WHERE IS THE PEACE??? (Open Letter To The UN)

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Where is the Peace?

The United Nations (UN), established in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, is an international organization that was founded with the aim of promoting and facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, political freedoms, democracy and the achievement of lasting world peace. Since it was set up, the organization has strived in its own capacity and capability to bring about peace in several war-torn areas from Africa to Asia, Middle East to the Americas. The UN has deployed its peace-keepers and forces to various parts to mediate in conflicts and find a lasting solution in order for peace to reign.

The United Nations of course has several agencies that help it to achieve its various objectives and goals and of a truth, these agencies have been tremendous in their actives, touching lives of people in every corner of the world where they are found. But despite the efforts of the UN in achieving world peace and economic development, there seems to be some people at the underground who have taken it upon themselves to give the world the exact opposite of what the UN is trying to achieve. Not only this, there has been some occurrences going on in the world which has made a few of us to question if the UN’s aim of “maintaining collective world security” can actually be achievable.

Various terrorist and militant organizations and rebel groups have sprung up which has given the world things to think and worry about. From Al-qeida in the middle-East, to Al-shabab, AQIM (Al-qeida in the Islamic Maghreb), Boko Haram (presently in Nigeria), the Talibans, Hezbollah, et al have all been striking and killing civilians, military forces and establishments, carrying arms against the government of their countries and whoever go against their ideologies even to an extent of attacking UN’s formations and buildings.

Iran and Israel has been sounding war drums for quite some time now, North-Korea and South-Korea are at loggerheads, the war in Mali is there, the terrorism in Nigeria is not looking to be resolved anytime soon, the unending war between the Palestinians and Israel, Russia, China, U.S.A, Britain, France, et al will not deny that they don’t have any external aggression to battle. So are other countries battling one aggression or the other either internal or external.

That aside, the unrest in Syria has really been a cause for worry. The conflict which started on the 15th of March 2011 has lasted for more than three (3) worse years with no sign of when the whole brouhaha will end. The Al-Assad forces and the opposition forces both have external supports that equip them with arms and ammunition and the UN are watching as killings and destructions are ongoing with no one to put an end to it. One begins to ask, are the countries backing the two forces too big for the UN to sanction? Has the UN given up its fight and aim of maintaining world security? Is there anything standing on the way of the UN in bringing an end to the conflict? What is supposed to be done by the UN that they have not done? Are there some people, countries or organizations that are benefitting from this unrest and are fighting tooth and nail so that the conflict won’t end? Where are we really going to from here?

As at May 2013, the United Nations itself released an estimate that the Syrian conflict’s death toll had exceeded a whooping 80,000. By June, this figure was updated to around 92,900-100,000. This list of course will include quite a large number of civilian casualties and armed combatants of both the Syrian army and rebel forces not leaving protesters and government officials. The UN also stated that about 4 million Syrians have been displaced within the country and as many as 1.5 million Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring countries.

Looking at those figures, a curious mind will ask, are those for humans and animals? Even if it were to be for animals, shouldn’t we ask questions, How much more humans? What is the United Nation doing to put an end to this madness? When will those backing these two forces get tired of hearing or seeing people die? When will these casualties stop? When? Just when

Has the UN not lost its credibility, integrity and focus and have started to chase shadows? The UN that couldn’t enforce their 17 resolutions on Saddam Hussein during the war in Iraq? The UN that couldn’t stop Iran from going ahead with its nuclear projects? When will the UN wake up? Can there be peace in this world looking at all these unrests going on?

By the way, there seem to be light at the end of the tunnel, the solution that the world has been waiting for. How I hope that the book The New World of UN Peace Operations; Learning how to Build Peace? Written by Thorsten Benner, Stephan Mergenthaler and Philipp Rotmann in the year 2011 will bring about the much needed lesson the entire world need to bring peace to our homes, environments, and countries. How I hope it will because as Tupac Shakur said in his Ghetto Gospel track “before we find the world peace, we gotta find peace in the world and on the streets”.
………………………..……………………to be continued

Adams Timothy Anuoluwapo 

 Lagos, Nigeria.