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UN Report: IDF Targeted UN Buildings in Gaza

One of the more disturbing aspects of the Israeli Defense Forces incursion and shelling of Gaza last winter was the fact that United Nations buildings and personnel were routinely hit. In fact, there were nine incidents in which UN staff or property came under attack.

Yesterday, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon forwarded a 27 page summary (h/t Innercity Press) of a UN report on the nine attacks during operation Cast Lead to the Security Council. 

Reading the summary, a troubling pattern emerges in which 1) the UN gives GPS coordinates of its buildings to the IDF 2) civilians seeking shelter from IDF bombing gather at UN compounds or schools believing they would be safe 3) The IDF drops bombs on or near these UN compounds, killing or injuring the civilians therein 4) The IDF later says rockets were launched from the vicinity.

The report raises the serious question of whether or not the IDF deliberately targeted the UN during operation Cast Lead. Either way, it is clear that the IDF was not as vigilant as it could have been about avoiding UN targets -- and avoiding civilian casualties more broadly. For example, the report finds that the IDF used an incendiary substance called White Phosphorous in an attack on a UN compound and a UN school where hundreds of civilians had taken shelter.

Now, Hamas is a terrorist organization so we would not expect it to discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. And, indeed, the report finds one incident in which a likely Hamas rocket fell short of its target and hit a World Food Program warehouse.

Still, I think it is fair to say we should hold Israel to a higher standard. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much accountability in the offing.  For one, Israel declined to cooperate with a UN Human Rights Council authorized investigation by the lauded jurist Richard Goldstone.  Second, the IDF has dismissed claims by its own soldiers that its rules of engagement were lax.    Third, the Secretary General, in forwarding the report to the Security Council, did not immediately endorse one of the recommendations that he appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate incidents beyond the nine attacks on UN facilities.

The saga continues.

Photo from Flickr user Ghasal

Somalia and Eritrea are sick and tired of one another

Somalia is sick and tired of Eritrean arms being funneled to al-Shabaab terrorists. Eritrea is sick and tired "tired and sick" of being accused of funneling arms to al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia. Somalis are probably sick and tired of being caught between arms smuggling in a country already awash with guns.

Eritrea certainly had made a practice of arming Somali insurgent groups to fight the Ethiopian forces occupying Somalia. This was not out of sympathy with the Somalis who detested this occupation, but rather to tie up the hands of the Ethiopian military, with whom Eritrea remains on tense terms over a border dispute. The Ethiopians, of course, have since departed Somalia, but it might still be in Eritrea's interests to keep things roiling there.

As for Eritrea's claims, that "ulterior motives" are behind Somalia's accusations of Eritrean arms trafficking and that "western powers" are the ones responsible for Somalia's internal problems, they sound pretty similar to the counter-attacks one might expect of a government accused of illegal arms shipments. Yes, Western countries have also been guilty of "meddling" in Somalia, but that does not make Eritrea's influence -- which, as a regional actor, could be considered much greater -- any less damaging, "ulterior motives" or not.

Eritrea's information minister probably did not help his cause when he said that his country supports everyone except the legally recognized government in Somalia.

Sri Lanka Says it Knows Who Breads Its Butter, and it Ain’t Sweden.

This is just amazing.  The Sri Lankan government denied a visa to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, apparently fearful that Bildt would add his voice to the growing  international chorus condeming the military's counter-insurgency tactics that have claimed at least 6,000 civilian lives since January.   The AFP has a startling quote from an un-named Sri Lankan foreign ministry official who exhibits a troubling animosity toward Europe.

"The Swedish minister also wanted to jump on that bandwagon and we said no," the official said.

"Some think they can land up at our airport and expect a red carpet treatment. We are not a colony and neither a bankrupt Third World country. Our main donors are in Asia, not in Europe," the official added.

In fact, the International Monetary Fund is currently in negotiations with Sri Lanka over a $1.9 billion loan. I imagine that the un-named government official is miffed that the loan has not been approved quicker.  Still, playing hostile with the Europeans may not be the best way to get that loan approved.

A “low-intensity” conflict is still a conflict

The UN and AU's joint special representative to Darfur, Rodolphe Adada,  recently opined that Darfur is a "low-intensity conflict."  Lest this comment be construed to mean that the crisis in western Sudan is no longer much of a big deal -- which I doubt it will, largely because of the domestic issue that Darfur has become, but also because the term "low-intensity conflict" has a very specific definitional meaning, and is not a value judgment on the severity of a conflict -- but it's worthwhile to point out the obvious: Darfur has been a "low-intensity conflict" for a long time now -- four years, some might argue -- but that does not diminish the importance of solving the crisis one iota.  Rather, as the terrifying example of the Democratic Republic of Congo attests to, a "low-intensity conflict" is just the kind that can be the most consistently deadly, and the easiest for the international media to ignore.

That said, I don't share Nick Kristof's worries that the Obama Administration's policy toward Darfur thus far amounts to "appeasement."  Without relegating Darfur to the backseat of international priorities -- and he did appoint Scott Gration as his Special Envoy relatively quickly -- it's important to address the crisis based on an accurate reading of the current situation.  This does not mean swallowing Khartoum's propaganda, or being guilelessly led astray by its prevarications and obstructionism, too feckless to wield sticks.  But it does mean that if some sanctions are not contributing to a political solution that will solve the region's root problems, then, yes, they should be reassessed.  And it certainly means that if bombing Sudan would prove counter-productive (and it would), then we should look to other means of ensuring that Sudan does not conduct further bombing raids on its own population.

The fact is, Darfur in 2009 is not the same as Darfur in 2004, and recognizing this is imperative to formulating a sensible policy toward it.

Somalia terrorism: “How dare you try to protect our people and promote their welfare?” edition

When U.S. Congresspeople's planes are not around for Somali insurgent groups to fire mortars at, they apparently turn to their own parliament. The newly elected governing body's offence was as egregious as...passing a national budget for the impoverished and war-torn country.

Equally tragically (and equally unsurprisingly), militants (unclear whether or not they were of the same group) attacked African Union peacekeeping bases in Mogadishu on Saturday. Kind of makes it clear why few African countries are willing to offer their troops for the mission, which a Somali opposition leader calls "foreign invaders." Not hard to imagine what he'd have in mind for UN peacekeepers...

With the piracy epidemic off the coast receiving the bulk of attention, the EU has recently committed $200-plus million to support security in Somalia, and the money is supposed to go to land-based initiatives, like the AU mission, rather than catch-'em-at-sea measures. The recent violence, coupled with continually ill-timed consideration of a UN peacekeeping force in Somalia, underscores the need to act very carefully in not creating undue provocations. There's no reason to submit to terrorist demands of withdrawing all peacekeepers before talks with the government can begin, but we should take into account the safety of these peacekeepers, and the best way to actually protect people. Declaring a "war against piracy" seems to ignore the country's domestic political instability and risks needlessly inflaming much of the population whose cooperation will be key to quelling banditry at sea.

(image of Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia, from flickr user ISN Security Watch under a Creative Commons license)

Sri Lanka Update IV

A number of news organizations are reporting on a leaked UN document that puts the death toll from fighting in Sri Lanka at close to 6,500 since January, with approximately 14,000 wounded. The victims are ethnic Tamils trapped between the LTTE insurgent group and a Sri Lankan government hell-bent on delivering one final blow to the murderous LTTE.  According to the leaked UN document, an average of 35 civilians have been killed a day since January. In April the average death toll jumped to 116 civilians killed everyday.

This, ladies and gentleman, is the first man-made humanitarian crisis of the Obama era.  It ain't pretty.

 

Sri Lanka Update III

Ban Ki Moon's Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar returned from Sri Lanka to brief the Security Council  yesterday evening on the unfolding humanitarian crisis there. The briefing occurred behind closed doors, but following the meeting Mexican U.N. Ambassador Claude Heller, speaking on behalf of the entire Council, expressed "deep concern" for the plight of civilians caught in the conflict and "strongly condemned" the LTTE for preventing civilians from leaving the conflict zone.

This is pretty timid response.  True, the LTTE deserve condemnation for holding civilians as human shields.  But so too does the government of Sri Lanka for shelling densly populated areas where these civilians are trapped.  Susan Rice, at least, sounded the right notes.  

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice criticized the Sri Lanka government for not providing full assistance to all civilians who manage to escape the rebel-held zone.

She also suggested that both the Tamil Tigers and the government might be guilty of violating international law.

"The fact that both sides have been shooting at civilians as they leave the safe zone is one gross manifestation of the apparent violation of international humanitarian law," Rice said.

It is a shame that other members of the Security Council would not endorse these sentiments. Part of the problem is that China and Russia consider this an internal matter to Sri Lanka and are not willing to hold a "formal discussions" about the conflict.

Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders posts a chilling interview with surgeon Paul McMaster from Vavuniya hospital in Sri Lanka.

What is the situation at the hospital now?

We and our Sri Lankan colleagues have been dealing with casualties brought into us over these last few days from the conflict in the north of us. We've been seeing very severely wounded patients, the numbers of patients have increased rapidly over the last three or four days, so we're seeing a stream of badly wounded people being brought into us.

Our hospital has got about 450 beds, and we've now got more than 1,700 patients in the hospital-on the floor, in the corridors, and even outside. So the hospital is very close to being overwhelmed.

What conditions are the patients arriving in?

About three-quarters of the injured coming in now have suffered from blast injuries, and the rest are gunshot wounds and mine explosions. We're seeing who've survived on the field and actually reached us. We see abdominal injuries, but many of the chest or head injuries we're suspecting don't survive the blasts to get to us.

This is what the “war on terror” accomplishes

Jim Traub makes the incisive point today that the Sri Lankan military offensive, so close to wiping out the Tamil Tigers' last bastion of territory, yet so destructive to the innocent civilians trapped in this territory, has been conducted with, if not a wink and a nod, then at least a shrug from the international community.

This is a situation of armed conflict in which both parties are acting in ways that pose a grave risk to innocent civilians. The party that is perhaps more culpable -- the rebels -- answers to no one. And the Sri Lankan government has been able to operate with virtual impunity because it is fighting "terrorists." Even Western states that usually condemn violations of international law have given the situation a wide berth. [emphasis mine]

The Tamil Tigers (or LTTE) are terrorists, to be sure. But Tamils trapped in northeastern Sri Lanka -- some used as human shields by the Tigers -- are not. And I'm not quite confident that the Sri Lankan government is entirely making that distinction. While this may fall short of an outright ethnically-based counter-insurgency measure, Sri Lanka's military is, at the least, wantonly disregarding the imperative to protect civilians.

The drive over the last few months to retake the rebel stronghold is not, I think we can safely assume, wholly motivated by the "hostage rescue" imperative asserted by the Sri Lankan government. When a tenuous -- but potentially seminal -- ceasefire began to break down over the past couple years in a series of escalating attacks and reprisals (by both sides), the more militant wing in Colombo must have won the day. For the Sri Lankan president (and Defence Minister), Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his brother (a top official in the Defence Ministry who also survived an LTTE assassination attempt in 2006), I get the feeling that this is personal. They saw an opportunity to crush the LTTE resistance, and they took it. Now, increasingly obsessed with killing the Tigers' longtime elusive leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Sri Lankan military does not seem to be paying adequate heed to the fact that refugees and civilians have no where left to go. And given the Tigers' even more cavalier disregard for civilian life, the fear of a "bloodbath on the beaches" is not misplaced.

Sri Lanka Update II

An update to yesterday's post.  From the UN Refugee Agency:

Yesterday, the Government of Sri Lanka informed UNHCR and other agencies that an estimated 40,000 people had fled areas where the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are engaged in heavy fighting. They were expected to reach the districts of Vavuniya and Jaffna within 48 hours. This would bring the estimated total to have fled the conflict zone to more than 100,000, a majority of whom have fled in recent weeks.

Of the anticipated 40,000 displaced, so far we have confirmed reports that some 5,500 people have reached sites in Vavuniya, while another 2,000 new arrivals were recorded in Jaffna yesterday. As civilians are transported into the sites, UNHCR is still ascertaining the total number of new IDPs in the two districts.

And from the ICRC:

"What we are seeing is intense fighting in a very small area overcrowded with civilians who have fled there," said the ICRC's director of operations, Pierre Krähenbühl. "The situation is nothing short of catastrophic. Ongoing fighting has killed or wounded hundreds of civilians who have only minimal access to medical care."

The ICRC is concerned that the final offensive in the area by government forces against fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of civilian casualties...

"The LTTE must keep its fighters and other military resources well away from places where civilians are concentrated, and allow civilians who want to leave the area to do so safely," said Mr Krähenbühl. "On their part, government forces are obliged to ensure that the methods and means of warfare they employ make it possible to clearly distinguish at all times between civilians and civilian objects, on the one hand, and military objectives, on the other. In this situation, we are particularly concerned about the impact on civilians of using weapons such as artillery."

Meanwhile, Reuters captures some compelling images from the incredible mass-exodus.