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Amb.
PIERRE SCHORI
Samantha Power
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Amb.
PIERRE SCHORI is the Director-General of FRIDE
and former Swedish deputy minister of Foreign Affairs. He is a Contributor
to MaximsNews Network.
PHOTO: ANNA
SCHORI
DEATH IN BAGHDAD AND THE UN ROLE IN IRAQ:
REVIEW of SAMANTHA POWER'S "CHASING THE FLAME - SERGIO VIEIRA de
MELLO and the FIGHT to SAVE the WORLD" by Amb. PIERRE SCHORI 27/05/2008
(MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 27
May 2008 --
With Chasing the Flame – Sergio
Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World (Penguin Press, 2008)
Samantha Power, Anna Lindh Professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of
Government has written a fascinating portrait of a compassionate cosmopolitan
of which there are too few in this world.
The
book is also a remarkably well-researched handbook on the UN, and it contains
new and important material for a much needed discussion, namely: under which
circumstances should the UN be engaged in
Iraq.
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Sergio,
as everybody called him, was “the best man for a bad mission”. A UN veteran,
he was used to clear mandates which gave him clout in difficult missions. Not so
in
Iraq
. A legal adviser at the UN put up a screen saver on her computer with the text:
“The UN charter has left the building”.
According
to Power Security Council Resolution 1483 was dictated by the
US
. It created what Sergio
had
feared: an impression that the UN was not impartial but seen as helping the
American occupation and “Pentagon’s plans for free oil”.
Thus
the mission went dead wrong from the very beginning, not in
Baghdad
but in
New York
, with “the worst UN resolution” that Sergio and his friends
had
ever seen.
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The
Brazilian super diplomat was guided by the UN's humanitarian imperative. His
mottos were: "Don't ask who started the fire" and "You can't help people
from a distance".
But in
Iraq he and his colleagues died, on an untimely mission, from a terrorist bomb. It
is our duty, as members of the Security Council or as member states, to see to
it that UN missions do not become missions impossible.
In
Iraq
there will be no sustainable or legitimate solution without a UN resolution.
But a vague UN resolution could become a poisoned chalice for the world
organization.
We need to have
crystal clear resolutions especially for chapter 7 missions that deal with war
and peace.
We should insist on transparency and confidence in their preparation.
If not, we not only jeopardize UN personnel but also the credibility of the
world organization and future missions.
In
the case of
Iraq, not only the Iraqis but also the world community need answers about the
ulterior goals of the
US.
What
will for instance happen with the statement, signed on 26 November by President
Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, which seemed to commit the
U.S.
to a long-term military presence in the country and aim at replacing the
existing Security Council mandate with "a bilateral setting"?
Will
we see a rejection of "democratic imperialism", after an illegal war
that U.S. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez called "a nightmare without an
end in sight", and that made both the
U.S.
and the world less safe?
Can
we hope for a return to
U.S.
respect for the UN charter and the
Geneva conventions?
Amb.PierreSchori@MaximsNews.com
Related
publications
Bio
author: Pierre Schori
A
Swedish diplomat with vast experience in foreign affairs, development
cooperation and peacekeeping operations, Schori served from 2005 until the
beginning of 2007 as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head
of Mission in Côte d’Ivoire. He was Minister for International
Development Cooperation, Migration and Asylum Policy, and Deputy Foreign
Minister between 1994 and 1999. In 2000, Schori was appointed Swedish Ambassador
to the United Nations, a position he held until 2004. He is the Director General
de FRIDE.
Labels:
Amb. Pierre Schori,
Samantha Power, Chasing the Flame –
Sergio
Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World, United
Nations, U.N., FRIDE,
Iraq, Conflict,
Middle East, Multilateralism,
United States
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