Ken Cain, one of the co-authors of this book detailing their experiences as UN peacekeepers in the 90's, has a scathing articleabout the UN in the Observer today.
It's a haunting description of the Rwanda's new Genocide Museum in Kagali, and another call for Kofi Anan to step down. Read the whole article - it's quite good - if not disturbing:
Our book is often criticised by fellow travellers on the left because we hold Annan and the UN accountable. As head of peacekeeping then, and as secretary-general now, Annan's power to effect any change on the ground, our critics remind us, is constrained by the interests of the Security Council (the US and France didn't want to intervene in Rwanda, the French again in Bosnia, and China and Russia now in Darfur). Therefore it's unrealistic to argue that Annan should risk his job by exhorting his Security Council bosses to do the right thing in the face of genocide.
Our response? Annan asks - no, orders - unarmed civilians to risk their lives every day as election observers, human rights monitors, drivers and secretaries in the most dangerous conditions all over the world. They do it, heroically, every day. And, in the service of peace, some pay with their lives; others with their sanity. How can he then not ask of himself the courage to risk his job in the cause of preventing genocide? At the very least, he could go down trying to save lives, as opposed to going down trying to explain why he didn't.
Aslo - it's worth hopping over to Coalition to Darfur. Today is the 11th anniversary of death of the Juvenal Habyarimana, the president of Rwanda. His plane was shot down over Kigali and his death served as a catalyst for the resulting genocide. There's a nice collection of article updates at the site.
