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And once again the UN has failed ‘we the people’

By Taya Fabijanic - posted Thursday, 27 July 2006


Since the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militia on July 12 it has taken over a fortnight for Lebanon, in its tourist peak, to be reduced to a humanitarian crisis.

During this time the United Nations has given Israel open authority to bombard a country with indiscriminate aggression towards Lebanese civilians.

If those Lebanese people are really protected under the Charter of the United Nations, and in particular under Article 2 of the Charter, they or indeed any of us in “we the people” - the United Nations’ motto - could put trust in the UN Security Council to resolve any breach to the peace of a sovereign state.

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But the unencumbered exchange of bombing between Israel and what we assume to be Hezbollah militia has led to some horrifying consequences: the mass displacement of over 750,000 Lebanese civilians within and across Lebanon’s borders, and the loss of over 380 Lebanese and 17 Israeli civilian lives.

The context of the failure started on June 28, when Israel retaliated against the Palestinian kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, in an extraordinary fashion.

For the following month Israel detained elected members of the Palestinian cabinet, invaded northern Gaza, bombed the Palestinian Interior Ministry and killed scores of Palestinian civilians. According to UN envoy John Dugard, “over 1,500 rounds of artillery showered on Gaza”.

Russia condemned Israel’s actions, while requesting the release of Israeli soldiers. China remained silent on the issue. Two other permanent members of the UN Security Council, France and the US, blocked a draft UN Resolution condemning Israel’s military attack in Gaza.

One month ahead, during the July 16-19 G8 Summit in St Petersburg, four of the permanent members of the Security Council - the United Kingdom, United States, France, and Russia - met with Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

On July 17 United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan suggested that perhaps the 2,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) should be boosted with further peacekeepers so the Lebanese Government could gain control of the Hezbollah-dominated south and “sort out the question of the disarmament of the militia”.

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However he gave no indication as to whether the other Security Council permanent members would pass a resolution to bolster a multilateral peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

During the G8 Summit John Bolton, American Ambassador to the UN, discouraged talk of a multilateral force or of a cease-fire.

Mr Bolton asked how a “democratically elected state”, meaning Israel, could have a ceasefire with a “gang of terrorists”, meaning Hezbollah. Mr Bolton further questioned the ability of the UN to disarm the source of Hezbollah, Iran and Syria.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice elaborated further saying a ceasefire would enable terrorists to cause further Israeli and Arab civilian casualties.

The G8 Summit ended while Israel was five days into its war with Lebanon. By then Israel bombed the Beirut Airport, several major roads throughout Lebanon, telecommunication towers and indiscriminately attacked civilian areas.

A few days later, Mr Annan went so far as to demand an immediate end to Israel using “indiscriminate and disproportionate violence” in its attack of civilian targets in Lebanon.

Eight days of bombing in Lebanon and an opportunity to meet with four Security Council members during the G8 summit prepared the UN to only issue such a statement.

It became clear on that day that the Security Council failed to reach common ground on securing Lebanon’s peace.

And so these UNIFIL peacekeepers who continue operating through the 1978 Resolutions 425 and 426 to prevent and resolve conflict in Lebanon, keep doing so as a stagnant 28-year-old interim force contained within a 19 kilometre security zone along the south Lebanese border.

Their powers, restricted to observing acts of aggression more than keeping the peace, indicates the impotency of the UN to effectively uphold its Charter in maintaining peace and security in the world.

Unsurprisingly on July 21, as part of the long-term agenda for general United Nations reform, UN members reached a broad consensus on the need for genuine change to the Security Council structure and powers.

UNIFIL continues to watch the disaster unfold around them from their base in Tyre, in the Mediterranean towns of Ras Naqoura and Alma Al Shaab, all along the southern Mediterranean Lebanese coast, and in the southeast town of Marwahin.

On the other side of Lebanon, in Beirut, Abdeh, Hermel and the eastern city of Baalbeck, there is no power within their 1978 mandate for the UN peacekeepers to even witness, let alone curb, the destruction caused by Israeli bombing.

The recent attack by the Israeli Defence Force on a UN peacekeeper post near the Lebanese town of Khiyam was yet another unfortunate and shocking reminder that the UN is no longer a neutral regulator of peace in the region.

Israel currently hovers in Southern Lebanon, playing dare with Syria by stating its intention to move northeast up the Litani River, further threatening Syria’s capital, Damascus.

Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is considering a NATO-led multilateral force constituting of European Union members to eradicate Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and to contain threats to Israel’s own peace and security.

By conceding to Germany and France’s request for a multilateral presence in Lebanon, Israel gives the appearance of welcoming international intervention.

But in co-operating with NATO rather than UN forces, Israel sidelines the interests of UN-member nations like Syria or Iran, while appeasing Germany, France, the United States and the United Kingdom, four major NATO powers and three being permanent members of the UN Security Council.

And in negotiating this solution to the Israel-Lebanon crisis, Israel and the United States have exploited a slow eight-day response by the Secretary-General and inadequacies within the Security Council structure.

The result is that the UN has failed to contain the violence in Lebanon and it continues not to contain peace and security in the region. By way of missed opportunities, the United Nations has failed “we the people”, including the neighbours of Lebanon, to secure an escalating international humanitarian and political crisis.

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About the Author

Taya Fabijanic is a freelance journalist. She recently completed a Masters paper on the media representation of nation building in Afghanistan.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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