Since the end of the Cold War, the humanitarian focus and political jockeying within the United Nations have actually become more entwined, and the UN’s ability to be a peacemaker declined. Europeans are more willing to go their own way, whatever that is, particularly having little usable military capacity or will. Russia and China exert their new mercantile diplomacy with little regard to human rights, and block those who do have such principles. The agglomeration of satraps that make up most of the rest of the members usually follow oil-money and resenting anything civilized.
To which, the Associated Press reports,
U.N. standards for selecting peacekeepers are too low, and soldiers from countries whose armies are suspected of abuse should not be considered for peacekeeping duty, the U.N.'s chief anti-torture investigator said.
U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak also told the Austrian news magazine Profil in an interview for Monday's editions that the United Nations should reconsider forming its own professional standing army.
Concerns about the quality, training and ethics of peacekeepers are growing as developing nations with questionable human-rights records increasingly send troops for international peacekeeping operations, Nowak said….
U.N. officials have said that more than 300 members of U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world have been investigated for sexual exploitation and abuse over the past three years in nations including Congo, Cambodia and Haiti.
The UN’s budget for “peacekeeping” operations has ballooned to over $5-billion this year, over 25% from the U.S., with little to show for it. Correction: The national providers of troops collect payments from the UN that are profitable.
The UN peacekeepers certainly need to clean up their act.
But, what good is a UN “professional standing army” without the will of members to go where needed, like Darfur, or with the influence of the Arab states' caucus and their UN allies to only recognize Israel as a malefactor.
Bruce Kesler
(crossposted at Democracy-Project.com)
Bruce:
ReplyDeleteThis continuation of serious problems with the United Nations has but one simple solution: Abolish it. I am very sure that somewhere out there, there exsists people with the knowledge and experience to come up with a far better plan than the this "UN" fiasco. The membership itself should at least ring a few warning bells in the brain-pan. But then again??????
Some time ago I put up a post looking to see what I could do on the search engine of my choice with the following two words: UN scandal.
ReplyDeleteThe result 20 links in 20 minutes with the briefest of oversight on each. From 'Blue Helmet Babies' and DNA tests to selling of the historical world stamp collection to Oil For Food to shredding evidence... why the problem is not *finding* the problems with the UN. The organization has zero credibility and, with the insanity of letting Hezbollah built right next door to their compound in Lebanon, has actually made things worse.
Time to leave this international organization. And, perhaps, charge it with the parking tickets from all of those who work there....
The UN needs to be abolished.
ReplyDelete"United Nations “Peacekeeper” forces...
ReplyDeleteHmmm, shouldn't that be young_piece_raper instead?
Then again, should we be suprised?
The UN PeaceKeepers are a wholly owned subsidiary of the corrupt UN which Claudia Rosett has been chronicaling reporting on for quite sometime now...