The UN Security Council is to send 10,000 peacekeeping troops to southern Sudan to monitor compliance with the peace agreement signed earlier this year. The agreement ended a 21-year civil war between the Khartoum government and South Sudanese rebels. Two million people were killed and at least four million people were driven from their homes during the conflict.

The Security Council has not yet reached a decision on the deployment of troops in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur. A commission of 15 UN experts has urged the UN to intervene immediately. They say at least 10,000 people die in Darfur every month.

(rnw.nl)

<font color = lightgreen>Why are they wasting all that money and personnel? I was watching a show about the history of mercenaries on the History Channel a few days ago, and recent history (the last 15 years) proves that a merc corporation could stabilize the situation with fewer soldiers on the ground and for a considerably lower budget.

Oh, I forgot--the UN has been taking some hits lately, so they are going to go try to bully someone weak enough to bully to make themselves feel better. :rolleyes: </font>

Azred!! I'm shocked! Peacekeeping is not bullying! Southern Sudan has needed this for many many years, and I say better late than never!

As for mercenaries, these people have lived with mercenaries and militias for long enough - they now need troops with a sense of honour, duty and a belief in doing what's right, not simply killing for the next buck.

Plus, consider that a vast number (the majority?) of the abuses in Iraq were conducted by these dodgy private security contractors which brought such disrepute on America's name - I'd be doubly wary of resorting to this in the future.

[ 03-25-2005, 05:47 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

Can the UN send the workers from Nigeria first? They need to do something other than whoring and fathering bastards for a while.

<font color = lightgreen>That's why we need a "sarcasm" smiley here. [img]graemlins/beigesmilewinkgrin.gif[/img]

You probably haven't noticed that I am not a huge fan of the UN; I usually presume they have an ulterior motive for doing anything.
On the other hand, at least they are trying to do something in the area, which is more than can be said for almost every nation in the world...including the US.

It is a fact that during the early 1990s that mercernary corporations were able to more stabilize various African nations more effectively and efficiently that either nations or the UN. We always will have a love/hate relationship with mercs, but they will always be with us.</font>

Yanking my chain, eh? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I knew of your dislike of the UN (for some strange reason [img]graemlins/angel.gif[/img] ), yet was still shocked! To me, there are some decisions which (perhaps rightly) can be branded as political.

Yet, I look past that and see that most of the UN's work is pretty thankless and done in the absolute back-ends of the earth with no possible ulterior motive that I can discern.

Of course, I don't have your gift for sniffing out conspiracies ;)

Can you think of an example or two for your mercenaries in Africa? I wouldn't mind reading up a bit on that.

[ 03-25-2005, 06:14 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

"Even though the firm's expertise lay in fighting bush wars, it diversified and reportedly operated as many as 32 companies, whose interests range from computer software to adult education. The firm's tactic of quickly regaining control of a client country's mineral-rich regions is well-documented. Within a month of Sierra Leone's hiring of Executive Outcomes in May 1995, government forces had regained control of the diamond-rich Kono district, which produces two-thirds of Sierra Leone's diamonds. In Angola, oil- and diamond-producing regions were the first areas secured by government forces trained by Executive Outcomes. The firm also reportedly mined gold in Uganda, drilled boreholes in Ethiopia and had a variety of interests in the other countries noted above."

Source:
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ex...e_outcomes.htm

Thanks SirD [img]smile.gif[/img] No worries Azred, I need to do more of that myself. Work? Yes...I remember that... [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]

[ 03-26-2005, 09:23 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]