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Does the United
Nations Have the Capacity to Intervene?
UN
Approaches the Dustbin of History
By NASEER ARURI
As the humanitarian crises loom in Lebanon,
the world watches with dismay a second Qana massacre perpetrated
by Israel's air force, killing sixty civilians, mainly women
and children, millions must be asking where the United Nations
is. How long can the Security Council be stymied, and whether
the US is an honest broker or co-belligerent.
Since the establishment of
the UN, the US has used its veto no less than forty times to
shield Israel from the international scrutiny and to enable it
to violate international norms and to commit war crimes with
impunity. The latest such obstruction of the international will
occurred only two and a half weeks ago (July 13), when the US
blocked a resolution that would have demanded Israel cease its
onslaught against Gaza, the first Security Council veto in twenty
one months. Not uncharacteristically, ten members voted in favor,
while the US was alone voting against, with four abstentions.
As a further sign of US isolation in the UN, eight of the last
nine vetoes protecting Israel have been cast by the U.S. Remarkably,
this is the first time in UN history that a call for a ceasefire
is opposed so blatantly.
With pressure from the world
community mounting for an immediate cessation of hostilities,
the US and the Blair government are standing alone against the
continuous killing of civilians despite Qana II and despite the
description of Israel's atrocities by Louise Arbour, the top
UN 's human rights official, who served as the chief prosecutor
for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia,
as qualifying for war crimes under International criminal law
and under International humanitarian law.
Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice
continues to excuse her opposition to a halt of civilian killings
by repeating a pathetic phrase: We seek a "sustainable cease-fire,"
as if a cease fire is the end of a negotiating process rather
than the beginning and the necessary condition. Even more disingenuously,
President Bush does the same thing by repeating an inane goal
of getting to the "root cause," forgetting that his
understanding of relevant history goes back to less than five
years.
Should the Security Council
acquiesce in this complicity, it will have forfeited its raison
d'etre, i.e., responsibility for the maintenance of international
peace and security, and will have also rendered the office of
the Secretary-General a virtual agency among the layers of the
US foreign policy bureaucracy. Kofi Anan, who waited until July
21st to call for an immediate ceasefire, has no option now but
to make good on his request, despite the opposition of the US
pro-Israel lobby and its neo-conservative operatives, whose man
at the UN is acting as a second ambassador from Israel, a fact
which has dealt a severe blow to the humanitarian image of the
UN system. Expressing his contempt for the United Nations, John
Bolton had this to say about the United Nations in the year 2000
""If I were doing the Security Council today, I'd have
one permanent member [the United States] because that's the real
reflection of the distribution of power in the world."
Now, that he is "doing
the Security Council, a probable veto by him should not discourage
the peace loving countries of the world from pursuing one of
the very urgent global priorities--protecting UN personnel and
facilities, and protecting defenseless civilians in time of conflict
and under foreign military occupation.
Nor will that be an exercise
in futility on the part of the Security Council. Under the Uniting
for Peace resolution of 1951, the General Assembly could convene
to discharge the Council's responsibility when unanimity among
the veto-wielding members of the Council could not be obtained.
In such a circumstance, the US, which would be likely to vote
with Israel, the Marshal Islands and Micronesia would be totally
isolated with a an agonizing choice to make: will it be part
of the solution or will it continue to be part of the problem?
But it will not have it both ways: calling for implementation
of resolution 1559, while aiding and abetting Israel's violation
of 242 and 338 for 39 years; calling for Israel's right to self-defense,
while denying it to Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, including
the right of millions of refugees to return home; calling for
democracy in Lebanon and Palestine but enabling Israel to wage
war against the winners of democratic elections even as it reconfirms
its protection of fraudulent Arab regimes from their own people.
The UN Charter is being effectively put to the test. It will
either be a catalyst of peace in the Middle East, or a witness
to the "birth pangs of a new Middle East," as the US
Secretary of State has crudely put it. It will either be upheld
and implemented, or it will be consigned to the dustbin of history.
CounterPunch
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