, then exasperated.

“You are, you are not addressing the agenda item… I will allow you to resume only if you address the agenda item we are discussing.”

"The room immediately fell silent.

El Hagog, being coached by Neuer sitting next to him, tried to introduce some amendments to the statement “based on my own suffering,” and was again interrupted by Al-Hajjaji banging her gavel."

But he continued recounting the story of his torture, then said, “All of this, which lasted for nearly a decade, was for only one reason: because the Libyan government was looking to scapegoat foreigners. Madame Chair, if that is not discrimination, then what is?”

"After listing the amendments, he concluded: “Madame Chair, Libya told this conference that it practices no inequality or discrimination. But then how do you account for what was done to me, to my colleagues, and to my family…?”

"At this point, Hajjaji recognized a point of order from … the Libyan delegation, who said that El Hagog was not speaking on the correct agenda item. Hajjaji used the objection as an excuse to move on to the next speaker."
—@zvikakrieger, then @newrepublic

See also Swiss TV: