The U.N. On the Move:
Peacekeepers Can Still Spread AIDS |
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The United Nations had a good week at the end of June, holding a well-publicized conference on AIDS and taking custody of former Yugoslavian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. The average consumer of the news might conclude that the U.N. was doing something worthwhile for a change. The U.N. postures as an organization leading a global campaign against a deadly disease and its desire to try Milosevic as a war criminal adds impetus to the campaign for an International Criminal Court that could arrest and prosecute Americans. Our media didn't mention that possibility, but papers like the Washington Post and New York Times did hail the development in the Milosevic case as a step forward for the international rule of law.
Also getting into the act, the U.N.'s International Court of Justice berated the state of Arizona for executing some convicted killers. This became a non-story, as if we're getting used to the world body interfering in our own internal affairs.
The U.N. court that will try Milosevic is itself a violation of international law. Under the U.N. charter, the court was supposed to be established by a treaty ratified by member states. Instead, the U.N. Security Council simply created the court on its own. The new government of Yugoslavia understood this fact but elements of the government decided to turn Milosevic over for trial because it feared that more foreign aid from Europe and the U.S. would not be forthcoming without such "cooperation" with the U.N. It was simply a matter of cold, hard cash, not an issue involving the "rule of law."
The U.N. also acts like a law unto itself on the matter of AIDS. Again, however, the media have failed to tell people the whole story. Buried in the U.N.'s global declaration against AIDS was the following paragraph: "By 2003, ensure the inclusion of HIV/AIDS awareness and training, including a gender component, into guidelines designed for use by defence personnel and other personnel involved in international peacekeeping operations while also continuing with ongoing education and prevention efforts, including pre-deployment orientation, for these personnel."
That's a bureaucratic way of saying that U.N. troops will NOT be required to be tested for HIV before being deployed. What the U.N. is saying is that, in two years, U.N. soldiers will be trained to be aware of the problem. This is supposed to be a major advance for the U.N.
This issue is significant because a Danish documentary, "And the U.N. Came," blames U.N. troops for creating the AIDS crisis in Cambodia. The film documents how U.N. soldiers spreadthe disease by having sex with local citizens, children, and prostitutes. Asked about this, one U.N. official is shown saying, "Boys will be boys."
As the U.N. was completing work on its declaration against AIDS, the British Guardian newspaper ran a story about how 10 U.N. humanitarian workers in East Timor, which is under U.N. occupation, had tested HIV-positive. The world body was warned that AIDS-infected staff could "set off an AIDS epidemic…" An official of the Australian government called for mandatory AIDS tests for all U.N. workers in East Timor, saying it would be "hypocritical" if it did not act. He added, "If the UN is serious about tackling AIDS globally, they should start in their own back yard." The Guardian reported that some groups warned that East Timor "could become another Cambodia." (30)