Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World (97 page)

74
In 1999 Mark Malloch Brown, a Brit, would become the first non-American appointed to run the UN Development Program.

75
In November 2006 Margaret Chan would be appointed the head of the World Health Organization, the first Chinese to head a UN agency.

76
Thomas G.Weiss,“Civilian-Military Interactions and Ongoing UN Reforms: DHA’s Past and OCHA’s Remaining Challenges,” in Jim Whitman, ed.,
Peacekeeping and the UN Agencies
(London: Frank Cass, 1999), p. 56.

77
See .

2
Kofi Annan, press conference at United Nations Headquarters, November 14, 1997, online at .

3
Ibid. The United States called off the planned missile strikes when the government of Iraq offered unconditional cooperation.

4
Kofi Annan, Statement to the Special Meeting of the General Assembly on Reform, July 16, 1997.

5
Prior to joining the UN, Kieran Prendergast had served as British ambassador in Turkey, British high commissioner to Kenya, and British high commissioner to Zimbabwe.

6
SVDM, “OCHA: Visions, Priorities and Needs,” Geneva, Palais des Nations, June 8, 1998.

7
Ibid.

8
UN Department of Public Information, “Episode 708,”
UN World Chronicle,
April 21, 1998.

9
Geir Moulson, "U.N. Official: Afghan Rivals’‘War Games’ Endanger Aid,” Associated Press Worldstream, February 26, 1998.

10
Thalif Deen, "U.N. Restricts Aid to Saving Lives,” Inter Press Service, July 22, 1998. Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

11
“Taliban Places Restrictions on Foreign Muslim Women Working for UN,” Associated Press Worldstream, March 13, 1998.

12
Luisa Ballin, “Nous posons des conditions à p’aide aux talibans” (We Are Setting Conditions for Aid to the Taliban),
La Croix,
March 2, 1998, p. 7.

13
Ibid.

14
Physicians for Human Rights, “Medical Group Condemns UN Agreement with Taliban,” June 1998.

15
The Clinton administration carried out the attack on Afghanistan the same day as its infamous cruise missile strike on the Al Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan.

16
Farhan Haq, "U.N. Staff to Return to Afghanistan,” Inter Press Service, March 12, 1999; “No U.S., British Nationals Among UN Staff in Afghanistan,” Agence France-Presse, March 18, 1999.

17
Dennis King, “Paying the Ultimate Price: Analysis of the Death of Humanitarian Aid Workers (1997-2001),” January 2002, .There are no statistics on the number of humanitarian workers worldwide and no common reporting procedures on injuries or deaths.

18
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation,
Conference Report on Humanitarian Challenges in the New Millennium:Where Are We Headed?,
September 29, 1998, p. 14.

19
“UN Official Condemns Attacking of Humanitarian Vehicles in Angola,” Xinhua News Agency, May 22, 1998.

20
Edward Luttwak, “Give War a Chance,”
Foreign Affairs
78, no. 4 (July-August 1999).

21
SVDM, “Enough Is Enough,”
Foreign Affairs
79, no. 1 (January-February 2000).

22
Ibid.

23
Ibid.

24
SVDM, “War and Politics: The Humanitarian Deceit,” 1998, unpublished.

25
Barbara Crossette,“Reports of Spying Dim Outlook for Inspections,”
NewYork Times,
January 8, 1999, p. A8.

26
Colum Lynch, "U.S. Used UN to Spy on Iraq, Aides Say,”
Boston Globe,
January 6, 1999, p. A1.

27
Javier Solana, press statement, March 23, 1999, online at .

28
SVDM, “Promoting Peace and Security: Humanitarian Activities Relevant to the Security Council,” Address to an Open Session of the Security Council, January 21, 1999.

29
Sandy Berger, Special White House Briefing on Kosovo and NATO Air Operations, March 25, 1999. Berger said: “We always prefer to operate pursuant to a UN resolution. But we’ve also always taken the position that NATO has the authority, in situations it considers to be threats to the stability and security of its area, to act by consensus, without explicit UN authority. And that is the case here as well.”

30
The Security Council authorized the Korean War in June 1950, while the Soviet Union was boycotting the Council. Later that summer, when the Soviets returned and began vetoing U.S.-sponsored resolutions on Korea, the United States introduced the Uniting for Peace resolution in the General Assembly (also known as the Acheson Plan, after then-secretary of state Dean Acheson), which held that if the Security Council permanent members could not reach consensus and failed to exercise their “primary responsibility” for maintaining international peace and security, the responsibility would pass to the General Assembly, where two-thirds of the members present would need to authorize action. Since Korea, the Uniting for Peace resolution has been used to call the General Assembly into special session ten times, not always to bypass the Soviet veto. Following the British-French invasion of Egypt in 1956, Security Council resolutions calling for cease-fires were vetoed by France and the U.K.; an emergency session held under the Uniting for Peace resolution passed a U.S. resolution, leading to the withdrawal of France and the U.K. less than a week later. See Michael Ratner and Jules Lobel, “A UN Alternative to War: ‘Uniting for Peace,’”
Jurist,
February 10, 2003.

31
Kofi Annan, “Statement Regarding NATO Airstrikes of Serbian Military Targets,” March 24, 1999.

32
Judith Miller, “The Secretary-General Offers Implicit Endorsement of Raids,”
New York Times,
March 25, 1999, p. A13.

33
Kofi Annan, “The Effectiveness of the International Rule of Law in Maintaining International Peace and Security,” May 18, 1999, .

34
Kofi Annan, “A United Nations That Will Not Stand Up for Human Rights Is a United Nations That Cannot Stand Up for Itself,” Address to the Commission on Human Rights, April 7, 1999.

35
Ivo Daalder and Michael O’Hanlon,
Winning Ugly: NATO’s War to Save Kosovo
(Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2001), p. 140.

36
UNHCR, “Comments to British House of Commons Report on the Kosovo Humanitarian Crisis,” undated.

37
Peter Capella, “UN Agency Failed to Meet Refugee Crisis, Says Report,”
Guardian,
February 12, 2000, p. 17. See also David Rieff, “The Agency That Has Had a Bad War,”
Guardian,
June 10, 1999, p. 19.

38
Farhan Haq, "U.N. Pushes for Access to Refugees,” Inter Press Service, April 5, 1999.

39
Edith M. Lederer, “Divided Council Manages to Express Concern Over Kosovo Refugees,” Associated Press Worldstream, April 5, 1999.

40
Blaine Harden, "A Long Struggle That Led Serb Leader to Back Down,”
New York Times,
June 6, 1999, p. 1.

41
“Secretary General Shocked and Distressed by Bombing of Civilian Buildings in Yugoslavia, Including Chinese Embassy,” press release, May 10, 1999.

42
Nicole Winfield, "Annan Asks Yugoslavia to Accept UN Humanitarian Team,”Associated Press Worldstream, May 4, 1999.

43
“NATO Raids Go On as Hopes Rise for Negotiated End to Kosovo Conflict,” Agence France-Presse, May 7, 1999.

44
SVDM, Press Briefing, May 7, 1999.

45
Ibid.

46
CNN World Report Forum, Morning Q&A Session, May 7, 1999.

47
Ibid.

48
Ibid.

49
Kofi Annan, Press Conference, May 14, 1999.

2
Ibid.

3
Slobodan Milošević, interview by Arnaud de Borchgrave, UPI, April 30, 1999.

4
William Cohen and Henry Hugh Shelton, appearing on
Face the Nation,
May 16, 1999.

5
Candice Hughes, “NATO Pounds Kosovo; Serbs Complain Troop Withdrawal Obstructed,” Associated Press, May 16, 1999.

6
“UN Team Arrives to Study Kosovars’ Plight,”
New York Times,
May 18, 1999, p. A10; “UN Team to Spend 2-3 Days in Kosovo,” Associated Press Worldstream, May 17, 1999.

7
Candice Hughes, “UN Team Tries to Steer Neutral Course in Question of Who Is Suffering More,” Associated Press Worldstream, May 20, 1999.

8
“UN Aid Team in Kosovo,”
Guardian,
May 21, 1999.

9
Candice Hughes, “Silent Kosovo Bears Witness to the Ethnic Conflict,” Associated Press, May 21, 1999.

10
Although the two republics were then jointly part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Montenegro did not share Serbia’s war aims. Blessed by a scenic coastline and superior economic prospects, some 55.5 percent of Montenegrins voted for independence in 2006, clearing the European Union threshold, and the country became the 192nd member of the UN on June 28, 2006.

11
“ ‘Enough Evidence of Ethnic Cleansing’ in Kosovo,” Agence France-Presse, May 24, 1999.

12
Fabrizio Hochschild to SVDM, May 26, 1999.

13
SVDM, Briefing to the Security Council on the UN Inter-Agency Needs Assessment Mission to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, June 2, 1999.

14
Ibid.

2
Michael Dobbs, “NATO Occupies Tense Kosovo Capital; British Troops Confront Russians at Pristina Airport,”
Washington Post,
June 13, 1999, p. A1.

3
SVDM, “How Not to Run a Country: Lessons for the UN from Kosovo and East Timor,” 2000, unpublished.

4
Donna Bryson, “Aid Workers Follow Troops to Kosovo,” Associated Press, June 13, 1999.

5
“UN Civilian Administrator Arrives in Pristina,” Agence France-Presse, June 13, 1999.

6
Ibid.

7
SVDM, “How Not to Run a Country.”

8
UN Interim Administration in Kosovo, "Chronology,” online at .

9
SVDM, “Humanitarian Needs.”

10
Ian Johnstone, “Note on the Kosovo Mission Planning Meeting at United Nations Headquarters, New York, on 9 June 1999 at 5:15 p.m.,” June 12, 1999.

11
“UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Fact Sheet, June 12, 1999, online at .

12
Fabrizio Hochschild, “‘It Is Better to Leave, We Can’t Protect You’: Flight in the First Months of United Nations Transitional Administrations in Kosovo and East Timor,”
Journal of Refugee Studies
17, no. 3 (September 2004), pp. 286-300.

13
Ibid.

14
Before the NATO war, ethnic Albanians constituted just 30 of the 756 judges and prosecutors in Kosovo. Report of the Secretary-General on the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, July 12, 1999, p. 14.

15
Only on July 4 did Vieira de Mello use his governing authority to issue a legal order retroactively authorizing NATO troops to detain suspects.

16
Hansjörg Strohmeyer, “Collapse and Reconstruction of a Judicial System: The United Nations Missions in Kosovo and East Timor,”
American Journal of International Law
95, no.1 (January 2001), p. 53.

17
Ibid., p. 52.

18
SVDM, “How Not to Run a Country.”

19
Simon Chesterman,
You, the People:The United Nations,Transitional Administration, and State-Building
(Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 11.

20
Colleen Barry, “Rugova Returns to Kosovo from Wartime Exile,”Associated Press
,
July 15, 1999.

21
Kosovo has held four elections since 1999: municipal elections in 2000 and 2003, and national assembly elections in 2001 and 2004. These elections were conducted under international supervision. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other observing groups found the elections generally fair and free.

22
Niko Price, “Competing Governments in Kosovo Raise Questions about Future,” Associated Press, July 4, 1999.

23
In a nod to Washington, Annan also announced that James “Jock” Covey, a former U.S. diplomat who had served in the White House, would serve as Kouchner’s principal deputy.

24
“UN Kosovo Mission Appeals for End to Attacks on Minorities,” July 14, 1999.

25
John Ruggie,“Press Briefing on Kosovo,” July 21, 1999, online at briefings/docs/1999/19990721.RUGGIE.html.

26
SVDM, “Resist the Apartheid Temptation in the Balkans,”
International Herald Tribune,
August 25, 1999, p. 26.

27
Fiona Terry,
Condemned to Repeat?: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002), p. 23.

28
Bill Clinton, Remarks to the 54th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 21, 1999.

29
Hochschild, “‘It Is Better to Leave, We Can’t Protect You,’ ” p. 295.

30
SVDM, “How Not to Run a Country.”