New Book Details U.N. Incompetence, Scandal

Stewart Stogel
Monday, May 03, 2004

NewsMax Link

UNITED NATIONS - As U.N. officials scurry to stop publication of "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Matters" (Miramax Books) by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson the book’s galleys have already hit the street.

NewsMax recently reviewed the galleys.

While the book centers on the "interpersonal" relationships of the three U.N. peacekeeping employees as they traverse from one hot spot where U.N. peacekeeping operations were underway, the trio details exactly how U.N. operations work.

The picture is not a flattering one.

The book starts with the 1993 United Nations in Cambodia.

There, U.N. personnel are sent to help supervise "open" elections in the embattled nation. However, it seems more than "electioneering" was going on.

Ken Cain, a Harvard law graduate, working legal affairs for the U.N., says the world body's election personnel "looks like the international jet set on vacation."

Cain describes the U.N. personnel working in Cambodia as "young and immortal and together and drunk and stupid."

Speaking of vacations, the writers tell of sex parties in "a villa" in the capital, Phnom Penh "well known for its Friday night parties," supported by U.N. field personnel where alcohol and drugs were commonly used.

A favorite drink, called the "Space Shuttle" was made. Here’s how: "by distilling a pound of marijuana over a six-week period with increasingly good quality spirits. It is a work of love and the final product is an amber-colored liquid that tastes like Cognac. We drink it with rounds of coke."

All of this was done in the open, with senior U.N. personnel doing nothing to stop it.

Another problem in Cambodia centered around the peacekeepers themselves. It is alleged that "peacekeeping troops" sent by Bulgaria were not really military personnel at all.

The authors claim the Bulgarian government, starved for hard currency after the collapse of the Soviet Union, actually cut a deal with a score of prison inmates.

The U.N. has a policy of offering monetary compensation when a member state offers troops to peacekeeping operations. Some of the poorer nations see the U.N. policy as means to generate badly needed foreign aid.

Hence, troops become a cash crop.

In Bulgaria's case, the book alleges that prison convicts were promised "pardons" if they accepted the U.N. assignment.

"The Bulgarian government wanted the money, but didn't want to send their best trained troops. So, the story goes, they offered inmates in the prisons and psychiatric wards a deal: put on a uniform and go to Cambodia for six months, you're free on return."

Scores of criminals took the offer, given military uniforms and sent to become U.N. Blue Helmets.

Ken Cain claims the Bulgarian Blue Helmets were "hated" by everyone in Cambodia. He continues by describing them as: "A battalion of criminal lunatics (who) arrive in a lawless land. They're drunk as sailors, rape vulnerable Cambodian women and crash their U.N. Land Cruisers with remarkable frequency."

Officially, the U.N. was in Cambodia to supervise the first "open and free" elections.

Unofficially, the authors contend that the U.N. was doing all it could to make sure the existing governing power, a Vietnamese installed puppet regime, did not maintain its grip on the nation.

Andy Thomson, the medical doctor among the U.N. trio, speaks about going into a Cambodian prison in the capital with orders to get the sick inmates up and going as quick as possible.

Was this a concerted effort to stop some plague, to nurse the sick back to health? Nope. Thomson says it was simply to get the sick on their feet long enough to vote in the Cambodian election.

"U.N. lawyers have decided that inmates will be permitted to vote in the election, but an outbreak of a disease no one seems to be able to identify (later found to be Beri Beri) is wiping them out."

Thomson speaks about the sick leaving the prison proudly carrying their "voter registration cards."

Somalia and Haiti

It is mid-1993 and the intrepid U.N. trio have split for assignments in Somalia and Haiti.

Somalia, a decrepit east-African nation is in the midst of a multi- factional civil war.

Haiti is disintegrating.

In 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide became the county's first elected president. A year later, Arisitide is overthrown in a coup by a military-junta.

The embattled president then takes up exile in the United States where, with the help of the Clinton administration, he plans his eventual return.

In Somalia, the U.N. is called upon to provide "humanitarian relief," while in Haiti, the world body sends in a "human rights observer mission" to document "torture and execution of pro-Aristide civilians, in order to pressure General Cedras (the coup leader) from power."

The Somali effort ends in collapse.

Roller-coaster Ride

In Haiti, it is a roller-coaster ride, culminating in a massive U.S. military invasion (1994), which returned Aristide to power at gun point.

Arriving in Somalia, Ken Cain talks about meeting a "U.S. special forces guy" at Mogadishu (Somalia's capital) airport who explains:

"If you liked Beirut, you'll love Mogadishu."

The U.N.'s efforts in Somalia have been widely viewed by historians as a low point in the organization's history.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright often referred to the east African state as perfect example of a "failed nation-state."

At the U.N., its Somali efforts are often remembered by a spectacular robbery from its Mogadishu center.

In broad daylight, a safe containing more than $3.5 mil. in cash (to finance local operations) disappeared without a trace. Despite an intensive investigation by the U.N., with the assistance of Scotland Yard, the robbers were never found.

For the U.S., the Somali campaign is best remembered by the Black Hawk down incident. U.S. Special Forces lost 18 men in attempt to hunt down the infamous warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. Several of the murdered U.S. soldiers had their body's beaten and dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, Cain, who is later joined by Postlewait, find themselves in the center of an active war zone, which they both express regrets of signing up for.

The U.N. effort is often portrayed as disorganized and corrupt.

It is no better in Haiti:

Andy Thomson, is sent by the U.N. to investigate human rights violations under the military junta of Genl Raoul Cedras.

"Here, beneath the routine bustle, something is dangerous and disconcerting. Something I can't put my finger on."

Only after a month in the country, Thomson complains, "I'm already enraged, not by the work, but being unable to work. My patients are all either headless and rotting or alive and rotting, out of reach behind prison walls."

The doctor continues, "The macoutes (gangsters) torture and we write reports and nothing changes. We're very busy and very useless."

In order to gain access to a notorious Haitian prison, where numerous prisoners are believed to be wasting away, Thomson says he decided to move on his own:

"Whatever it takes to get inside is fine with me. Condoms for the Colonel (the prison warden), antibiotics for his men-we all have our price. At least its healthier than the cigarettes we used to toss out the window to get through checkpoints in Cambodia."

When questioned about the criticisms leveled against the United Nations by the authors, David Wimhusrt, a spokesman for peacekeeping operations explained:

"The book is not an analysis of peacekeeping operations. Most of the allegations are old news and not supported by any evidence. As such, we have no comment."

Speaking of old news, the record will show that a familiar personality directed U.N. peacekeeping operations during several of the years sited in the book, Kofi Annan.

One diplomat on the Security Council concerned about the authors' allegations, confided, "I will read the book and I will be sure to ask questions."