With a UN Like This, Who Needs Enemies?

The Guardian reports on the utter uselessness and moral abdication of the UN with this stark headline UN troops wait behind razor wire as Congo's streets run with blood.

There are women's bodies scattered in Bunia's main market place; a baby's body on its main road; two priests' bodies inside one church. Last week, a burning corpse was tossed on to the main UN compound's lawn, to show 700 Uruguayan peacekeepers what they were missing while they cowered under fire behind its razor-wire perimeter, unauthorised to intervene in the latest massacre of Congolese civilians.

Lest you think that it's because Kofi and Kompany did not know, Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Vollot, the French commander of UN forces in Ituri is quoted as saying,

"We've been sending messages every day to [the UN headquarters in] New York [saying] this was going to happen, that we need more troops. Nothing was done."

UPDATE (6/9/03): Winds of Change has some good background material and further commentary.