UN No Longer Seen As Neutral

By Anne Penketh,
Diplomatic Editor
Published: 25 June 2007
The Independent

The Iraq war has shattered the cause of humanitarian intervention endorsed by Tony Blair and directly led to the targeting of relief workers in conflict zones where they are no longer considered to be neutral, according to a former senior UN official.

In a speech in London tonight, Sir Mark Malloch-Brown will say: "The brutal truth is politics is making it harder and harder to serve victims' needs by reaching them with assistance or bearing witness to their suffering and thereby staying the hand of those who would harm them."

Mr Blair's belief in the doctrine of humanitarian intervention, or the use of force to advance moral causes, led to Nato's air war with Serbia to halt the ethnic cleansing of Kosovars, and later to British military intervention in Sierra Leone. The doctrine was also used to rally international support for the invasion of Afghanistan.

"I have watched the work I used to do get steadily more dangerous as it is seen as serving Western interests rather than universal values."

...Sir Mark describes similar problems for humanitarian workers in such diverse places as Colombia and Gaza, where, he says "with Western support to Fatahland and a political-economic blockade of Hamastan, as one journalist put it, sides are being taken. The humanitarian effort is not neutral."

..."It's a free for all," he said. "All parties see the humanitarians as legitimate targets either for political reasons or as a resource,"...

...Sir Mark argues that despite the setbacks for humanitarian work - including the death of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top UN official for Iraq, in a bombing four years ago - Iraq's neighbours, which are home to more than two million refugees, could be the launchpad of a new effort to restore the neutrality of international aid workers.

But he adds: "It must be separated from the US-led political and security process and be there in its own right."