Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘kofi annan’

Israel’s attack on the UN Observer Post in Lebanon wasn’t – despite what Kofi Annan thinks – deliberate. But these attacks sure were:

Palestinian protesters stormed the main U.N. compound in Gaza City on Sunday during a demonstration against Israel’s bombing of southern Lebanon that killed around 60 civilians, witnesses and U.N. staff said.

Hundreds of members of the Islamic Jihad militant group, some throwing stones and others firing assault rifles, attacked the compound at the end of a rally, witnesses said.

At least five people were wounded, police said.

[ . . . ]

Witnesses in Gaza said extensive damage had been caused to the U.N. compound, from where the world body directs its relief and aid operations for the Gaza Strip’s 1.4 million people.

The attack came hours after thousands of Lebanese demonstrators attacked the U.N. headquarters in Beirut, smashing windows and ransacking offices.

Several thousand people massed outside the building in the center of the capital chanting “Death to Israel, death to America. We sacrifice our blood and souls for Lebanon.”

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

Don’t count on a condemnation from Kofi Annan, though.

Kofi Annan has learned the redirection game well, as he tries to deflect some of the heat from the oil-for-food scandal off himself and onto the U.S. and Britain:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday the United States and Britain bore part of the blame in the Iraq oil-for-food debacle by allowing unsupervised oil exports that Saddam Hussein exploited.

Annan, addressing a seminar on the United Nations and the media, said most of the money Saddam earned was by oil sold to Jordan and Turkey outside of the $67 billion U.N. program.

Only countries like the United States and Britain had interdiction forces that could have stopped it. But he said they “decided to close their eyes to Turkey and Jordan because they are allies.”

Annan may be corrupt and useless but he understands his political stage flawlessly. The same morally bankrupt people who refuse to condemn him for his role in the scandal will be only too happy to blame America, public enemy number one.

I couldn’t have parodied it any worse than it actually was: Kofi Annan’s statement at the “offical” word of Arafat’s death:

“The Secretary-General was deeply moved to learn of the death of President Yasser Arafat. President Arafat was one of those few leaders who could be instantly recognized by people in any walk of life all around the world. For nearly four decades, he expressed and symbolized in his person the national aspirations of the Palestinian people,” spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement on Annan’s behalf.

The spokesman said Arafat would be remembered for leading the Palestinians in a “giant step” toward peace in signing the Oslo accords in 1993 and, “It is tragic that he did not live to see it fulfilled.”

“Now that he has gone, both Israelis and Palestinians, and the friends of both peoples throughout the world, must make even greater efforts to bring about the peaceful realization of the Palestinian right of self-determination,” the statement said.

The emphasis, of course, is mine.

I don’t know why it bothers me so much. Annan heads the United Nations, which in the past few decades has engaged in full-time Israel-bashing. Since 1947’s partition plan, the UN has done nothing for Israel but fight to try and destroy it – from passing hundreds of one-sided resolutions to refusing to recognize even basic Israeli rights to live or exist. The UN gave Arafat his legitimacy. The UN – through its corrupt agency, UNRWA, perpetuated the Palestinian refugee problem. The UN did everything possible to encourage Palestinian terorrism and give legitimacy to the PLO’s methods. The UN is the enemy here, not a neutral observer. What else could I have expected from Annan?

The UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, has long been accused by Israel of employing terrorists and facilitating. In an interview with CBC on the weekend, the head of the agency, Peter Hansen, admitted this openly:

“Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another,” Hanson told CBC TV.

That was two days ago. Today, Hansen is singing a different tune. He’s demanded an apology from Israel for the latter’s call to the U.N. to investigate the former, after Israel accused UNRWA of letting terrorists use one of their ambulances to transport rockets.

Kofi Annan is sending a team to investigate. For the uninitiated, this is what is known in diplomatic circles as a “stall tactic”. Annan hopes that this show of action will mollify critics long enough for the story to blow over, and in the meantime, his investigators can get a nice falafel dinner and perhaps a soak in the Med.

Because, of course, everyone knows that the U.N. is so very even-handed when it comes to mideast politics…

Annan uses the W-word:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sharply criticized the United States on Thursday for seeking another exemption from the International Criminal Court, particularly in light of the Iraqi prisoner scandal.

“The blanket exemption is wrong. It is of dubious judicial value and I don’t think it should be encouraged by the council,” Annan told reporters.

Wow. I didn’t think that Kofi Annan was capable of using the term “wrong”. I figured it went against his moral relativist sensibilities. I guess criticizing the U.S. is an exception, right?

The international media and the blogosphere are up in arms about the election of Sudan to the UN Human Rights Commission:

Sichan Siv, the U.S. delegate to the council, accused Sudan of having no right to sit on the rights commission because of ethnic cleansing in Darfur where government troops are accused of backing Arab militia which pillage black Africa villages, raping and killing. The Khartoum government denies it is involved in ethnic cleansing.

This isn’t too surprising. The U.N. is a master of hypocrisy. After all, when Libya can chair the Human Rights commission, then it isn’t too much of a leap to see how we end up with a commission whose primary purpose seems to be condemning Israel while whitewashing all the human rights abuses taking place around the world by its own members.

But it does strike me as ironic that, while the UNCHR re-elects Sudan, another UN body, the UNHCR (not to be confused) is frantically trying to help over a hundred thousand Sudanese refugees who’ve fled into Chad because of the ethnic cleansing that Sudan denies is taking place. And UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that large-scale ethnic cleansing could take place without quick intervention.

So, to the United Nations, I have to ask: which is it? Is Sudan worthy being part of a human rights watchdog, or are they the guys the watchdogs ought to be watching? The UN’s schizophrenic behaviour shouldn’t surprise me anymore. It really shouldn’t.

Today, April 7th, is the “official” day to remember the victims of the genocide that took place 10 years ago in Rwanda:

April 7 will now be set aside in Canada to remember the victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin announced.

“April 7 marks one of the most profoundly tragic days of our time,” the statement from Martin’s office read.

It was on this day in 1994 “that the horrors of genocide were unleashed in Rwanda. Approximately 800,000 people were slaughtered over the ensuing three months,” the statement said.

“The Government of Canada has accordingly declared April 7 as a Day of Remembrance for the victims of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.”

It would take me days to write about how woefully inadequate this token gesture seems.

“We didn’t know” was the excuse of most of the Western world and international community, who looked on silently while over 800,000 people – mostly Tutsis – were murdered.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan apologized for what he called “sins of omission” in allowing the genocide to happen:

“The international community is guilty of sins of omission,” Annan told the crowd gathered in New York for the summit.

The head of the UN peacekeeping agency at the time, Annan said he thought he did what he could.

“I believed at the time that I was doing my best. But I realized after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm and rally support,” he said in his opening speech.

To Annan, I have to say, far too little, and far too late. Canadian Romeo Dallaire, who had a front-row seat for the horrors, blamed the world’s leaders for failing to respond to his cries for action:

The UN force had a limited mandate and an insufficient number of troops and weapons, and that appeals for reinforcements were rejected, Dallaire told the court.

He specifically mentioned France, the United States and Belgium, the former colonial ruler which had the largest number of UN troops in Rwanda, as being “unco-operative.”

“… I did not get intelligence information from them,” he said.

Belgium ordered the withdrawal of its peacekeepers, the backbone of the operation, shortly after Rwandan troops killed 10 of their soldiers.

At least Dallaire went to Rwanda to face down his demons, and commemorate the date. Which is more than can be said for any of the leaders he blamed.

Rwanda is a testament to the complete and utter failure of the United Nations. Period. It’s been ten years now, and people are finally starting to wake up the fact that this international body is completely toothless, and will refuse to take action until it’s ridiculously, tragically far too late.

So we pause for a moment and remember.

But it’s not enough. Instead of a moment of silence for Rwanda, how about a moment of action – for North Korea… for Sudan… for Congo… for people anywhere their lives and freedoms are jeopardized. Because it’s one thing to regret inaction after the fact. Hindsight is 20/20. It’s another thing altogether to witness atrocities being committed right now, even as we speak, and fail to think about how people will think of our failure to act in 10 years from now.

That’s the true lesson of Rwanda. If we say “Never Again”, we ought to mean it.

The United Nations stays quiet through suicide bombing after suicide bombing, and through hundreds of innocent Israelis being murdered. But Kofi Annan feels the need to condemn Israel for targeting the leader of Hamas!

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned Israel’s attempt to kill the spiritual leader of Hamas, accusing the state of using excessive force and violating international humanitarian law, the U.N. spokesman said Monday.

So the U.N. doesn’t mind when innocent kids are killed. But G-d forbid anyone should try to take out a terrorist mastermind!