Ironic that UN should be hit to attack US occupation, since the UN has been resisting US unilateralism

UNMIK on Air

Aftermath of UN attack in Irak

28 August 2003

(Sputnik Kilambi)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK ON AIR with Sputnik Kilambi

The sounds of Amazing Grace that ended the official commemoration here in Kosovo for the 23 plus UN personnel who died tragically when the UN HQ in Baghdad was blown apart ten days ago. The attack is unprecedented in UN history – a grim reminder of the consequences of unilateral action. Most analysts agree that the attack was in fact directed against Washington, even if the UN was seen as a soft target, and in the eyes of some, as having legitimized the US occupation of Iraq.

The irony of course is that the UN had resisted US unilateralism and that the purpose of its presence in Baghdad was to enable the Iraqis to take charge of their own destiny.

There was also a special resonance in Kosovo as some of the men and women who lost their lives in Iraq had been part of UNMIK when it was created four years ago. The UN envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello set up UNMIK; his aide Nadia Yunes was the first UNMIK spokesperson. Her colleague and another former UNMIK spokesperson Susan Manuel says the world body is still in shock.

Susan Manuel: It was the top team, it was the people who really were completely immersed and energized by the spirit of helping Kosovo. Sergio de Mello set up the Kosovo Transitional Council right away. Nadia’s driver Naim Berisha sent the most beautiful message to all the people that knew Nadia and he attached this Puccini aria that they had listened to together in the cars in the streets of Prishtina in 1999 those people touched Kosovo and Kosovo touched them.

Like the plight of the Iraqi people touched them – the only silver lining of the terror strike perhaps was that most Iraqis distanced themselves from it and there were many who showed their grief and anger. The UN envoy to Baghdad Sergio Vierra de Mello had made it clear that his job was a bridgehead to get the international community even more involved in Iraq, and eventually to give the US an exit strategy and return Iraq to the Iraqis.

There has been much criticism of the UN, especially in the US, in the run up to and during the invasion of Iraq – but there are increasing signs that the Bush administration is being forced to rethink its Iraq strategy. New York based journalist Ian Williams writes extensively on UN affairs.

Ian Williams: When you consider that any future Iraqi government, unless it has a UN validation is going to suffer from being seen as a quisling, as an occupation installed government, and will have perennial problems in Iraq afterwards, there’s a very sensible, sound reason why people in Washington should let the UN have a much bigger role than it already does.

It is clear that the UN has taken a battering over the Iraq issue. But the damage set in even before. As Susan Manuel points out, September 11 and the subsequent wars it unleashed has taken a heavy toll on the UN.

Susan Manuel: This goes back to the buildup to the war on Iraq when the UN really lost a lot of credibility in the Arab world, in the Muslim world, in Asia and in Africa for not opposing the war in Iraq and I believe somehow these terrorists are the most radical extreme of a whole part of the world that was, whether rightly or wrongly mad at the UN, mad at Kofi Annan for not opposing the war, whereas on this side of the world, the UN faced criticism for not backing the US in its push to war.

So this kind of attack I feel is still part of the repercussions of 9/11.

But Washington is being forced to take a reality check as the rest of the world refuses to send troops to Iraq without a UN mandate and the body bags of US soldiers increase in number. The knives are now apparently drawn between the State Department and the Pentagon as the cost of war comes home to America.

Douglas Mattern: Its interesting that some of the people in the middle, because of the casualties for the American troops, because of the cost for the American tax payer, 4 billion dollars a month, have begun to suddenly see that maybe there’s a lot to be said for a bigger UN involvement after all the battle is still going on between those two factions but this bombing is likely to strengthen the hands of people like Colin Powell who say you’ve got to have a bigger UN involvement and you can only do that if you give the int. community more of a say in running the occupation.

Douglas Mattern is president of the Association of World Citizens, a California based international peace group, one of the many organizations calling for a revitalized UN role in Iraq. The American people, he says, are now waking up to the warnings that groups like his have been sounding for some time now.

Douglas Mattern: The administration has got a free ride on this so far but now people are beginning to question; it’s not only the bombing of the embassy, it’s the killing of the Americans, almost one a day now and that’s beginning to have an effect here, people are starting to question, not as much as they should, they still have a long ways to go.

A Kosovo style UN administration in Iraq would be the best-case scenario in the current circumstances suggests Mattern. Of course, some in Kosovo might not agree with that, but they too need to take a reality check says Ian Williams.

Ian Williams: I have criticized the somewhat imperial outlook of the UN administration, but in the real world, the choice was between that and the Serbian administration. Obviously there are decisions to be made now and to move on obviously there are failings I think Kosovo is a partial example, the other one is East Timor which has successfully reached independence some of the fundamentalists in Indonesia regarded East Timor as a sort of Christian crusader enclave and Sergio de Mello was the person who steered it to independence with the UN, there were complaints about how it was run there but most people were pretty happy with the end results and have gratitude to the UN for what it did.

Meantime, the debate continues, in Washington and in New York, and indeed elsewhere in the world. For Susan Manuel, the hope is that the UN will emerge from this with a new sense of respect.

Susan Manuel: The UN is about assisting the peoples of the world to live their lives in a decent democratic way I think there will be a rethinking in the short term and also in the long term about the UN’s role, firstly in Iraq but maybe in other parts of the world. But I think this attack has so shocked the world that maybe it will help renew the original values and principles upon which the UN is based. I don’t know if it can go the other way.

Susan Manuel in New York ending this edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks for listening.