Beijing/Moscow: China and Russia have expressed serious concern over civilian causalities in airstrikes of allied forces and called for an immediate ceasefire in Libya.
“China noticed reports of civilian casualties from the multinational military action against Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi forces and is very concerned with this,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a news briefing.
He said China was one of five countries that abstained from last week’s vote on the UN resolution to allow “all necessary measures” to stop Libyan leader Gadhafi. It was approved with the backing of the United States, France and Britain.
“We urge (the sides) to do everything to end the violence,” Russia Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates after closed-door talks with him. He added that Moscow believed that Libyan civilians had been killed in the Western air strikes.
Both the countries, along with India, Brazil, and South Africa, abstained from last week’s UN Security Council vote approving international military involvement in Libya, which aims to protect civilians against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.
China is opposed to “abuse of force causing more civilian casualties”.
According to reports from Libya over 100 Libyans have been killed and more than 500 wounded by the missiles and bombs fired by the foreign forces over the weekend.
The majority of Libya’s civil airports and seaports were destroyed.
“The UN resolution on no-fly zone over Libya aimed to protect civilians. We oppose abuse of force causing more civilian casualties and more serious humanitarian disasters,” said Jiang.
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