The Purple Helmets of Peace Strike Again

Same as it ever was. UN backed troops, taking the place of professional soldiers doing peacekeeping, have been engaging in the kind of rampage that has come to be associated with the words “U.N.” and “Peacekeeping”. As usual, they weren’t just massacring civilians, they were more interested in getting a piece.

More than 7,500 cases of sexual violence against women and girls were registered at health centers during that nine-month period, nearly double that of 2008 and likely representing only a fraction of the total.

Human Rights Watch said that the 19,000 peacekeepers in Congo — the biggest U.N. force in the world — must "immediately cease all support to the current military operation" until it can ensure there are no violations of international humanitarian law. The group also called for the U.N. to find "a new approach to protect civilians."

In other words, something a little more like those awful Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a little less like those lionized by bobs as “doing God’s work.”

Is there any reason to be surprised? Hell no! That was all just oh-so last year! The force in question is composed as it is because of a failed Europeans commitment where the world was supposed to thank them for the fine conference accommodations where the press conference took place, but expect nothing in the way of peacekeeping troops in their former colonies:

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said ministers would discuss Mr Ban's appeal, but added: "Let me also underline that the situation on the ground is getting slightly better, and politically also."

But non-governmental organisations poured scorn on any suggestion things in eastern DR Congo were improving, saying rape, murder and pillage was still rife in the region.

'Situation is dramatic'

The 27-nation EU has so far been reluctant to commit forces to the Congo to back a 17,000-strong UN force, Monuc, already on the ground.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said before the discussions: "It will take four to six months before the additional troops for Monuc will arrive and the humanitarian situation is dramatic over there."

Belgium has been the most outspoken European country in appealing for help for DR Congo, its former colony.

Again, they closed their eyes and wished for peace, so (again) they should not be surprised as what that gave them. Speaking in 2008 on the subject on behalf of this “peacey-peacey superpower of lurrrrve”, Sarko said:

“You can't be everywhere all the time,”

Or in France’s case, failing to support a force to the point where it really can’t effectively be anywhere.

Purple Helmets of Peace Molesting Children in Côte d’Ivoire

Not really breaking news, as we know, but a brand new round of information on the gentle ministrations of the casques bleu is popping up all over he place:

A 13-year-old girl described to the BBC how 10 UN peacekeepers gang-raped her in a field near her Ivory Coast home, and left her bleeding, trembling and vomiting on the ground.

No action has been taken against the soldiers

BBC World Service is not naming nations. Beside the general opinion that the sensitivities of their own editors matters more than reporting news with the notion that certain types of truthful reportage would be going too far, it might have something to do with the fact that there are so many nations thought of of as model states involved including Europeans, and because the UN are all about Human Rights®© of the saintly downtrodden all the time... or at least their own saintly appearing to be.

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On this day in ’04, Jonathan discussed the un-quiche-like health benefits of the Big Mac and French government's response to Sheik Ahmed Yassin's assassination. Prolific chap, that Jonathan.

In ’05, I got cranked up somehow over nostalgia for sayings misattributed to 18th century aristocracy, Castro’s huge personal worth, and Truthers making up allegations of Genocide. Erik, as always was chasin’ the ladies, and Pete DuPont. Otherwise silence set in.

W said “Get Whitey” and told Hermann to get a yob. He also reminds us of the persistence of the purple helmets of peace.

2006 was a riot

2007 saw a sharp rise in Scimitars with U*2 reminding us of what cretins and liars AmeriKKKans really are. Son, can you smell the mendacity?

In ’08, we welcome the welcome the third day of spring with a refreshing romp through the glade

Corrupt cowardly pedophiles

Bow down before their purple helmets of peace.

The surge must be working

Why else would the purple helmets of peace make their way back to Bagdad?

EUtopia at its Best

A spate of purple helmet stories can’t be far off:

Leading NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the EU and NATO to make its future peacekeeping operations in Kosovo subject to law, after a string of failures by existing "accountability" structures to investigate allegations of criminal behaviour by international personnel.

By “law” they seem to mean something they’d have a hand in writing, of course. That no-one ever elected HRW doesn’t seem to register any more in this one of their imperious declarations as any other one they’ve issues.

The EU effort - the biggest of its kind in the union's history - is to see 1,600 policemen and 72 civilian officials deploy in January, if UN talks on Kosovo's status end quickly. An EU preparatory office in Pristina - the EUPT - began work in April with 40 staff but has now grown to over 200 personnel, reports indicate.

The EU policemen will be supported by 16,000 soldiers drawn from 35 countries, including the US, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as most EU states. The military force - currently called KFOR - is under NATO command and has already been working alongside UNMIK since the end of the civil war eight years ago.

And to think that if deploying 1600 cops in their own back-yard for their own security isn’t a giant sacrifice in the interest of people in, say, South Africa and Thailand, imagine that it needs an “international” coalitions of 16 000 soldiers to back it up. 10 to 1, even when we all know that violence never solved anything!

But a fresh HRW report out Thursday (14 June) suggests the system is breaking down. In February 2006 the Ombudsperson lost his mandate to oversee international bodies. The human rights panel has not yet started work. The oversight committee last met in 2004. The UNMIK commission has been invisible so far.

Yup. You read that right: the controlling authority is being deemed by an NGO to be illegitimate to oversee and apply the law to alphabet soup “International bodies” and NGOs.

A two-state solution: just give up and let the NGOs administer the EU. Barring that, I’m sure temporary administration of the EU’s back yard by the UN might calm EUvian nerves over the state of their own administrative capacity. I suppose the wet dream for them would be blue helmets keeping the peace in Brussels, with all of its’ attendant zen and good PR juju.

Purple helmets of peace pull out of that Middle Eastern hole

Never know what you might catch.

UN staffers demand that you bow down before their purple helmets of peace

"The blue helmet has become black and blue through self-inflicted wounds,” Jane Holl Lute, a senior U.N. peacekeeping official who heads a U.N. task force on sexual exploitation, told a congressional committee investigating allegations that U.N. personnel participated in rape, prostitution and pedophilia in Congo. “We will not sit still until the luster of that blue helmet is restored."