The shade of the United Nations is encircling 193 sovereign states of the world. Some vulnerable states arrived under shadow for protection, and some dominant states entered under this shade to demonstrate their strength in the world. Now, these dominant states want to drive the UN as their car. But the leading questions are that whether the primary objectives of the UN’s making fulfilled or not? Whether the success story of the UN is long or the story of the failures of the united nations is long?
These leading questions circulate in every intellectual mind who contemplates the UN. If I hit the nail on the head in these questions, then the UN could not fulfil its primary objectives, and the story of the UN’s failure is long compared to the success story of the UN. United Nations Failures’ account can not be confined to few pages; instead, chapters can be made. A UN failures book can be written by combining these chapters. If this UN failures’ book will be written, then given below issues, wars, conflicts, and massacres shall be successful in creating chapters for this book.
Palestinian conflict will be successful in creating the first chapter of UN failures’ book. The Palestinian conflict is a conflict that can not be obliterated from the history books. Palestinians live in their territory, but still, they are dwelling like fish out of water because between 1947 to 1949,15000 Palestinians were assassinated and almost 750,000 out of a total population of 1.9 million were compelled to take refuge far from their homeland. In addition to this, this conflict has become the motive of more than 7000 Palestinians and 1100 Israelis deaths between 2000 to 2014. This chain of deaths is not come to end until now in Palestine.
Palestinian has become the hornet’s nest for Palestinians. Recently this conflict has gained some pace in May 2021 and this pace has deprived more than 200 Palestinians of their life. The role of UN peacekeeping in this conflict is very shameful. Still, the UN has not carried any stringent steps against the atrocity of Israel due to the dominant influence of the USA. That point removes the veil on the failures of the UN and will add the first chapter in the UN failures’ book
Kashmir issue will be successful in creating the second chapter of UN failures’ book. Kashmir issue has also a resemblance with the Palestinian conflict. After the annulment of article 370 in the Indian constitution by the Indian government, Kashmiris people are sharing bad quarter hours with the Indian brutal army. Kashmiris are enduring the atrocity of the Indian army every breath and every second. According to the Jammu and Kashmir coalition of civil society, (A human rights group in Jammu and Kashmir), the Indian tyrannic army has deprived 4427 Kashmiris of their life in the freedom movement between 2008 to 2019.
According to the Indian army, in the separatist movement, almost 47000 separatists have confronted the death between 1989 to 2008. These figures are adequate for the awaking of the UN peacekeeping but the UN’s work is confined only to condemn statements instead solving of this Apple of discord between Pakistan and India. Wanton killings, incarceration of leaders, and disappearance of Kashmiris by the Indian army are usual things in Indian occupied Kashmir. All these things will add the second chapter in UN failures’ book.
Yemeni civil will be successful in creating the third chapter of the UN failures’ book. Yemeni civil war commenced coming on the surface in Sep 2014. This multi-sided civil war is between Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi -led Yemeni government and the Houthi armed movement, along with their supporters and allies. In this war, according to ACLED(Armed conflict location and event data project ) over 100,000 people have been killed in Yemen including more than 12000 civilians. This war gave birth to famine and this famine gulped more than 850000 life of the Yemeni people. This war is still on the headlines of the world’s newspapers and magazines. Aid and abet by Saudi Arabia and Iran to its allies in this war have made the situation more complicated. Some steps including financial aid, have been taken by the UN peacekeeping for the solving of a humanitarian crisis in Yemen and stopping this civil war but these steps are not adequate for stoping this civil war. These inadequate steps will add a third chapter in the UN failures’ book.
Syrian civil war will be successful in creating the fourth chapter of the UN failures’ book. This war is also multi-sided. This war is between the Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian President Bashar Al -Assad and different domestic and foreign forces. Due to this war, Syria has become the playground for many superpowers of the world for showing their dominance in the region. This war has also become the reason for thousands of Syrian civilians casualties. According to the Pre-opposition Syrian network for human rights, 227,443 people have to bear the brunt of death between march 2011 to march 2021. These casualties are sufficient for shaking the core of the UN. But UN is being played by the hands of the world’s superpowers and the UN is unable for taking any substantial step for the deterrence of this war. This unableness of the UN will add the fourth chapter of UN failures’ book.
Iraqi civil war will be successful in creating the fifth chapter of the UN failures’ book. This multi-sided war started to come into the eyes of the world’s people in Dec 2013 and started to remove from the eyes of the world’s people in Dec 2017. This civil war was between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. This civil war also shoved thousands of Iraqi civilians in the well of death. According to the figure of Iraq body projects, 67,373 civilians have to face death on account of the Iraqi civil war between Jan 2014 to Dec 2017. These deaths do not interpret the success story of the UN rather these deaths will add a fifth chapter in the UN failures’ book.
Rwandan civil war will be successful in creating the sixth chapter of the UN failures’ book. This war was fought between Rwandan armed forces (Representing the country’s government) and the rebel Rwandan patriotic from Oct 1, 1990, to Jul 18 1994. The reason behind this large-scale civil war is the long-running tussle between the Hutu and Tutsi groups. This war had also taken much precious life of the Rwandan people. This war is deemed one of the worst ethnic genocide since world war 2. According to several search papers, almost 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi had endured death. If the Two victims are encompassed in this figure then this figure will traverse the figure of 1100,000.UN had taken some steps including the Arusha accord for impeding this genocide but as a matter of fact, these steps could not be proved useful for the prevention of this genocide. Secretary-General of UN, Kofi Anan has also ratified the failures of the UN in this civil war. So, this war will add the sixth chapter in the UN failures’ book.
Cambodian genocide will be successful in creating the seventh chapter of UN failures’ book. This genocide began to pass in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam war and the Cambodian civil war when the Khmer Rouge regime took control of Cambodian, turning it into a socialist country. Ultra -Maoism policy was used by Khmer rouge. Khmer’s rough regime commenced the genocide of people and assassinated 1.5 to 2 million people in 1979 by genocide. This violent genocide was ended by the Vietnamese interventions. But the role of the UN in the Cambodian genocide was very shameful because the UN recognized the Khmer Rouge regime while ignoring concern of human rights violations. This ignorance of human rights by the UN will add a seventh chapter in the UN failures’ book.
Darfur conflict will be successful in creating the eighth chapter of the UN failures’ book. Darfur conflict came to light in 2003 when the Sudan liberation movement (SLM) and the justice and equality movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting against the government of Sudan. This conflict had given birth to the first genocide of 21 century. According to the professor of Eric Reeves, due to this conflict, more than one million children have been killed, wounded, raped, displaced, traumatized, or endured the loss of parents and families. This genocide has not been halted until now. UN has not played an instrumental role in the prevention of this genocide. The figure of one million affected people brings light on the failures of the UN and this figure will add eight chapters in UN failures’ book.
The Rohingya crisis will be successful in creating the ninth chapter of the UN failures’ book. This crisis is bound with Myanmar. On Aug 25, 2017, an oppressing military crackdown was launched by Myanmar’s military on the Muslim ethnic minority. This crackdown became the reason for 24,000 civilians casualties and this crackdown forced 750,000 others including women and children to flee to Bangladesh, according to the Ontario international development agency (OIDA). UN had passed Condemn resolution against abuse of rights in Myanmar but besides this condemn resolution, the UN could not take satisfactory steps for the deterrence of this crisis and these unsatisfactory steps will add a ninth chapter in the UN failures’ book.
South Sudanese civil war will be successful in creating the tenth chapter of the UN failures’ book. South Sudan came onto the map of the world in 2011, but in Dec 2013 a civil war turned on in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. At that time South Sudan has been experiencing a civil war between President Salva Kiir from the Dinka ethnic group and former vice president Reik Machar, from the Nuer ethnic group. Thousands of people have become the victims of the South Sudanese civil war. According to the state Department-funded study, 382000 people at least have been killed and more than 2.5 million people have been urged to flee from the country. Almost 20,000 peacekeepers with the UN Mission in South Sudan to safeguard civilians and build durable peace in the country but above mentioned alarming figures reveal the incompetency of the UN and this incompetency will add a tenth chapter in the UN failures’ book.
These chapters cannot define all the failures of the UN. Iraq invasion(2003 -2011), Srebrenica massacre (1995), Somali civil war(2011-now ), and many other issues, conflicts, and massacres may also be successful in creating chapters. All these conflicts, wars, issues, and massacres have swallowed thousands of expensive life under the very nose of the UN. These conflicts have not taken precious life; these conflicts have also compelled thousands of people to flee their homelands. Fleeing their lands in a risky situation is not a royal road.
In short, if the UN does not want to become a white elephant, it should not be used by the hands of the world’s superpowers. UN must rethink its below-the-mark working.UN should make a new working setup for cutting the Gordian Knots of the world, and this setup should be based on equality rather than based on the world superpowers because the UN is not the perpetrator of below-the mark working of the UN. Instead, World superpowers are the main perpetrators of the mark working of the UN.
