The Lesson of Somalia : United Nations must act in a way that ensures it will be taken seriously

Obviously, United Nations peacekeepers--justifiably furious over the weekend murder of 23 Pakistani soldiers in Somalia--should strike back hard to serve notice to the warlords responsible for the continuing violence in that country.

To tolerate such attacks undermines the credibility of the whole U.N. effort. Diplomacy has its place, but if the ambush provokes no aggressive retaliation the peacekeepers will surely become targets again.

Mohammed Farar Aidid--the powerful Somali warlord suspected of orchestrating the heinous attack on the U.N. soldiers--must be taught to respect the peacekeepers in the same way that the warlords learned to respect the U.S. troops who began the peacekeeping operation.

With considerable brilliance, the U.S. troops who arrived in Somalia in December completed their humanitarian mission last month. They put an end to most of the shooting, and by securing the airport, the seaport and the roads that lead from Mogadishu to other towns they unclogged the distribution network so that tons of food and other relief supplies could get through without being plundered. Only 4,000 U.S. troops remain in Somalia.

After the May 4 transition of command from the United States to the United Nations, it was just a matter of time before one of the warlords tested the mettle and the will of the peacekeepers.

The United States is ready to help, of course. U.S. and French reinforcements arrived Wednesday in Mogadishu from other areas of Somalia.

Also on Wednesday, the Pentagon ordered four Air Force planes and other equipment to Mogadishu to aid the U.N. peacekeepers, who are not as well armed as U.S. troops.

After the peacekeepers teach Aidid a lesson, they must remove the heavy arms from Somalia. The warlords’ sophisticated weapons are the legacy of the superpower competition over Somalia. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and this country took turns arming Somalia. U.S. troops got rid of some arms during the humanitarian mission, but huge arsenals remain in the hands of warlords like Aidid. As long as weapons are readily available, peace will be tenuous in Somalia.

Across the world, in conflicts like Somalia’s, there is a need for expansion of U.N. peacekeeping missions. One interesting proposal put forth recently in the New York Review of Books by Brian Urquhart, a former U.N. undersecretary, is worthy of consideration. Urquhart calls for a voluntary military force, sort of an International Guard, that would take the lead in dealing with conflicts.

This idea probably wouldn’t work if it burdened the United States with an enormous share of keeping peace around the planet. But it might if it encouraged more countries to commit more troops and allowed the United Nations to intervene from a position of strength, before conflicts become as entrenched as Somalia’s civil war.