MAILBAG- UN should go after all war

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Subject: MAILBAG- UN should go after all war criminals

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Bangkok Post - June 7, 1999

Mailbag

UN should go after all war criminals

The letter ''Illegal bombings of Yugoslavia challenged by world
tribunals''
by Ritam Ricmi of Belgrade (Nation, May 28) gives a clear insight into
what
we do not hear or see in the press. Nato's mission for whatever reason
flies
in the face of the UN Charter but again we see a weak diplomacy led by
Kofi
Annan.

Obviously no one gets the point in the global society that there are no
rules and no regulations. In sighting a complaint by UNHCR commissioner
Mary
Robinson that ''large numbers of civilians have been incontestably
killed'',
I along with many others question then why has she turned a blind eye to
the
ethnic Karenni and Karen of Burma? Robinson's leadership is biased, her
subordinates in Bangkok refuse refugee status to people who have been in
an
armed-conflict for over 40 years.

If we are to use the UN charter in one case, we must use it in all. Kofi
Annan made many a last ditch effort with Iraq's Saddam Hussein, but
failed
to visit Africa in their darkest hour. It took the world tribunal and
others
over 35 years to catch up with Nazi war criminals. The UN and the UNHCR
are
no less guilty than the Nato network.

Edward Bennigan

New York