May 14, 2000
Tyrants Emboldened By U.N. Peace Keeping Efforts
The current oxymoron of fashion is “peace keepers” – as, “We’re here from the United Nations to help you.”
No wonder ordinary black folks of central Africa flee in terror when the U.N. shows up in blue berets.
The latest horror victim is the African nation of Sierra Leone where Foday Sankoh, a common gangster, has taken over that country’s diamond mines. He is shrewd enough to cloak his shakedown with a title loved by natural-born compromisers –Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
In United Nations parlance, this stands for “oppressed blacks fighting for self determination.” Secretary General Kofi Annan swoons and U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright rushes over with smelling salts.
Surrounded by an aura of “freedom fighters,” up to 15,000 poor Leonians joined up with the RUF.
Any Leonians who object are killed – if they are lucky. Sankoh’s goons prefer to lop off the arms and legs of offenders so they can live long enough to identify their assailants. Tens of thousands of Leonians have been murdered and mutilated in the campaign. Fear and revulsion are the best persuaders of peace lovers.
Facts of the Sierra Leone implosion are well known. The principal source of national income is diamond mines. Motivation of Sankoh is simple: he wants them.
Sankoh organized a small gang of sadists and outlaws in 1991 to take over the mines by force. The Sierra Leone government at that time hired an international army of South African mercenaries to drive off the would-be thieves. What a terrible thing, mine owners refusing to turn over their property to thugs.
The United Nations can’t have discord. Ms. Albright agreed. Peace at any price. United States troops with guns are already overextended in Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia, Bosnia – not to mention Haiti, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Europe.
In the name of “unity,” the legitimate government of Sierra Leone was arm-twisted by Ms. Albright last year to kick out the mercenaries, grant amnesty to RUF, bestow eight cabinet posts to it and – now get this – give Sankoh control of the diamond mines.
A U.N. force of 9,000 multi-national soldiers (no Americans) were sent to keep the peace with pop guns. Ere long, a 500-man contingent from Nigeria were kidnapped by Sankoh’s boys and are being held hostage. Ominously RUF fighters are showing up in blue berets.
Nigeria and Kenya withdrew in disgust from the U.N. peace effort. Not to worry. A thousand or so Bangladesh, Indian and Jordanian troops are being rushed in by commercial airlines. President Clinton is sending Jesse Jackson over there Tuesday to make nice.
Everybody there is on edge because Sankoh last week disappeared from his own house surrounded by 75 U.N. body guards. The building was ransacked. Why? By whom? What’s next?
U.N. Sec-gen Annan admits ruefully, “It’s not the proudest moment for the force.”
Ms. Albright could say the same thing. U.S. foreign policy is in a shambles so far as American interests are involved. The Clintonites have whittled the Defense Department nearly to impotence with budget cuts, while committing U.S. to an increasing number of hot spots.
In the American grand scheme of world peace, the administration has spread its might and influence dangerously thin. The president says we can not police the world, having already overextended ourselves.
Admittedly, it is difficult to decide where to draw the line. Sometime somewhere, the United States – and the United Nations – must let uneconomic, uneducated countries fight themselves to a standstill of third-rate status.
This may seem cruel, but it is reality. It is global triage. There are a limited number of areas that can be saved. There must be a base of natural resources, an appreciation by citizens of capitalism and a history of representative democracy.
In the meantime, the United States will have to heed the advice of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger -- “self interest” and “benign neglect.”
Reasoning with tyrants – even letting them continue without serious penalty – should have convinced everyone by now that compromise in world affairs is a no brainer.
Ask Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Mohammad Aideed of Somalia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwa, Laurent Kabila of Congo, the ayatollahs of Iran – just to name a few realists.
Peace keeping is a military strategy – war with a pretty face – not a tea party among friends. It should be undertaken with all-out endeavor to separate the antagonists – not to arrange their wedding.
PARTING SHOTS
President Clinton said this week that when his term is up, he will go to Little Rock to live with his mother-in-law. Serves him right.
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Linda Tripp, the White House aide who blew the whistle on the Monica Lewis scandal, is being prosecuted for taping her phone calls. Strange. The only person to tell the truth may go to prison.
By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist
