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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 June 1999 Issue No. 434 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 June 1999 Issue No. 434
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Living Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Reforms that would work
Now that it seems that the Kosovo crisis is coming to a close, what lessons can we draw from it?
I would tend to think that the motive for NATO's intervention was provided by the suffering of the Kosovars and the imperative need to stop the ethnic cleansing campaign. Of course, some lend the United States quite different and altogether less altruistic intentions. There may be some truth in such accusations, but even those who opposed the principle of the NATO strikes must admit that Milosevic did accept the conditions laid down by the allies, and put an end to the massacres.
The US's detractors point out that it rode roughshod over the UN's jurisdiction. This is also true: the US knew that it would be incapable of obtaining a Security Council resolution allowing it to act on its own, due to staunch opposition from Russia and China.
This is why I believe that we must seriously and collectively reconsider voting procedures and privileges within the Security Council. It has become abundantly clear that the veto can only cripple the Council: it exists only to benefit the superpowers, and is not in the international community's interest. Many crises in the past half century have reached a dead end due to this privilege.
Furthermore, resolutions should be passed by the majority; a consensus is not necessary. We must also make sure that armed intervention is a last resort, to be used only when all mechanisms for peaceful conflict resolution have failed.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
