国际英语新闻：Five new Security Council members elected

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly voted on Thursday Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria to serve as five non-permanent members of the Security Council for a two-year term beginning on Jan. 1, 2010.

In an uncontested election rarely seen in recent years, each of the five countries won over 180 votes to pass the threshold defined by a two-thirds majority of the 192-nation body.

    This is the first time since 2004 that there has been an election to the Security Council with absolutely no contested seats.

    The five new non-permanent members were elected according to the following pattern: three from Africa and Asia, one from Eastern Europe, and one from Latin America and the Caribbean.

    Nigeria and Gabon were endorsed by the African Union as the two candidates for the African seats.

    Lebanon is the sole Asian Group candidate and won regional endorsement in 2008. Lebanon, which was a founding member of the UN, was last on the Council in 1953-1954.

    Bosnia and Herzegovina, the candidate for the Eastern European seat, has never been on the Council, although as part of Yugoslavia it was previously represented on the Council for four times.

    Brazil, the candidate for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (GRULAC) seat, was endorsed by the group in February 2009.

    They will fill seats to be vacated by Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya and Vietnam, whose terms terminate at the end of 2009.

    Meanwhile, Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda will continue to serve as elected Council members during 2010, for the second year of their respective terms.

    COMPLEX ISSUES

    As Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lebanon try to fulfill their duties at the UN's elite body in the coming two years, they may sometimes find themselves in a unique situation -- themselves becoming issues for discussion on the Council's formal agenda.

    Following the break-up of former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina was involved in a bitter armed conflict that took place between 1992 and 1995.

    "For several years, from 1992 to 1995 we were almost the daily subject, and although, some 15 years after the war, we are still one of the topics at the UN Security Council," Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj told UN reporters after his country's election.

    "Bearing in mind our painful experience, when the crisis is knocking on the door, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Security Council will not hesitate: We are going to be a strong voice of preventive diplomacy," he said.

    For many years, Lebanon has also stayed on the Security Council's agenda, with issues ranging from the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force overseeing a ceasefire with neighboring Israel, to the investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafki Hariri.

    According to the UN Charter, when the Council meets to decide on issues relating to international peace and security, a possible procedural matter could come up should they directly involve certain Council members.

    Under such circumstances, members directly involved in an issue, as required by the Charter, should abstain so as to avoid the risks of conflicts of interest.