By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

June 06 , 2008

Yanking in the UN

So, the UN is being tasked to investigate BB’s slaying.  It seems that some want it to follow the Rafik Hariri model, in that when the Lebanese leader was killed in February 2005, the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution whereby an investigative team was dispatched to Lebanon.
Arguably, the UNSC – which has been rubber-stamping big power moves in the Middle East – may have had a stake in implicating Syria for it being a member of the ‘axis of evil’ and a ‘roadblock’ to the ‘peace process’ there.  It bears mentioning here that, in 2004, the 67-year-old nearly blind wheelchair-bound paralyzed Palestinian spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin was gunned down by an Israeli helicopter gunship.  One does not recall a similar effort or outrage from the UNSC.
Nor did the UN come into play when, during June 1968, Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy was slain in California, or in February 1965 when the legendary American Muslim leader Malcolm X was martyred in Manhattan.
Where does the Charter of the United Nations, which was signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco, stand on such matters?  Article 2(7) of the UN Charter couldn’t be more explicit.  It reads: “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.”
Some parts of the UN record do not make pretty reading.  In July 1995, the greatest mass murder after World War II took place in the small Muslim town of Srebrenica in Bosnia.  Prior to it, the UNSC had declared Srebrenica as a safe haven, which was then put under the protection of UN troops from Holland.  But the Dutch fled like rabbits, leaving an estimated 10,000 Muslims to be massacred by Serbs. 
Similarly, during 1994, the UN melted away while nearly one million Tutsis were hacked to death in 90 days by the Hutus in Rwanda. 
Since 1990, the inhabitants of Held Kashmir have undergone a mini-Hell through torture, disappearances, murder, and widespread rape at the hands of Indian security forces – all of which were amply documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.  United Nations Security Council Resolution of January 5, 1949, clearly calls for the Kashmiri people to exercise their right of self-determination through a free and fair plebiscite under UN supervision.  This resolution remains a part of applicable international law. 
Chechnya has undergone a horror similar to Kashmir at the hands of Russian armed forces, in full view of a mute UN and supine international community, which saw Time magazine anoint Vladimir Putin as “Person of the Year”.
The shenanigans of the UN in the Middle East are too well known to be recounted here, and put a big question mark on UN credibility as an impartial peacemaking or peacekeeping body.  Suffice it to say, it is no longer the UN of Secretary Generals Dag Hammarskjold (1953-1961) and Kurt Waldheim (1972-1981).  What later befell Waldheim for apparently not following the script is beyond the scope of this piece. The more recent Secretary Generals, including Kofi and Ban, seem to be thoroughly vetted and carefully handpicked for their lack of backbone, charisma, and eloquence. 
Therefore, to yank in the UN to investigate a matter which is properly within the domestic jurisdiction of the Government of Pakistan is not only a tacit admission of hapless incompetence but also, in effect, a breach of national sovereignty.  It is difficult to hold the line once it has been yielded.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto first stamped his presence on the national consciousness during the September 1965 war when he made his speech at the UN calling for the international community to intervene in Kashmir.  It is an irony that 43 years later, his successors are urging the UN to intervene in Pakistan.
For standards to have declined to this level and for matters to have reached this point is a sorry reflection on state, society, and the so-called ‘leaders’ including, but not limited to, the Presidency. 

 

PREVIOUSLY


Clash or Coexistence?

The Radical Behind Reconstruction

POWs & Victors’ Justice

Islam on Campus

Community of Civilizations

Rule of Law or Rule of Men?

Unpredictable Times

The Quiet One

Turkish Model & Principled Resignations

Live and Let Live

Leadership & de Gaulle

Dark Side of Power

2002: The Year of Escalation

Whither US?

Politics, God, Cricket & Sex

The Company of Friends

Missing in Action : The Kofi Case

Accountability & Anger

Casualties of War

A Simple Living

The Nexus & Muslim Nationhood

The Kith and Kin Culture

It Is Spreading

Road to Nowhere

Misrepresenting Muslims

The value of curiosity

Revenge & Riches

The Media on Iraq

The Perils of Sycophancy

Legends of Punjab

Mind & Muscle

Islam & the West: Conflict or Co-Existence?

The Challenge of Disinformation

Britain on the Backfoot

Paisa, Power and Privilege

The Path to Peace

On Intervention

Countering Pressures on Pakistan

A World at War?

Raising the Game

The Argument of Force

Affluence withtout Influence

The Shawdow of Vietnam

Heroes of '54

The Imperative of Human Decency

Hollywood and Hate

Living in Lahore

Fatal Decisions

Singer or the Song

Arrogance

The Power of Moral Legitimacy

The Trouble with Kerry

Green Curtain

A Nation Divided

Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
© 2004 pakistanlink.com . All Rights Reserved.