Thousands of men, women and children who were supposed to be protected by UN peacekeepers in Srebrenica in 1995 were instead slaughtered, raped and tortured. Reportedly, the peacekeepers didn't fire a shot.
But in Kinshasha, in 2004, when their base is overrun by protestors who
are angry that the UN peacekeepers didn't do enough to keep Bukavu from
falling into rebel hands, they don't have any issues with shooting and
killing people.
NAIROBI Angry demonstrators targeted United Nations
facilities across Congo on Thursday, protesting the failure of UN
peacekeepers to prevent the eastern town of Bukavu from falling to
rebels. The most violent protests took place in the capital, Kinshasa,
where thousands of people broke down the door of a UN logistics base
and stormed the building.
In response, UN forces fired at the protesters, killing two and
wounding a third, said a spokesman for the UN, Hamadoun Toure, who
called the shootings "legitimate self defense." "Our security people
were overwhelmed," he said in an interview by telephone from Kinshasa.
"They had to open fire to calm down the situation."
Elsewhere in the capital, a large group of demonstrators converged on
the headquarters of the UN mission. Similar demonstrations broke out in
the central town of Kindu, in the southern town of Lubumbashi and in
the city of Kisangani, officials said. The popular outrage at the
10,800-strong UN peacekeeping force came after two renegade military
commanders launched an attack on Bukavu on Wednesday, seizing control
of the strategic town from Congo's military.
If you follow the logic this would mean that the UN and their peacekeepers are only in it for themselves.
Could this possibly be right?
/sarcasm
Posted by Kathy at June 1, 2004 06:48 PM | TrackBack