Shahid ullah Shahid
A terrifying and heartbreaking video knocked the dead conscience of the UN and world community on 01 July 2020. A 3-year old Kashmiri kid was crying over the corps of his grandfather after being executed in cross-firing at Sopore. How many more children will we see crying for their dead parents? Also remember 2015? A small boat carrying Syrian refugees across the Mediterranean Sea was hit by high waves. Abdullah Kurdi, a father, found himself fighting with ruthless waves to save his son. The child was found lying with his face down in the sand. Kurdi was trying to reach Europe. The tragedy shocked the entire world. Where was the United Nations? It is no figure of speech that the UN is a failed organization. The UN Security Council has failed miserably to meet the demand of its charter-maintenance of international peace and security. It has proved to be a complete failure in cases where in the interests of poor countries and Muslim world is concerned. The evidence is overwhelming.
The Palestine problem has been on the United Nations agenda for more than half a century. The challenge for diplomacy has gone unanswered. The state of Israel which has occupied vast Palestinian and Arab lands remains in possession. The Palestinians are living under terrible oppression but the UN has been unable to do anything about it. Palestinian people in Israel, in West Bank and in Gaza continue to be driven away from their homes to make way for new settlements for Israelis. The UN has done nothing to challenge the view that the international community is entirely anarchic. Kashmir has been on the United Nations agenda for more than 70 years now. During this time it has seen wars, militancy, state terrorism and civil strife. It has been reduced to the most militarized place in the world. What it has not seen is United Nations action despite the fact that the organization has promised resolution of the issue through a plebiscite under its auspices. On several occasions parties to the dispute have come close to a nuclear war which threatens world peace.
In 1994, the UN resolved to stop the Rwandan pogrom by sending its troops. The mission soon turned into a fiasco. The Hutus slaughtered nearly a million Tutsi tribesmen. People were butchered in their homes practically in full view of the entire world. However, the United Nations failed to save the Tutsis. Bosnia too saw a cruel massacre. The carnage of 8,000 Muslims men at the hand of Serb forces was even more specifically a failure of the UN than the Rwandan crisis. In 1995, people were killed in the ‘safe zone’ identified by the UN Security Council. In Darfur, according to United Nations itself, 300,000 Sudanese civilians were killed in a virtual genocide. In Nigeria, Boko Haram, declared a terrorist organization by the United Nations, has killed 13,000 people across the country. The Congo war may have been the deadliest conflict in modern history. Sometimes called the first African world war, it directly involved eight African nations and 25 armed groups. More than five million people are believed to have lost their lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The UN spent a huge amount of funds to end the war but violence would still erupt.
Today the world is witness to a shocking rollback of human rights across the globe. Powerful leaders are pushing hate, denying people their rights, ignoring serious crimes against humanity and blithely promoting inequality. According to an Amnesty International report, a broad clampdown on human rights has created a very dangerous world. A recent report by “Body Count” has revealed that one million people have been killed in Iraq since 2003, 220,000 in Afghanistan since 2001 and 80,000 in Pakistan as a result of the US imposed war on terror. Can the United Nations do something about it? The world has reached a nadir in terms of respect for human rights. The international system, including the UN, is no longer adequate to cope with the challenges. In early 2005, UN peacekeepers were accused of rape and forced prostitution in Congo. These allegations were admitted by the organization. Instead of saving the people, soldiers were found to be exploiting the situation for personal gains. A recent report says 70 new allegations of sexual exploitation have surfaced in three months. 43 of them are related to UN military personnel.
The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan in 2011 was a total disaster. Government officials were accused of attacking a refugee camp and killing, torturing and intimidating hundreds of people. 73 people were killed in the attack, including 24 who were under UN protection. Heart wrenching human rights violation in Rohingya (Myanmar) is an open secret. The UN made no progress in creating conditions conducive to the safe, dignified and voluntary return of the 740,000 Rohingya women, men and children who fled to Bangladesh beginning in August 2017. Rohingya which remained in Rakine state lived under a system amounting to apartheid. The UN Security Council has failed miserably to maintain international peace and security. Can it still be argued that the United Nations is not a toothless tiger?
—The writer is an Assistant Commissioner serving in government of KP.
