By General Thoon-anyar Aywien
February 7, 2012 (SSNA) — The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) came to existence after the Declaration of independence of the Republic of South Sudan on the 9/July/ 2011, even though the Security council claim that it was a new Mission with stronger mandate and talented capabilities to protect civilian and maintain peace, I perceived it to be partial succession of that incompetent UNMIS in the former united Sudan with the same bigmouth maneuvers and that pathetic habit of hastily conveying inaccurate reports replica to content their Grander chiefs in UN New –York HQs. Memories of Abei and South Kordofan massacre with the full blessing from the peacekeepers was still fresh in our thoughts.
South Sudanese should understand that UNMISS would never provide adequate protection for South Sudanese civilians, despite their extraordinary expenditures and bloated budgets, all they do best in Juba and other states of ROSS, was collection of taunted data, sexually exploitation of the poor local girls and those unfortunate ladies from our neighbours in addition to other immoral practices around our towns. However when real situation arise on the ground where civilians life are under imminent danger, the poor civilians have the Creator only to determine their destiny. Because all those opportunistic peacekeepers are here for their own survival, so none of them is willing to risk his or her own life for the very cause that legitimized their presence in this country. While uncomfortably our dear human life were lost in these senseless tribal conflicts, that they (peacekeepers) enjoy disputing or verifying casualties numbers on reports as if those people are just mediocrity living beings. Likewise they veiled their actual contentment whenever more innocent people perish; as such events will justify their presence for another longer duration in the mission. They usually ended up saying “The primary responsibility for protecting civilians lies with the Government of South Sudan”. So the question that begs an answer is, .For God sake what are all those 3000 strong peace keeping force, and thousands of International civilians employees’ doing in this country???
So I argue that UNMISS personal are here for their own good and benefit, our people should not expect anything worthy from this Mission, based on the evident of those two month bygone, we South Sudanese should cram our own initiatives to tackle our internal disputes unaided. Because those opportunist from UNMISS where only Job predators mostly displaced from former Mission in the North Sudan, and now aggressively entrenching their existence in ROSS with bogus job creating positions and titles, for themselves.
While the indigenous Staff are side-lined in order to accommodate them. When you go to the HQs in Juba, you may observed how desperately the so called International staffs are squeezing themselves in various section, for example more than 15 dispatch International supervisors 45 International Security officers and more in the other Sections, doing what nobody know, what is their term of references (ToR) was to be crafted yet, undecided up to this moment. These can be term to one assumption only, That could definitely mean incompetency and gross mismanagement of resources, some of them even have nowhere and nothing to do, only browsing on their laptops “net charting” and at the end of the month rewarded with decent pay and numerous monthly leaves entitlements, usually majority of those staff are either busy buzzing, gossiping and socializing, at the cafeteria (Tukul).
The management was so equivocal about capacity building and employment opportunity for the local staff, nothing practical materialized, any training abroad is preserved to the internationals, several Job vacancies been advertised but none was actually executed United Nation Peace Keepers has distinction records of failure since its inception as DPKO 1948 to 1992,
History of UN Failure and incompetency goes as below:
Bosnia 1992-1995
Its Failure in Bosnia Massacre, how the United Nations allowed the Bosnian Muslim ”safe area” of Srebrenica to be overrun in July 1995 by Bosnian Serbs, who then systematically killed thousands of the town’s men and boys.The fall of Srebrenica became a damaging symbol of the United Nations’ failure at peacekeeping in a new era of civil wars, and it demonstrated the inadequacy of a system that allowed political considerations to color military decisions when troops were under the command of the United Nations.”The tragedy of Srebrenica will haunt our history forever,” the report concludes” quote former UN Boss
Rwanda 1994
Failure to halt the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
Responsibility for the failure to halt the 1994 genocide in Rwanda lies with the UN system, members of the UN Security Council — the US and UK in particular — and other UN member states, according to the report of an independent inquiry made public at UN headquarters in New York on 16 December
Democratic Republic of Congo DRC 1999
The U.N.’s Congo Disaster
The U.N. was supposed to keep the peace in the DRC—instead, its troops are accused of rape and its mission accused of worsening the violence.
Liberia 2003
UN failure in Liberia
Young girls in Liberia are still being sexually exploited by aid workers and peacekeepers despite pledges to stamp out such abuse, Save the Children says.
Lebanon 2006
Total Failure In Lebanon
The United Nations never fails to fail. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has failed for decades. (And what do they mean by "interim"? Interim between when and when?) I knew (yes, knew; not suspected; not thought) that Security Council Resolution 1701 would go the way of its predecessor, Security Council Resolution 1559. It’s not because I’m a seer. It’s because the United Nations is the United Nations, and fights over language are what it does best. The Lebanese army is not confronting Hezbollah’s return to the south, armed and dug in at many of its old positions. UNIFIL has not confronted anyone but (as Yossi Klein Halevi points out in the next issue of TNR, online soon) Israel. Moreover, there is a paltry deployment of 5,000 UNIFIL troops when what was promised was 15,000. On and on.
Somalia 2007
Failure of the United Nations The disaster in Somalia.
Since United Nations failed to prevent the mass-indiscriminate bombing slaughter of 20,000 Somali civilians since the beginning of 2007, its sister agencies equally failed its responsibility to the Somali humanitarian and political crisis.
Haiti 2010
Haiti earthquakewas a catastrophic
For many Haitians, especially those living in the poorest neighbourhoods in the capital Port au Prince, MINUSTAH has been closer to a foreign occupation force than a United Nations peacekeeping mission. The few journalists that have reported from these areas describe bustling streets that are quickly deserted as terrified residents hide from passing UN tanks. Peacekeepers. Civilians are regularly killed or injured during the course of heavy-handed joint UN-HNP operations. MINUSTAH officials have come to speak of "collateral damage" sounding more like US generals than UN officials. They have failed to uphold either the letter or the spirit of their mandate…Despite one of the strongest human rights mandates in the history of UN peacekeeping operations. Rather than heeding its directive to protect civilians from imminent violence, MINUSTAH has instead inflicted stray bullets on them…MINUSTAH’s disarmament work thus far has transpired only in conference rooms. In consequence,
UNMIS 2005- 20011
UN peacekeepers from Zambia fail to carry out their mandate to patrol and protect civilians they locked themselves up for a couple of days, while the Sudanese Army and Misiriya Malisia wher slaughtering the Ngok Dinka in Abyei. Zambian peacekeepers in Abyei have been criticised before. In 2008, they refused to allow civilians caught in crossfire between northern and southern Sudanese soldiers into their compound.
UNAMID 2007
UNAMID is all too representative of the U.N.’s failure, of many years, the lack of leadership is a main reason, and Gambari’s profoundly ill-considered decision to attend the wedding of Musa Hilal’s daughter is emblematic of this larger failure.Why would he attend the wedding festivities for the daughter of a man linked in all credible human rights violation, murder rape, senseless butchering of civilans “Only wicked men rejoice each time women and children are massacred and raped”
UNMISS 2011
Peacekeepers helpless
The raiders had even broadcast their massacre plans. “We have decided to invade Murleland and wipe out the entire Murle tribe on the face of the earth,” the attackers, from a rival ethnic group, the Nuer, warned in a public statement. The United Nations, which has 3,000 combat-ready peacekeepers in South Sudan, tracked the advancing fighters from helicopters for days before the massacre and rushed in about 400 soldiers.
But the peacekeepers did not fire a single shot, saying they were greatly outnumbered and could have easily been massacred themselves. This is not an explanation; this is the U.N. protecting its own, even one of its most incompetent, the UN is hypocritical and useless organization which claims to have a mandate to protect civilians. Instead the UN has advised civilians to flee the area.
The Special Representative for the Secretary General to S. Sudan, Hilde F. Johnson "I am deeply concerned to learn of reports of this imminent large scale attack on civilians in Jonglei State. The Government must act now if we are to avert a major tragedy.”
The so called UNMISS where very good in pointing fingers at our leadership, with that monotonous speech of our government should take responsibility of Security, question that plead an answer is what are UNMISS here and doing what exactly, how and for how long they would stay here.
Ban gave a speech whitewashing his and the UN’s failure to speak loudly and arrange for alternative helicopters in South Sudan after being told in mid-November that the Russian helicopters would not fly.
After the bloodbath occurred in Pibor and the UN was unable to bring "lethal assets to dissuade" attack, and then refused to even estimate those killed,
We do not expect anything tangible coming from this Mission, they are just here for employment opportunity and nothing more than that, and they value their soul’s superior to every other concerns, so never imagine that they will risk themselves to protect our poor civilian from massacre. They only respond aftermath for verifications and disputing the casualties’ number as if those perished are heads of cattle.
I requested our government to give them green light to start packing and go, since they are helpless they must leave sooner than later, we should do exactly like what Khartoum has done to UNMIS, and let them go with all their evils.
The Author can be reached at [email protected]