Letter: UN must delegate to solve regional crises

Sir Ian Scott
Sunday 16 August 1992 23:02 BST
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Sir: We are being harrowed daily by reports and pictures from Yugoslavia and Somalia. Some efforts, so far ineffective, are being made about the former to try to secure peace, but none so far about the latter.

The UN should be more flexible in its handling of crises. It obviously cannot deal with every crisis, and should start to delegate its authority. Somalia, for example, is a member of the Arab League. Why should not the UN ask the Arab League to deal with it, and agree to support whatever measures it adopts to do so? Egypt has a powerful army and could bring peace to Mogadishu in days and to the whole country in weeks - with, no doubt, logistical and financial help from other menbers of the Arab League (and from outside countries if necessary for the transport of troops). The entire world might not approve of all the methods adopted to achieve these aims, but it could be a surgical operation which could end quickly.

The second leg of this delegation of authority would be for the UN to ask the Organisation of Arab Unity to work out a political solution to the Somali problem. This would not cost much money, and as Somalia is essentially an African problem, it would seem appropriate that Africa should be asked to solve it. The solution could eventually be put to the UN to approve, and no doubt the grateful thanks of the world could be given to these two organisations, which in that way would have proved themselves to have come of age.

Yours sincerely,

IAN SCOTT

Aldeburgh, Suffolk

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