UN, why nurse and not deter conflicts?

The United Nations (UN) security organs have been on record trying to nurse aftermath of conflicts. These conflicts actually start while they are watching. The recent terrible clashes between the Israelites and the Hamas, is one example that gives us the cause to criticize the world body-UN. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on a visit to Gaza said that, “it is extremely unacceptable to see the effects of bombardments by Israel soldiers.” He however, at the same time castigated the Hamas for launching rockets, in the Israel territory. This shows that the UN is not sure of whom to blame or has no capacity to avert a conflict. They therefore coin and ride on fine sounding concepts such as ‘disproportionate use of force.’ It is always wrong, to wait for a ‘boiling’ conflict to burst. What do you expect when Hamas start firing rockets into Israel? It is of course retaliation from the victim. This happened. Rockets were fired in Israel territory when the UN was watching. It was not overnight. Gaza was bombarded in what Israel called ‘a surgical operation,’ leaving many innocent people dead mostly children and women. Therefore, who is morally right, Hamas or Israel? We shall expect differing answers depending on the side one supports, but the fact remains that we need to trace the root cause to end the conflict. Wars create ugly scenarios, which may attract sympathy from observers to condemn the powerful between the two protagonists. That is why Israel takes much of the blame in this context, compared to Hamas. But, is the issue the magnitude of the damage or the cause of the damage? This is where the UN goes wrong, to nurse the after effects of a conflict. Israel-Palestine conflicts and violence are bound to cause many deaths and causalities, if a strong UN backed peace deal is not initiated. It therefore sounds very ironical, to cry that children in war zones die. What do you expect when bullets are showered in populated area? Death! The old African proverb has it that, “when elephants fight, it is grass that suffers.” The late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, a brilliant philosopher and former president of Tanzania, once remarked that, “it is wrong to allow nations to go to war. Individuals can exchange blows and bruise their faces, but when countries fight, innocent human beings inevitably die.” This is what a man referred by the Tanzanians as the father of the nation said in one of his efforts to avoid war. We shall therefore continue to see innocent children die in Gaza and Israel, because of endless conflicts. The numbers will of course vary, depending on who shells more bombs on the other. That is why I concur with the UN chief, only when he says thus, “We need only political will and action. Peace has eluded us for too long. This effort must have at its centre the implementation of the Security Council resolutions and the framework of the Arab Peace Initiative,” Ban Ki Moon said. On a similar note, United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) whose mission is to offer a humanitarian assistance and possibly broker peace in the DRC, is in the same predicament, after a joint operation was agreed upon to end FDLR/Interahamwe existence on DR Congo soil. Surely, the complaint that MONUC is not part of the joint operation should not have come out, since its work is to oversee all peace programmes in the DRC. The joint operation is aiming at a similar peace initiative and there shouldn’t be any scepticism, form MONUC as revealed. “The joint military operation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) against a Hutu militia, does not involve UN blue helmets”, complained the UN in its news release on Wednesday 22nd January 2009. In cases where some peace initiatives are under way, UN should not come in a negative way, since it will again be blamed for failing peace process. The DRC and Rwanda are the main countries affected by the presence of FDLR/Interahamwe in the region, which is why; any initiatives started by the same countries, to fight them should not be taken for granted. Its high time therefore, the international body learnt to deter conflicts and not wait to nurse effects of conflicts. Contact: mugitoni@yahoo.com