Rwanda, 1994. Mortars and artillery fire swoop down on children, women and men of the Tutsi ethnics. UN blue helmets are posted not far away, with the purpose of protecting the civil population. But the Security Council doesn't give the green light to intervene. Meanwhile, the head of peace-keeping operations at the UN remains silent and, reportedly, even refrains from passing on warnings about the impending genocide in Rwanda. Outcome: 800,000 Tutsis killed.
Srebrenica, 1995. The troops of General Radko Mladic start their 'ethnic cleansing' in this Muslim enclave declared 'safe area' by the United Nations and placed under the protection of 400 blue helmets. But the Security Council doesn't give the green light to stop the slaughtering. And once again, the head of peace-keeping operations at the UN doesn't say a word. Outcome: from eight to eleven thousand Bosnian Muslims tortured and killed.
The head of peace-keeping operations at the UN happened to be Kofi Annan, who subsequently was appointed Secretary General of that institution, and now has been pulled out from his retirement to negotiate a political settlement of the Syrian crisis.
The decision to choose Mr. Annan to lead the negotiations with the Syrian regime can be called into question in the light of the manner in which he fulfilled his mandate during the two aforementioned massacres. For both in Rwanda and in Srebrenica, Mr. Annan was expected either to prevent the carnage, or else to openly put on notice the international community that he had not been given the means of fulfilling his mission. He actually did neither.
Let us admit, however, that Mr. Annan may have learned from his past failures as head of UN peace-keeping operations and would henceforth behave in a more responsive and assertive manner. Some of his statements after the two aforementioned tragedies lend support to that assumption. Indeed, in 1999, being already UN Secretary-General, he apologizes for the UN inertia in Rwanda and Srebrenica and subsequently declares: 'The cardinal lesson from Srebrenica is that a deliberate and systematic attempt to terrorize, expel or murder an entire people must be met decisively with all necessary means.'
The occasion soon arrived for Mr. Annan to put in practice his newly found assertiveness: in November 2000, China's central government dispatched troops to Tibet to repress street demonstrations. The troops fired live bullets against the civilian population.
What was Mr. Annan's reaction? Well, answering to a journalist, he declared: 'The question raised is not in the UN agenda.'
It's true that Kofi Annan was approaching the end of his first tenure as UN Secretary General and had his eyes riveted on his reelection. He was thus eager to avoid a Chinese veto against his candidature.
