United Nations and its failures – Last Part (3)

Saturday, November 26th, 2011 7:41:54 by Momina Khan

United Nations and its failures – Last Part (3)

As we were taking about the failures of the United Nations in the previous issue, I explained that there were more horrors to come in the 1990’s.

In the 1990’s, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, economic sanctions were applied, until March 1991, to pressure them to leave. After that, the sanctions took on a new purpose: to get Iraq to comply with the cease fire terms embodied in
the UN Resolution 687, which included the elimination of its weapons of mass destruction and recognizing the sovereignty of Kuwait.

However, at various stages throughout the sanctions, it was often said by U.S. officials that the sanctions would not be lifted until the Saddam Hussein regime had gone. For years, people from grassroots activists to top United
Nations officials had strongly opposed the sanctions because of their effects on ordinary Iraqi citizens, but to no avail. Eventually the UN sanctions killed about one million Iraqis, half of them which were children!

Then in the post-9/11 era, the UN was again abused by the United States to invade Iraq. Another million Iraqis died and 4 million children were orphaned by this war which came as a result of Washington deliberately misinterpreting
UN resolutions as authorizing the use of force. What’s more, the US got the UN Security Council to pass a resolution legitimising the US occupation.

Then take NATO’s military action against Libya. The two UN resolutions — 1970 and 1973 — were passed to protect civilians but what happened was a clear case of intervention aimed at regime change.

There is no mechanism in the UN system to warn or check the actions of those who blatantly misuse UN resolutions to wage wars. At present, NATO warplanes help Libya’s new rulers to maintain a siege on pro-Gaddafi civilians in several
regions.

Should one speak more about the UN when an international panel in 2000 accused it of virtually doing nothing to stop the massacre of Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda in 1994? The carnage, during which some half a million Tutsis were butchered,
went on for 90 days, enough time for the UN to intervene and stop it.

The UN also stands accused for its role in the Srebrenica massacre in the Bosnian war and sex crimes in Haiti.

With so many skeletons in its cupboard, foremost on the agenda as the UN annual sessions are being held should be reforms. Attempts at making the UN more democratic, however, have fallen by the wayside with the veto-wielding powers
— the US, Russia, Britain, France and China — jealously guarding their clout at the Security Council.

As a result, the UN remains undemocratic to the core, allowing imperialist forces to manipulate the UN system to achieve their narrow political ends.

In my opinion maybe the UN is just as involved as the big daddy; United States of America.

Views expressed here are the writer’s own and in no way represent newspakistan.pk’s official editorial policy!

Tags: Bosnian, Britain, China, France, Haiti, Hutus, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, NATO, Russia, Rwanda, Saddam Hussein, Srebrenica, Tutsis, UN Security Council, United Nations, US

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