The UN successive failures in Africa and the call for foreign intervention in South Sudan
By Bol Madut Ayii, Juba, South Sudan
July 19, 2016 (SSB) — The United Nations charter states that it was founded, in part, to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. In 2000, after a series of egregious failures in 1990s, the UN ordered a comprehensive review of its own peacekeeping operations. The Brahimi report, named after the panel chairman Lakhdar Brahimi from Algeria concluded that, United Nations has repeatedly failed to meet the challenges. The same today is true with what UNMISS did in South Sudan since it stepped in the country before independence.
The UNMISS miserably failed to adhere to its mandate as enshrined. The UN body which was mandated to keep peace and protect civilians when deemed appropriate turned to be a third force fighting the constitutionally elected government. It is beyond reasonable doubt that UNMISS have played a big role in the crisis that South Sudan is currently undergoing. The recent military confrontation between government forces and opposition forces demonstrated clearly the evil plan of some UNMISS forces towards the government and the people of South Sudan.
It is undeniable that UNMISS took side in the recent fighting which flare up, it was exactly on Monday the eleventh when UNMISS forces begun to shot at the national armed forces that were exchanging fire with opposition forces who were exasperating to take refuge in UNMISS compound while armed, and the author of this article is one of the relatives of the survivors of UNMISS gunshots that entered the house near American Embassy but thank God that the two bullets only demolish the sitting rooms and nobody sustained injuries.
This is the UNMISS that Mr. Ban Ki- Moon and Uhuru Kenyatta think that it can be neutral and therefore reinforced to keep peace in South Sudan.
The problems, failures and abuses of foreigners serving as UN peacekeepers and personnel ae numerous and that is why the UN miserably failed in Africa. They sexually exploit local women and girls, and often become the primary transmitters of HIV/ Aids and sexually transmitted diseases to the population, yet they are rarely punished for any crimes, rapes, or other offenses. Generally they have a reputation of caring little about the people they are sent to protect.
Some of the UN egregious failure in Africa are the following:
Somalia tragedy (1993): Between 1992 and 1994, the United Nations deployed as many as 30,550 military, security, and other personnel to Somalia. During the same period, UN representatives worked diligently to secure cease-fire agreements and bring the 16 or more political factions together with limited success. But UN peacekeeping mission failed miserably, resulting first in the tragic death of 25 Pakistani soldiers plus other 54 injured as a result of their taking side in fighting.
Rwandan genocide of 1994 is another good example of UN Peacekeepers failure. The Canadian UN peacekeeping force commander and other UN representatives on the ground in Rwanda perceived the serious nature of mounting tensions between Tutsi and Hutu government, military and militia leaders, but UN leaders and peacekeeping forces could not stop 104 days outbreak of violence that resulted when Hutus massacred about 800,000 Tutsi and sympathetic Hutus.
These are some of the UN peacekeeping forces failure in the continent and DR Congo– the rape capital of the world is not an exception. The UN launched a peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo about the size of Western Europe, excluding Scandinavia in 1999. As of the end of 2011, it remains the largest or second largest mission with 23, 383 personnel, including 18,928 peacekeeping troops, policy and military observers. Many armed groups some supported by neighboring nations to extract precious resources such as gold and diamonds, freely roam in eastern DRC.
Periodically they attack villages and rape women and girls at the rate of over 15,000 per year by 2008. Not only that, some UN leaders, and most peacekeeping commanders and officers seems to have an attitude of that boys will be boys when it comes to satisfying their sexual desires with any woman or girl available, but every year there are hundreds of allegations of UN peacekeepers committing sexual exploitation, rape and abuse of women and girls in the host country.
As narrated in the above few examples, it is unwise and unbecoming for UNSG Mr. Ki-moon to call for reinforcement of UNMISS with more troops. What did more than twelve thousands of UNMISS forces did when the failed coup in Juba in 2013 turned into rebellion? The UNMISS miserably and knowingly encouraged more fighting by taking side being in Juba, Malakal, Bentiu or Bor. The author of this article was caught up by surprise when head of states like Uhuru Kenyatta support the deployment of foreign troops to South Sudan forgetting the war of terror in his country (Kenya).
One should put his house in order first before meddling into the internal affairs of his brother. Uhuru should call for foreign intervention to his country in order to help fighting the Shabab who are not only threat to Kenya and Somalia but to the African continent. The members of IGAD should think twice before blindly and childishly supporting the Ki-moon proposal of deployment of more foreign troops to South Sudan. We are sovereign state and therefore have absolute right to say no to foreign troops, and our President have already spoken that he will never allow even a single soldier.
It very unfortunate that South Sudan became a testing ground where impossible proposals are made possible. Where on earth can the security of an international airport be controlled by the foreign forces if this is not the smart way of invasion of sovereignty. South Sudan is not a gift from Ki-Moon or IGAD which they can withdraw as they wish, this country came to existence as a result of millions of lives of her sons and daughters who proudly sacrificed their dear lives.
What happened recently was an attempt by some notorious forces of opposition who don’t want peace and preferred continuous suffering of the people of South Sudan.
To put an end to the conflict in South Sudan, the UN and IGAD should drop all their unnecessary proposals and continue supporting the transitional government of national unity to amicably and peacefully implement the ARCISS in letter and spirit, this is the only solution to the continuous rebellion in the country instead of calling for deployment of more foreign troops.
Obviously, it is difficult to justify UN peacekeeping as successful, wise, or in the safety and best interests of the people they are purportedly assigned to protect. By noble character and nature, “a father will risk his life to protect his family, a man to protect his community and nation”, but it goes against human nature to expect foreigners to risk their lives to protect people they don’t know and to whom they have no relational connection or commitment.
In conclusion, I would like to call upon the members of IGAD and the international community to cooperate and support the transitional government of national unity (TGoNU) in implementation of the Compromised Peace Agreement. The call for deployment of foreign troops shall add more crisis than addressing the crisis and therefore should be disregarded.
The writer is reachable via bolayii93@gmail.com
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