|
|
|
| May 28, 2005 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1426 |
Superpowers influence on UN criticized
ISLAMABAD, May 27: Speakers at a seminar here on Friday warned of repercussions of growing influence of the super powers, especially of the United States, on the agenda of the United Nations (UN) and the pre-emptive strikes against the weaker or failed states by coalitions without approval of the United Nations Security Council.
The seminar entitled “60 years of UN Peace Keeping: Evolution and Change” was organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies in collaboration with the UN Information Centre, Islamabad.
Maj Gen Qasim Qureshi lauded the services of Pakistani peace keeping missions in Congo, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Liberia, Kosovo and Georgia. However, he was critical of the approach of the major world powers which had sent their troops only to those countries where they had their vested interests.
He said in Bosnia the UN failed to differentiate between the oppressors and the oppressed owing to which the Bosnian Serbs massacred scores of Muslims. Due to lack of conceptual clarity and a number of other handicaps, the UN had succeeded in its mission only partially in the past 60 years, he added.
Iran, Iraq and the war on terror had created new challenges for the UN. After the Cold War, nuclear weapons were the real peacekeepers, he said.
Tension between China and Taiwan, India and Pakistan, the nuclear issue of Iran and North Korea, the situation in the Middle East and the weak and failing states could create conflicts, he said.
The existing constraints on the UN would remain the same, he added. “The UN is a volunteer fire brigade without fire engines and fire hoses until the emergency strikes, he said.
Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan stressed the need for shifting towards the 6th Charter of the UN by not taking any action against any country until sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council.
Director-General Institute of Strategic Studies Dr Shireen Mazari said developed countries were providing only weapons and financial support to the UN peace keeping missions, while they did not send their personnel. This practise must be stopped and the developed countries should give human sacrifices according to their sizes.
Swedish ambassador Ann Wilkens said many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America had developed into major political and economic actors. The Swedish government believed that these states should be given a role in the Security Council that was commensurate with their growing importance and their desire and ability to contribute to the work of the UN.
She said Sweden supported the call to enlarge the Security Council before the forthcoming UN summit. Ms Wilkens said her country supported the call to make a decision on the enlargement of the Security Council before the forthcoming summit.
“The most important thing is to really make a decision - a decision which makes the council more representative and thus more legitimate without extending the right of veto to any new member,” Ms Wilkens suggested.
She said Sweden backed the UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan’s proposal for a general review of the Secretariat’s activities in order to rectify deficiencies like irregularities in the oil-for- food-programme in Iraq and sexual misconduct by UN forces in Congo.
|
|
|
|
