During his speech in New York on Tuesday, Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown gave one of the most astute summaries (pdf) of US-UN relations that I have read in a very long time. It was at once complimentary, prodding and constructive. And as Malloch Brown said at the outset, it was intended as "a sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy towards the UN by a friend and admirer." Unfortunately, Ambassador John Bolton did not see it that way.
"The United Nations said on Wednesday that seven of its peacekeepers, who were kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 10 days earlier, were well and that indirect contact had been established with their captors.
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Armchair Generalist writes, "The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) has released a historical summary on Iraq's chemical weapons program that documents its start in 1971 and follows the work conducted through the 1980s and 1990s.
At the Washington Note, Jeremy Kahn posts an interesting entry about "non-verbal politics".
Treehugger covers the UN's World Environment Day: "This year they chose to highlight something we don't hear about often enough: Natural deserts and drylands also need to be protected. These areas that most people consider to be almost "dead" are in fact vital ecosystems."
Michelle Malkin posts another anti-UN diatribe with a headline that tells you everything about her level of discourse: "Hey, U.N.: Boo-Freaking-Hoo."
A thoroughly bizarre story appeared in Rupert Murdoch's Australian tabloid, the Herald Sun yesterday. Reporters Rob Taylor and Olivia Rondonuwu suggest that the UN mission in East Timor tried to cover up a May 25 massacre in which 12 unarmed East Timorese police officers were gunned down by a group of renegade Timorse soldiers. The reporters base this claim on a leaked email in which the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in East Timor allegedly instructs UN employees against cooperating with an Australian investigation into the massacre.
Amidst a post on Haditha and the American military's ability to investigate itself, Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds can't resist landing a cheap shot against the UN, which he claims has been unwilling to investigate abuses in peacekeeping missions. The opposite is true.
"A United Nations Security Council delegation begins talks today with Sudanese government officials to press demands for a UN peacekeeping force to help end fighting in the western region of Darfur.
In his recent testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ambassador Bolton announced that the U.S. is "prepared to consider" a 90-day extension of the spending cap that threatens to disrupt invaluable UN operations at the end of this month.
However, he also acknowledged that "it hasn't met with a lot of support," and that "it's an indication ... that we're not trying to force this to an issue on the 30th [of June]."