The UN General Assembly yesterday suspended Libya from the UN Human Rights Council over leader Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal crackdown on opposition protests.

The 192-member assembly passed a suspension resolution by consensus, without a vote, after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the body to “act decisively” against Col Gaddafi.

The Human Rights Council in Geneva had called for the suspension which needed a two-thirds majority at the General Assembly to be passed.

Nobody spoke up for the Libyan regime at the brief debate, though Venezuela called upon all countries to “put a stop to the invasion plans against Libya” which ambassador Jorge Valero said the United States was leading.

US ambassador Susan Rice called the Venezuelan comments a “willful and ugly distortion”.

Rice called the General Assembly action “a harsh rebuke but one which the Libyan leaders have brought down upon themselves,” reaffirming US calls for Col Gaddafi to “go.”

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