UN case studies

UN Assistance Mission to Rwanda 1993

In 1993, the Arusha Accords were signed in Rwanda. This was an agreement between
the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front and the Hutu government of Rwanda to cease all
hostilities in a 3 year long civil war.

The UN Assistance Mission to Rwanda was sent in to oversee its implementation and
monitor the ceasefire agreement leading up to the formation of the new elected
government. The situation was stable, until a plane crash on April 6, 1994 took the life
of newly elected President Habyarimana. The plane was allegedly shot down.

This sparked the eruption of communal Hutu vs. Tutsi enmities, marking the
beginning of the Rwandan genocide that was to claim over 800000 lives. Not only did
the UNAMIR not intervene to stop this conflict, the missions vague mandate meant
that the peacekeepers were unclear about the right to use force. As a result, 10
Belgian commandos were murdered after they were instructed to hand over their
weapons to the Rwandan government troops, disallowed from using force although
they had already been under fire for two hours.

In reaction to this shocking casualty of 10, the Belgian government quickly withdrew
its contingent. Lt. General Romo Dallaire was instructed to focus UNAMIR on only
evacuating foreign nationals from Rwanda.

The change in orders led Belgian peacekeepers to abandon the Dom Bosco Technical
School filled with 2,000 refugees, while Hutu militants waited outside, drinking beer
and chanting "Hutu Power." After the Belgians left, the militants entered the school
and massacred those inside, including hundreds of children.

Four days later the Security Council voted to reduce UNAMIR to 260 men in
Resolution 912 from an original intended mandate of 2500. Lieutenant-General
Dallaire, despite orders to withdraw from Kigali, refused to abandon the country to
the genocide, and remained to lead what forces remained.

After 100 days of genocide, the RPF finally broke in and ended the killings.
Throughout the entire genocide, the US was unwilling to label the event a genocide,
thus crippling the international communitys ability to intervene. The Security Council
did authorize a French mission into Rwanda, known as Operation Turquoise, but
killings continued to occur in French controlled turquoise zones, which were often
established too late anyway the killing had already swept past the area.

The Rwandan case is a clear example of the UN failure due to selfish interest of its
major member states as well as its organizational inefficacies.

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UNOSOM I 1992

The UN Operations in Somalia I, UNOSOM I, was sent to Somalia in 1992 to oversee a

UN declared ceasefire in the Somalian Civil war. The initial 500 troops sent were
unable to create adherence to the ceasefire.

In August 1992 the Security Council endorsed sending of another 3,000 troops to the
region to protect relief efforts. However, most of these troops were never sent.

The situation in Somalia continued to get worse. Factions in Somalia were splintering
into smaller factions and splintering again. Agreements for food distribution with one
party were worthless when the stores had to be shipped through the territory of
another.

Troops were shot at, aid ships attacked and prevented from docking, cargo aircraft
were fired upon and aid agencies, public and private, were subject to threats, robbery
and extortion. Meanwhile, hundreds, if not thousands of poverty stricken refugees
were starving to death every day.

By November 1992, resistance General Mohamed Farrah Aidid had grown confident
enough to formally defy the Security Council and demand the withdrawal of peace
keepers, as well as declaring hostile intent against any further UN deployments. This
marked the complete failure of UNOSOM I.

UNITAF 1993

The US then offered to shoulder the conflict, forming the UN sanctioned Unified Task
Force. In early 1993 14 important Somalia political and rebel factions agreed to hand
over all of their weapons to UNITAF and UNOSOM, and over $130 million was
pledged by donors at an aid conference that year to assist in reconstruction.

UNOSOM II 1994

However the situation remained unstable and prompted the UN to implement

UNOSOM II in a bid to support the agreed establishment of a federalist government
based on 18 autonomous regions in Somalia. UNOSOM II had a strength of 28,000
personnel, including 22,000 troops and 8,000 logistic and civilian staff.

On 5th June Aidid once again organised an attack on the peacekeeping force,
particularly a Pakistani detachment sent to inspect his arms store. UNOSOM II then
focus its efforts on capturing Aidid. They began attacking positions related to his
location.

The increasing tempo of military operations carried out in Mogadishu began to cause
civilian casualties and affected the relationship between the foreign troops and the
Somali people. The UN troops were easily portrayed as evil foreign interlopers by the
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militia leaders, particularly after incidents of civilian casualties caused by wholesale
firing into crowds.

Paradoxically, Somalis that had been disappointed by the failure of the UN to disarm
the warlords in Mogadishu actually began to support those same warlords in an us
versus them mentality. As the Americans became more insular, the warlords began
to reassert control of many Mogadishu districts. With each failure to apprehend Aidid,
the militias grew bolder. Serious rifts between nations contributing to UNOSOM II
also began to develop, with Italy in particular being a major critic of the American
methods.

The hunt for Aidid culminated in the Battle of Mogadishu, leading to 18 dead and 78
wounded in US casualties. One soldiers mutilated body was dragged through the
streets, raising a public outcry that turned popular opinion against US involvement in
the region. President Bill Clinton then decided to withdraw the U.S. forces, setting a
deadline of 31 March 1994 for their complete withdrawal.

American soldiers completely withdrew on March 3, 1994, 28 days earlier than

expected. Other nations, such as Belgium, France and Sweden, also decided to
withdraw at this time.

On November 4, 1994, after peacemaking efforts by the 1,900 UNOSOM II troops

failed, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted unanimously to withdraw all
forces in Resolution 954. UNOSOM IIs mandate ended in March 1995 when US ships
off the coast of Somalia assisted in the safe departure of the remaining UNOSOM
troops.

The Somalian case is commonly cited as a UN failure as a result of its

overdependence on the USA.

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UN Protection Force 1992

With the end of the Cold War, Serbia's ability to influence the federal government
heightened with additional support from Bosnia and Montenegro, and upon
achieving independence, proceeded to assault key areas of Yugoslavian territory with
Serbian majorities to gain control, leading to the violent Srebrenica and Prijedor
massacres in 1995 and 1992 respectively. This was a targeted cleansing of Bosniak
civilians.

This prompted the direct and immediate involvement of the UN. The dispatch of the
UN Protection force and UNPROFOR to the area was ultimately ineffectual in its
efforts to maintain stability and the mediation of a ceasefire, due to supply shortage
and inability to enforce its human rights and peace mandates. The UN stronghold of
Gorazdz still fell to the Serbs, and UN minimal retaliatory measures such as paltry
bombing runs ultimately emboldened the escalation of the conflict.

The UNPROFOR stands as an example of UN failure due to lack of resources.

United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo 1999

The perception of innate discrimination felt by the Kosovo Serbs against the Kosovo
Albanians saw the eruption of a massive ethnic cleansing against Kosovo Albanians
ordered by Serbian President Milosevic, and a massive Albanian migration movement
in 1999.

The March 1999 United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)'s
goal of attempting to negotiate a ceasefire and safely guiding the Albanians to safety,
was ultimately a failure, as it was only formally recognized four months after the
initial rise of the conflict. Its inability to halt the NATO bombing campaign in March
against the Serbs, and the deaths of a quarter million Albanian civilians, further
underscored its failure.

The UNMIK is considered a UN failure due to its overreliance on formal recognition

from the USA.

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UN Mission in East Timor 1999

The 1999 UNTAET was aimed at supervising the transition of ET to a sovereign state
following a plebiscite deciding the matter. While pro-Indonesian Nationalists sought
to wreck this and responded with violence, INTERFET, a UN international task force,
responded quickly. The mere arrival of INTERFET coalition forces, led by nine
warships, caused the Pro-Indonesian militia to flee back to Indonesia. This enforced
peace until a full transition could be made to UNTAET, an official peacekeeping force.
This shows a quickness of response, and success in fulfilling mission objectives.
Independence was implemented on 20 may 2002, and elections were completed
without any violence as INTERFET has succeeded in suppressing it

UN Mission in Guatemala 1996

MINUGUA's aim was to conclude a long running 36 year old civil war. By 1996, the
UN had deployed a peacekeeping force to support MINUGUA personnel and
supervise the demobilisation of rebel groups. Beginning on 1997, this lasted until
April and eventually total demobilisation occurred.

United Nations Operations in Mozambique 1992

ONUMOZs purpose was to help implement the General Peace Agreement, signed
between the President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, and the President of the
Resistncia Nacional Moambicana (Renamo), Afonso Dhlakama. The mandate
included facilitating the implementation of the Agreement; monitoring the ceasefire;
monitoring the withdrawal of foreign forces and providing security in the transport
corridors and monitoring the entire electoral process. ONUMOZ concluded without
major incident.

These were all examples of UN successes, probably successful because of the trivial
nature of the conflicts.

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Libya

Libya has faced a long history of superpower repression. In 1942, Britain conquered
the area. In 1956, massive oil reserves were discovered but piped to the west. In 1969,
Gaddafi, whose grandfather was killed in by an Italian colonist, rises to power in a
coup and nationalizes the oil industry. Naturally this angered the Western powers
who then sought to depose him.

In 1972, Gaddafi was wrongly accused of funding the Munich Olympic kidnappers.
Libya is also falsely accused of the shooting of a London policewoman in 1984, and in
1986 for bombing a German disco. Although evidence pointed elsewhere, Libya faces
huge sanctions and retributive actions. For example, the US bombed Libya in 1986
killing 101 people. In 1996, Britain's secret service backs local Libyan extremists in
trying to kill Gaddafi. The bomb killed innocent civilians instead. Britain denies it, but
other sources confirm it.

In 1988, an explosion caused a plane to crash over the small Scottish town of
Lockerbie. Fingers were soon pointed at Libya although evidence pointed to Iran. It
was claimed that a certain suitcase containing a bomb was placed in the airplane by
two Libyan men in Malta. Libya said these men were innocent, but the country was
subjected to massive financial and other sanctions. Amidst growing frustration, Libya
rises up to its name and begins terrorist operations. In 1989, it recruited a Chicago
cell to shoot down US planes with RPGs, but the plot is foiled.

UN sanctions were imposed in 1992. Over a period of years, this cost Libya billions of
dollars and hurt an already backward economy. The result - the damaged
infrastructure and resulting deaths, mostly among the poor of course - has been
described as "genocidal."

UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs) passed in 1992 and 1993 obliged Libya to
fulfill requirements related to the Pan Am 103 bombing before sanctions could be
lifted. Gaddafi initially refused to comply with these requirements, leading to Libya's
political and economic isolation for most of the 1990s.

In 1999, Libya fulfilled one of the UNSCR requirements by surrendering two Libyans
who were suspected to have been involved with the bombing for trial before a
Scottish court in the Netherlands. The United Nations removed the sanctions, but
America kept applying them. One of these suspects, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, was
found guilty; the other was acquitted. Al-Megrahi's conviction was upheld on appeal
in 2002.In August 2003, Libya fulfilled the remaining UNSCR requirements, including
acceptance of responsibility for the actions of its officials and payment of appropriate
compensation to the victims' families.

UN sanctions were lifted on September 12, 2003. U.S. International Emergency

Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)-based sanctions were lifted September 20, 2004.

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Nicaragua

In 1984, the ICJ ruled against the USA in favour of Nicaragua in the Contra affair and
ordered the former to pay reparations to the latter. The ICJ held that the U.S. had
violated international law by supporting Contra guerrillas in their rebellion against
the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors.

United States had previously accepted the Court's compulsory jurisdiction upon its
creation in 1946. It withdrew its acceptance following the Court's judgment in 1984
for the Nicaragua case that called on the U.S. to "cease and to refrain" from the
"unlawful use of force". The USA also used 6 vetoes on resolutions calling for
immediate compliance with the judgement.

The Court ruled (with only the American judge dissenting) that the United States was
"in breach of its obligation under the Treaty of Friendship with Nicaragua not to use
force against Nicaragua" and ordered the United States to pay war reparations

This reflected a central weakness in the International Court as it does not enjoy a full
separation of powers, with permanent members of the Security Council being able to
veto enforcement of even cases to which they consented in advance to be bound.

The United States withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986, and so accepts the
Courts jurisdiction only on a case-to-case basis.

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