Faltering missions
Future of the United Nations is in question
By Neil Feldman
Staff Reporter
Although the United Nations had
striking success in defusing recent
conflicts in Nicaragua and Namibia,
many current initiatives with peace
making intentions haveclcarly failed,
raising serious questions about the
future of this international govern
mental organization.
In some cases, a lack of resources
or lagging diplo
macy appears to be
the reason, but
most faltering
U.N. missions re
flect an underesti
mation of the bel
ligerence that lies
beyond the surface of these conflicts.
As a result of the hardships Secre
tary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
and the U.N. peacekeepers have had
to deal with of late, there has been a
growing tendency for the Security
Council to try and conjure up new and
more aggressive ways of utilizing the
50,000 troops currently deployed
around the world.
Pessimistic reports out of the New
York-based global organization have
become routine, and Boutros-Ghali
has not had very much in the way of
good news to report at daily briefings.
Last week, for example, Boutros
Ghali issued a depressing report on
the peacekeeping mission in the former
Yugoslavia. The report stated that the
16,000 soldiers separating Serbs and
Croats in Croatia could be there for a
considerably longer period of lime
than expected.
The Secretary General did, how
ever, acknowledge the increasingly
aggressive role peacekeeping missions
arc playing in the Balkans.
He noted that military escorts to
deliver relief supplies to besieged vil
lages in Bosnia constituted “a new
dimension of peacekeeping.”
- it
The U.N. has become
a global boondoggle.
— The Washington Post
-ft “
In a move that appeared to be
positive, the Security Council recently
imposed trade restrictions on those
ports in Cambodia held by the Khmer
Rouge, a violent guerrilla organiza
tion with Maoist ideologies, because
of the groups’ refusal to disarm and
prepare for democratic elections un
der a peace plan they accepted more
than one year ago in Paris.
But U.N. reports out of Cambodia
have been nothing but assertions of
furthcr stri fe and struggle in the belea
guered coastal towns currently occu
pied by the Khmer Rouge.
The Security Council currently is
considering adopting a more forceful
approach to the challenge of distribut
ing relief supplies to Somalia’s starv
ing population. Buta final decision on
this has been repeatedly stalled, and
many critics say that taking more than
two months to reach a decision on
such a critical matter is shameful for
such a distinguished organization.
U.N. officials constantly issue
statements that suggest they arc dili
gently pursuing the matter, though
such interjections arc used only to
temporarily quell the 30 or so journal
ists who cover the United Nations and
attend daily briefings.
“The U.N. has become a global
boondoggle,” The Washington Post
recently stated.
While the failed missions arc easy
to pinpoint, the United Nation’s ini
tiatives continue to receive global
support. Many U.N. representatives
feel as though the organization effec
tively contains regional conflicts,
meaning it has the ability to prevent
territorial squabbles from spreading.
This, officials argue, is enough to say
the United Nations is an effective
international organization.
Several U.N. representatives from
Scott Maurer/DN
%
Eastern Europe states bcl ieve the only
reason why the Serbian militias have
not been able to invade Albania, one
of the weakest European states, is a
result of the U.N. presence in that
area.
Another dilemma that has been the
subject of controversy is Mozambique.
This African nation, a former Por
tuguese colony tom by civil unrest,
has ignored the Nov. 15 deadline for
demobilizing their army units. The
United Nations insists it will not sanc
tion elections to form a new govern
ment and its opposition has been dis
armed.
The result of this quagmire has
been a stalemate, as the armies have
been reluctant todisarm and the United
Nations says it will not lake an active
role until its demands are met.
Last week, a U.N. spokesman is
sued a statement saying thala number
of officials were taking a close look at
the situation.
But like many regional quarrels
thatcurrently mandate U.N. interven
tion, Mozambique must wait until
Boutros-Ghali decides it is the right
time to save lives in a strife-ridden
landscape.
Merger
Continued from Page 1
Douglas Abbott, an associate profes
sor of human development and the
family, agreed that the merger was a
good move.
Combs and Abbott both said they
saw the merger as an opportunity for
each department to take advantage of
the other’s knowledge, ultimately for
the benefit of the students.
“I think it’s a good move, because
it saves resources,” Combs said. “It
creates a more holistic approach to
the family.”
Abbott said the move should help
future students become more market
able because they would understand
family from both the economic and
human-resource perspectives.
“It will have a whole approach to
the family, with both financial and
communication issues as well as the
development of love and affection in
families,”hc said. “We will ultimately
teach more about the family realm,
both emotional and financial.”
Shirley Baughcr, chairwoman of
the newly merged department, said
the change was going fine so far.
The chal lenge is to define the com -
mon mission of the newly fused de
partments, she said.
Baughcr, a Trenton, Mo., native,
came to UNL from Washington, D.C.,
where she was a deputy administrator
for the extension service at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, working
with all land-grantuniversiticson fam
ily programs.
Baughcr said she was chosen to
head the newly merged department
because her background in home cco
nomics education and family and
marriage counseling allowed her to
look at families from the same diverse
perspective as the newly merged de
partment.
“We are bringing two entities to
gether to create a new, original de
partment,” she said.
“It’s an opportunity to strengthen
our program.’5
Bill
Continued from Page 1
Ward said the university became
involved in the program because it
was a teacher-training institution.
“Kids coming out of high school
arc technology illiterate,” Ward said.
“It is obvious that U.S. kids are behind
in math, science and technology.”
Withcm’s bill is a step in the right
direction, but it might not be the right
time to introduce it, Ward said.
“I don’t think it’s a great year for
this,” she said. “Sen. withem intro
duced the bill because he didn’t sec a
great deal of cooperation coming from
the governor’s office.”
Revenue from the state lottery,
passed last November, was supposed
to be given for education projects like
this. Ward said. Profits were to be
divided with 75 percent going to edu
cation and 25 percent to environmen
tal causes.
“The stale could meet its obliga
tion easily from the lottery,” she said,
“(but) the governor’s office isn’t will
ing to designate money.”
Although this is another year of
budget shortfalls, Ward said the Leg
islature should consider the benefits
from the program.
“It would be shortsighted of the
Legislature to jeopardize $7.5 million
by not finding a way to appropriate $2
millionovcr the next biennium,” Ward
said. “$4.67 million sounds like a lot
of money, but when you divide that
into five years, it just doesn’t go very
far.”
Baldwin
Continued from Page 1
He allegedly was fighting with the
officers when the shot was fired.
After the shooting, Baldwin ad
mitted to his doctors that he had
stopped taking his two-a-day doses of
lithium, an antidepressant, three days
earlier.
Doctors had ordered Baldwin to
take the medication after they deter
mined last April that he was danger
ous to himself and others without it.
But he was allowed to self-adm in istcr
the drug and was monitored only once
a week.
He remains in the Lincoln Re
gional Center, where he was commit
ted last month for further treatment.
Wcsely’s bill would give judges
the ability to monitor outpatient treat
ment programs to confirm a patient’s
compliance with court and phy sician’s
orders. It also would allow a judge to
order defendants back into custody if
they were not self-administering their
prescribed medication.
Wcscly also introduced LB498,
which would clarify slate statutes and
procedures required under current
mental health commitment laws.
Wesely said he was confident the
proposed bill would be passed, and
that if the bill would have been law
last fall, the shooting incident might
never had occurred.
“I think if this would have been the
law then, Baldwin would be function
ing well, would be healthy and gener
ally better off than he unfortunately is
now,” Wesely said.
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