Sergio Vieira de Mello: He said, "I am here to listen, I am here to learn, I am not here to teach you anything."

His job was "to make sure that the interests of the Iraqi people come first" in rebuilding their country.

August 20, 2003

By Jeff Falcon
nsnews

The UN was and is a friend and an ally of the Iraqi people and even Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party was working with the UN in effort to avoid war. Has the insanity of war replaced the nobility of targeting Saddam Hussein?

At least 17 people were killed by a truck bombing which set off a huge explosion at the UN headquarters at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, on August 19, 2003. Among the dead is U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was trapped in the rubble after the blast. Why couldn't 150,000 coalition troops protect Sergio Vieira de Mello?

UN envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, had said that protecting the Iraqi people was his main priority when he took the job.

Vieira de Mello, 55, was killed in Tuesday's bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad. He survived the blast and he was even well enough to make a phone call from the ruins of the building, and the cause of his death is therefore somewhat of a mystery.

Vieira de Mello had been a diplomatic troubleshooter in hotspots around the world, having been appointed the U.N. special representative to Iraq in late May in what was to be a four-month assignment.

A month after he was appointed, Vieira de Mello said the United Nations found itself in a "bizarre situation" in Iraq, playing second fiddle to two of its own member countries -- the United States and Britain.

Vieira de Mello had said the top of his agenda was to consult Iraqi leaders and opinion makers "to make sure that the interests of the Iraqi people come first" in rebuilding their country.

The U.N. role in postwar Iraq was a major issue during the intense Security Council negotiations on a resolution lifting sanctions and authorizing the United States and Britain to administer the country until a democratic government is established.

Under pressure from France, Russia and Germany -- which opposed the war -- the secretary-general's special representative was given "independent responsibilities" but at the same time told to work "intensively" with the United States, Britain and Iraqi officials in reconstruction and setting up a new administration.

The U.N. distributes humanitarian aid and is developing programs aimed at boosting Iraq's emerging free press, justice system and monitoring of human rights. The United States failed to win the backing of the U.N. Security Council before it invaded Iraq on March 20, and since major fighting ended in April, the coalition has been reluctant to allow the United Nations to play a large role.

Vieira de Mello joined the U.N. High Commission for Refugees in 1969, serving in Bangladesh in 1971, when it became independent. He also dealt with refugees in Cyprus after the 1974 Turkish invasion.

He spent three years in charge of UNHCR operations in Mozambique during the civil war that followed independence from Portugal in 1975, and three more in military-ruled Peru.

He became senior political adviser to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon between 1981 and 1983, covering the period when Israel invaded. In the early 1990s, he was in Cambodia and then in disintegrating Yugoslavia. In 1996, he was made assistant high commissioner for refugees. Two years later, he moved to New York to become undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs soon after Kofi Annan became secretary-general.

He later became a special U.N. envoy in Kosovo following the U.S.-led bombing raids that broke Serbian control of the province in 1999. He gained widespread praise for overseeing East Timor's three-year transition to independence after Indonesia withdrew in 1999.

In September 2002, he was appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

If 150,000 American troops in Iraq cannot protect this great man, what are they doing there? Make no mistake about it, Vieira de Mello was assassinated and the enemies of the U.N. are directly responsible for that. The coalition forces were responsible for the security of Vieira de Mello, and the failure to protect him is not excusable. This is disgraceful.

Kofi Annan rejected, Washington's reasoning that UN officials in Baghdad had refused offers by U.S. forces in Iraq to protect the compound.

"Nobody (asks) you if you want the police to patrol your neighbourhood," he said as he returned to UN headquarters after cutting short his holiday in Europe. "They make the assessment that patrol and protection is needed, and then they start, and that's what should be done in Iraq."

UN officials say the United States, as an "occupying power," is responsible under international law for providing security.

The attack, which carefully targeted and killed the UN's chief envoy for Iraq, was as deliberate as a coup d'etat. Somebody did not like the fact that was prepared to listen to the concerns of the Iraqi people and that somebody is a cold blooded murderer.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan claims that US forces should have known to patrol the area, and that is so obvious, it is absolutely amazing that the Bush Administration has failed to express any regret, for the failure to do so.

FBI investigators said attackers used a crude combination of explosives from Saddam Hussein's old military arsenal in the deadly bombing of the UN headquarters. The weaponry, included one single 225-kilogram bomb, and if the people who seized these weapons from Saddam Hussein's old arsenal do not have links to the coalition forces, how did they manage to get their hands on these weapons? Someone with access to a large military cache put them on the truck and managed to use thgem to assassinate UN chief envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. The munitions were not sophisticated, but the operation was --it worked, as far as the assassins are concerned.

Paul Bremer, chief U.S. civilian administrator said there were indications that Vieira de Mello had been targeted in the attack. The truck bomb crashed into the compound just beneath Vieira de Mello's third-floor office, where he was holding a meeting --it took considerable motivation and sophisticated intelligence, to target UN chief envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. Furthermore, it is quite astounding that the media does not focus on seeking to determine who assassinated Sergio Vieira de Mello, because every indication emphasizes the fact that the target had been chosen with care and the attack carefully planned --a huge clue to resolving any mystery. Needless to say, like the failure to protect Sergio Vieira de Mello, this is one mystery that will probably never be solved because we might not like the answer. Clumsy terrorists like to claim responsibility. Cowardly murderers target and destroy innocent people because they are arrogant enough to think they can get away with murder. Most people think that they got away with the murder of Sergio Vieira de Mello. What they failed to consider is the fact that the entire UN has picked up the slack, and the institution will get more powerful than ever, now that it has proven that it is so effective, it has terrified the cowards who feel the compulsion to murder innocent people because they are too ignorant and too vulgar to be able to affect international opinion. Sergio Vieira de Mello is dead, but the UN is stronger than ever.

There is something very odd about the reporting regarding Sergio Vieira de Mello's death. To quote media reports directly:

Vieira de Mello was wounded and trapped in the rubble, and workers gave him water as they tried to extricate him. Hours later, the UN announced his death.

Most people who were trapped in the rubble alive, were pulled out alive. Why was Sergio Vieira de Mello pulled out dead?

It feels like people are working overtime to make it sound as if Sergio Vieira de Mello's death is the consequence of evil suicide bombers -it is not. It is the consequence of deliberate, cold-blooded assassins.

Sergio Vieira de Mello's body was ultimately pulled from the wreckage by U.S. soldiers, but what happened between the time that he was alive and well enough to drink water and use his phone and the time that he was "pulled out dead"? The reporting is too sketchy to make any sense. Perhaps, it is as sketchy as all the journalists and cameramen who have been killed in Iraq. They may be denied the opportunity to report, but all war is evil, and their deaths do not minimize the significanse of all the horrific stories that we are not supposed to hear. There is no need to recognize every single grain of sand, to see the beach. We know exactly what is going on and every single death confirms it. In particular, the effort to sanitize war is in itself, extremely evil, and in the name of Sergio Vieira de Mello, we will explore a taste of the voice that has been silenced.

Sergio Vieira de Mello said that he was in Iraq to listen to what the Iraqi people are saying and their voices are loud and clear. The Iraqi people are still waiting for peace and security. Iraqi civilians have sustained the greatest casualties and that is a tragedy that is largely ignored. Rightly or wrongly, Iraqis are afraid of suffering violence at the hands of their American occupiers, and individual victims like Donia, a cleaner at Al Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad, says, "on July 16, American soldiers came into my house and took two of my brothers and killed my other brother. Then they stole our pickup truck and all of our money. The Americans have replaced one oppressor with another." Donia claims that her brother's corpse was returned four days later while, the two other brothers remain in detention and the car and the money is gone. Is Donia telling the truth? As long as American soldiers shoot first and ask questions later, who can possibly quibble about the details?