UN Security Council: A toothless lion!
By Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman
January 13, 2008 — Frustrated by its lack of action, the UN was seen as “a toothless lion” at best at present. Many analysts thought the only way it would survive as a body capable of maintaining world peace was to amend its charter. Global Policy Forum (http://www.globalpolicy.org/) which advocates on vital issues of international peace and justice says that from influential member states come sombre warnings that the UN must “reform or die.”
A decade ago the UN failed to protect the Tutsis from being massacred. At the beginning of the Millennium, world is failing its entrance exam to protect people of Darfur by deploying UN operations that can be relevant to the genocide prevention mission including the “preventive deployment” of troops, such as the 1995 deployment of blue-helmeted peacekeepers (mostly American) to contain the spread of war and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and the deployment of “interposition” forces, such as the French and UN troops sent to patrol a buffer zone between Côte d’Ivoire’s warring parties in 2004. Nonetheless, the UN Security Council has succeeded in producing a series of resolutions on Darfur since 2003, including Resolution 1706, passed in August 31st 2006, which specifically connects the responsibility to protect to Darfur — the first time the Security Council invoked the principle in relation to a particular conflict.
The Security Council has also authorized a ban on Sudanese military flights, referred indicted war criminals to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March 2005, and created a pathway for sanctions on certain financial interests of the Sudanese leadership. So far, none of the authorisations of the Resolution 1706 have been implemented due to non-compliance of government of Sudan. The Security Council has passed lots of resolutions, but the government of Sudan ignores them.
On Jan the 8th 2008 Reuters reported that the Sudanese Army soldiers had ambushed UN/AU (UNAMID) peacekeepers’ supply convoy that was taking food and fuel to a UNAMID outpost near the town of Tine close to the western border of Darfur with Chad. One civilian Sudanese driver was left in a critical condition after being shot seven times. UNAMID said in a statement. UNAMID added that a diesel truck and a UNAMID armed personnel carrier were damaged in the attack. Furthermore, Fresh news reported by JEM in Sudanese online Website indicated that on January 8th 2008 Government of Sudan (GOS) distributed arms to Geneina civilians to defend their city. Observers say the international community tries to be flexible, but the government of Sudan takes advantage of that. Adam Ateem, director of peace-building and protection activities for the ecumenical Darfur Emergency Response Operation said that the U.N. force will fail unless it learns a lesson from the African Union’s experience.
The AU/UN Hybrid mission in Darfur (UNAMID), will operate under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which grants them the right to use force to protect civilians. Yet they will have no authority to seize weapons from belligerents, nor is there any provision for sanctioning the Sudanese government if it continues its non-compliances with U.N. Security Council resolutions. The mission lacks critical equipment, such as at least 18 helicopters to move the troops around in the vast Darfur area, and no contributors have offered any. Khartoum, meanwhile, has banned several countries from contributing troops and know-how.
Many disillusioned observers say as the track record of UN on protecting civilians is patchy, The United States and the other permanent UN Security Council (UNSC) members should support a recommendation for the permanent Security Council members to withhold the use of the veto in the case of dire humanitarian need, except when their own vital national security interests are at stake. Such an informal agreement would remove another obstacle to early Security Council action. The resolution 1706 was rendered impotent and after the threat of sanctions was removed and reports of government-backed killing continued. The UN is perceived by many like a toothless lion that only roars loudly in its den.
A human right organisation said “Blaming the Darfur rebels for starting the crisis, as some Western governments are now doing, is like holding the Jews of Warsaw, who rose up against the Nazis, responsible for the Holocaust”!.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]