On
Syria, Mood
Has Changed,
UN
Front-Runner,
Rwanda Like
Exit?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
27 --
Norwegian
General Robert
Mood, after
having
declined to
renew his
contract to
head the
observer
mission in
Syria
which is being
dismantled by
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous,
made this
observation,
dateline Oslo:
"In
my opinion it
is only a
matter of time
before a
regime that is
using
such heavy
military power
and
disproportional
violence
against the
civilian
population is
going to
fall."
While
prefaced with
"in my
opinion," the
verdict within
an hour
was getting big play in
Western media,
akin to an
endorsement
late in
a political
campaign.
But
one wonders:
did the UN say
this about,
for example, Sri Lanka's
Rajapaksa
government's
use of even
heavier
military power
killing
40,000
civilians,
nearly all of
them Tamils,
in northern
Sri Lanka in
May 2009?
The
answer is, No.
And the
reasons, we
posit, is
because the UN
did not
think the
government
would fall.
The UN in this
view is like a
casual
sports fan
coming to
loudly root
for the team
it thinks is
about to
win.
And
in the
nitty-gritty
decision
making of
Ladsous' UN
Peacekeeping,
the
goal seems to
be not doing
what is
possible to
protect
civilians but
rather to get
out of the
way, or look
the other way,
and let this
overthrow take
place.
Even
as the UN
Security
Council
debated two
competing
draft
resolutions to
extended the
mission in
Syria UNSMIS,
the UN under
Ladsous had
three
planes
deployed in
Beirut, ready
to pull all UN
observers out.
Some
ask: how is
this different
from the UN's
pull out from
Rwanda, which
the UN has had
to live down
and apologize
for since
1994?
As Inner City
Press has
noted before,
Ladsous in
1994 was
France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
at the UN,
supporting the
murderous Hutu
government in
the Security
Council.
Noting this
historical
fact and
others has led
Ladsous
to refuse all
questions from
Inner City
Press.
And
coming full
circle, in his
analogy how
does Mood, the
Oslo Oracle,
compare with General Romeo
Dallaire?
We will
continue on
this. Watch
this site.
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