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ENDING INSECURITY MEANS ENDING THE OCCUPATION Professor Yasmine Sherif Professor Yasmine Sherif has served with the United Nations for 15 years in Africa, Asia and Europe and worked under Sergio Vieira de Mello’s leadership during his term as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in New York. Professor Sherif recently has been appointed Protection Consultant for the International Rescue Committee in Khartoum, Sudan. “I have come here to learn, not to teach,” Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Special Representative for Iraq, reassured the Iraqi people when he arrived in their devastated country last June. “I am going to Iraq in solidarity with the Iraqi people,” Nadia Younes, his chief-of-staff told colleagues as she signed up for the UN mission in Baghdad. A similar commitment to serve was held by American Rick Hooper, who had previously worked with the UN in Gaza for seven years. All three were among those killed on August 19, 2003, in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Sergio Vieira de Mello and his staff did what the United Nations does better than anyone, namely serving a war-weary people in their quest for self-determination and democracy. The deaths of this dynamic UN veteran and 22 other people raise serious questions that go well beyond improving security for humanitarian workers. They compel us to examine the Bush administration’s questionable approach to liberty and self-determination. If these indeed are the true intentions of the US presence in Iraq, the coalition forces have fatally failed on at least three accounts: First, as long as US armored vehicles roll down the streets of Baghdad, and Washington insists on handpicking the Iraqi representation, there will no peace in Iraq. Reality on the ground demands we recognize that the occupation itself has greatly contributed to the magnitude of violence. Besides its illegality under international law, occupation, by definition, is an unnatural state that prevents progress toward self-determination and national independence. Second, the US administration has proven to be wanting in technical expertise with regard to peacebuilding toward self-determination. During the abhorrent and totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein, Iraqis had no personal or political freedom, but they retained the basic necessities for their immediate survival, and UN humanitarian agencies operated with relative security. Today, despite the coalition intervention, Iraqis and the UN enjoy neither. The US appointed Governing Council is deprived of the political power required to have any significant say in the affairs of Iraq. Moreover, the infrastructure remains highly dysfunctional, while the security situation for skilled national and international UN workers has never been as insecure, preventing the implementation of a solid reconstruction program. Third, and perhaps worst, the Bush administration lacks the humility needed to win the hearts of 9
a long-suffering people. In stark contrast to the words of Sergio Vieira de Mello and his staff, the Bush administration, through US civil administrator Paul Bremer and his staff on the ground, tends to tell the Iraqis what they should or should not do with an attitude of both teaching and preaching. A case in point is Paul Bremer’s bullet-point orders to the Iraqi Governing Council following the attack on the United Nations, whereby he urged the Council to give the public the impression that this puppet body was in charge of the country. “Tell them that the Governing Council needs to be seen governing, not later, but now,” the memo from his staff read. The patronizing tone of Bremer’s command to the powerless Council, whose hands are tied to US directives, did not go down well with some of its members. “We should have a real government, and then we could begin to solve Iraq’s problems,” one Council member responded in indignation. As for George W. Bush’s personal attitude to international problems, we are all too familiar with his crusade-like approach in the name of the “civilized world.” Tragically, the definition of “civilization” by the world’s most powerful political leader has proven to be a world order where international human rights law and the UN Charter, both of which represent humanity’s most profound and noble aspirations, are disregarded in favor of the US national interest. Most absurdly, the Bush administration has cornered the United Nations into legitimizing its breaches of international law. By adopting Security Council resolutions 1483 and 1500, the UN — scrambling for space to protect the Iraqi people — was placed in the bizarre position of collaborating with the very same power that had trashed its founding principles. As the Security Council meets again to find a solution to a problem that is inextricably linked to the Bush administration’s disrespect for the UN Charter, one can only hope that U.N. diplomats will be guided by Sergio Vieira de Mello’s last words, spoken as he lay dying in extreme pain: “Don’t let them pull out the mission.” In remembrance of our colleagues who died for the founding principles of the UN, the Security Council must now opt for a path that is consistent with the UN Charter and our universal standards. Moving to end the occupation based on a clear timetable, allowing free and fair elections, and restoring Iraqi sovereignty will be more effective at ending the current insecurity and instability in Iraq than adding more tanks to the streets of an occupied country. The UN must finally take charge of the reconstruction of Iraq simply because it knows something that the current US administration has proven it does not understand: liberty and human rights emerge out of trust and national ownership, not out of force and humiliation. Professor Sherif’s article was published by Reuters Foundation Alertnet (based in London) on 3 September 2003. Reuters Alertnet reports on humanitarian global issues and primarily addresses the humanitarian, UN, and NGO communities (the Web Site has an estimated 100,000 readers/month). ❃ ❃ ❃ 10
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united nations advanced certificate faculty - Long Island University

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