Malaysia urges more protection of civilians in conflict areas

Malaysia on Wednesday urged greater emphasis and focus on reporting and monitoring the protection of civilians, particularly in Palestine and Syria. The reporting and monitoring must be based on established benchmark and key performance indicators which could be reported to the Security Council on a regular basis, (BERNAMA) news agency quoted Malaysia's permanent representative to the United Nations Hussein Haniff as saying. Referring to the situation in Palestine, Hussein said it was amongst the worst attacks on innocent civilians by Israel which is proven to have violated Article 4 of the Geneva Convention and the humanitarian as well as human rights laws.  "It has been reported that generally 84 per cent of casualties from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas were civilians," he said in his speech at the Debate on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict at the United Nations Security Council in New York, yesterday.