Zimbabwe and the Need for United Nations Reform

For many years, the United States taxpayer has helped sustain the corrupt, bureaucratic organization known as the United Nations. In fact, the United States continues to fund more than $5 billion of the United Nation‘s $20 billion dollar annual budget. The question every United States taxpayer should ask their elected officials is why America is still paying its annual U.N. dues?

The scandal in which U.N. Security Council members Russia, France, and China were found to be swimming in Saddam’s Oil-for-Food money highlighted a system that lacks any reasonable process of checks, balances, and accountability. The United States certainly had the monetary leverage to shape dramatic U.N reform in 2006. Unfortunately it paid its annual dues and did nothing.

So, today we have the same troubled organization that produces an endless stream of reports, proposals, and strategies. Then uses them to institute new programs, projects, and initiatives which result in new U.N. demands for money. New money makes available new opportunities for the corrupt in a system built for propaganda, patronage, and abuse.

As far as the original robust goals and objectives of the United Nations Charter are concerned, they have long since become disengaged from any coherent political reality. Consider that in 2003, the United Nations Human Rights Commission was chaired by Libya. How about the 2006 election of Iran as a vice chair of the U.N. Disarmament Commission even while the country was avoiding U.N. scrutiny for the procurement of nuclear weapons? Meanwhile, North Korea and its less than benevolent regime, currently serves on the executive boards of both UNICEF and the U.N. flagship agency, the U.N. Development Program, or UNDP.

So, last year's outrageous election of Zimbabwe to chair the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development is really not surprising, even in light of what is happening in the country today. Indeed, this 53 member U.N. Commission includes a collection of the world's worst regimes such Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Belarus, Sudan, Iran, North Korea, and, of course, Zimbabwe. There is certainly not much "sustainable development", economic or otherwise, in any of these countries.

Therefore, "sustainable development" must really be terminology that in the real world is used to describe greed, repression, and even genocide by incompetent and corrupt dictatorships. In fact, the President of Zimbabwe, eighty four year old Robert Mugabe, could even be a role model for the corrupt, incompetent dictator of today.

Consider that during his 28 year reign of terror, the President of the country who was the 2007 chair to the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, has turned what was once a country of economic prosperity into one spiraling into the economic abyss. Mugabe's Zimbabwe is a country that features 80 percent unemployment and by far the world's highest inflation rate. It is a country that is starving and in desperate poverty.

Mugabe's incredible record of economic mismanagement has led to a recent rise in political opposition in the country. Amid widespread unrest and trailing in an upcoming election against a popular opposition leader, Mugabe has become desperate to maintain his grip on power. Of course, the method to maintain control of power for corrupt dictators in these situations has become all to predictable. Mugabe has ordered a government crackdown that has led to recent world headlines concerning the sad state of affairs in Zimbabwe.

In fact, international headline after headline describe the bloody situation; a vicious government campaign of intimidation and violence, led opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai into hiding as brutal assaults continued on his supporters, one headline reads. In another report, Unicef said that 10,000 children have been driven from their homes by the violence. A further report indicates that elementary schools were being used as government torture chambers to “re-educate” people who were thought to be Mugabe's opposition.

As a result, scores are dead and millions of refugees are reportedly fleeing across the borders for assistance in surrounding countries. Meanwhile, Mugabe's government has shut down all humanitarian aid into Zimbabwe, effectively starving his own population. Of course, calls for U.N. action against Mugabe are now being made from the international community.

The events to come are only to familiar and predictable. Soon, there will be a statement from the U.N. Security Council condemning the government of Zimbabwe for the crackdown followed by the observation that the country's subsequent "election" will not be credible. However, the election will be held and Mugabe will declare himself the overwhelming winner. Then, all of his political opposition will either flee the country or be killed. Mugabe's reign of terror against human rights and his economic destruction of Zimbabwe will continue to go on in the future as usual.

As for the United Nations, it should be remembered that in 2005, Zimbabwe was elected to serve on the Human Rights Commission. So, in the last three years, the country with the worst record in the world on economic development and a horrible record on basic human rights has been elected to be the "chair" of the U.N Commission on Sustainable Development and to serve as a member of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

Sadly, this is the current state of the organization known as the United Nations. An organization that is oblivious to economic reality and the protection of basic human rights. An organization manipulated by the agenda of corrupt dictators and greedy despots. An organization devoid of accountability and in violation of its own charter. An organization not judged by tangible results. A organization that is dysfunctional and in desperate need of dramatic reform.