Picking pieces of peace as the UN turns 79, By Owei Lakemfa

The addresses by world leaders speaking for eight  billion human begins, began flowing at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on Tuesday, 10 September. The focus is on peace; how to save humanity from itself.

That same day, a debate raged in the host country between its two leading presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Inevitably, they had to address the issue of peace, especially in the Palestine which houses symbolic cities of peace like Bethlehem and Jerusalem. It is a Holy Land where the blood of the innocent waters its fields, mountains and valleys.

Harris advocated a ceasefire-for-hostage deal. She condemned the 7 October, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel but added that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed” by Israel.

To all Harris talked about peace in the Palestine, Trump, the former Twitter-in-Chief, chirruped: “She hates Israel!” “She hates Israel!” “She hates Israel!” Then, he switched to: “She also hates the Arab population!”

Trump’s singsong about Harris hating Israel and the Palestinians while not clearly stating his own position, is not the product of a confused mind. Rather, it portrays America’s duplicitous position; a peace maker who favours one side. Expecting the US to broker peace in the Palestine, is like Waiting for Godot.

The League of Nations was moulded from the furnace of the First World War with a primary purpose to end wars and create peace. That failed and, a bloodier World War Two erupted. The creation of the UN 79 years ago was again, to ensure universal peace.

However, some of the world leaders now taking their turn to address the UN General Assembly on peace, are the very practitioners of bloody strife in the world.

Actually, calling for peace can be hazardous and can come at high cost. When Canadian legislator, Sarah Jama, advocated a ceasefire in the Israeli war in Gaza, she was accused of anti-Semitism and expelled from her Ontario New Democratic Party caucus.

United Kingdom Member of Parliament, Paul Bristow was sacked as aide to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology for calling for a ceasefire in the Palestine.

Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough was suspended from the party when he said at a demonstration: “We will not rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis and Palestinians , between the river and the sea, can live in peace.”

Jeremy Corbyn, British Labour Party leader for five years from 2015, was expelled for advocating a ceasefire in Gaza. The party termed his campaigns as anti-Semitism. He had to stand as an independent candidate to retain his Islington North seat. He was punished for desiring a British government that would on the world stage “search for peace, not war”.

Sometimes, the cost for even suggesting peace, is capital punishment. Denys Kireyev, a 45-year-old Ukrainian banker on 23 February obtained information that Russia was going to attack Kiev the next day and that the Antonov Airport would be the centre of the attacks. His information was spot on and it enabled his country prepare for the attack.

Five days later, he was part of the Ukrainian Negotiating Team that met with Russia in Gomel, Belarus. There, he toed a line for a ceasefire. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian government led by President Volodymyr  Zelensky was not interested in peace; it believed that Russia has to be militarily defeated.

A week later, Kireyev was invited by the Security Service of Ukraine, SBU, accused of being treasonable at the peace talks and was summarily executed with a shot in the head.

The government lied that Kireyev, who had honoured an invitation, was killed while trying to avoid detention. An uncoordinated government then made a second announcement that he had died while on a “special mission”. Finally Ukraine’s Defense Ministry announced that Kireyev had died “defending Ukraine and …Heroes don’t die!” The point had been made: talk peace and die.

This Tuesday, the President of the UN General Assembly, Mr. Dennis Francis reported to the human race that while in the last one year, he visited 31 countries, “circumstances frustrated my desire to meet with Israelis and Palestinians on the ground”.

That admission that he could not visit the epicentre of ongoing conflicts in the world is like an admission that the UN is failing in its primary purpose of ensuring world peace.

The Trinidadian diplomat noted with regret: “Peace holds the foremost position, not just as a guiding principle but as the very raison d’être, the alpha and omega, if you will, of the United Nations …This organization was forged in the fires of two cataclysmic wars, with the solemn vow of sparing future generations from the scourge of war.”

There are no pretences that the major world leaders in Europe and North America do not want peace as evidenced by their insistence that even basic steps towards peace talks will not be taken in the bloody Russo-Ukrainian War.

So, the fires of war are being deliberately stoked in many parts of the world. They include the European-North American War burning in Ukraine, the Middle East conflicts that have already sucked in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. There are the virtually forgotten wars in Syria, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and, the low intensity combats in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Myanmar. The armed conflicts in Somalia have been on since 1981 with two short periods of lull in the fighting.

Direct armed conflicts are not the only danger to world peace. There are issues like unilateral actions taken against countries on the basis that powerful nations do not like their politics.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has decided to mediate in one of them. In a 3 September letter to US President Joe Biden, he wrote: “It has been brought to my attention that Cuba is currently listed by the United States as one of the countries supporting or sponsoring terrorism globally. As my interaction and relationship with the government and people of Cuba is concerned, especially during and after the time of Fidel Castro, I want to appeal with you, President Biden, to reconsider Cuba’s inclusion on the list of countries supporting terrorism globally. I know and appreciate what contributions Cuba made to (the) final liquidation of colonialism and Apartheid in Africa.”

Cuba made the US “terrorist” list for actions like fighting the Apartheid military in Africa and, supporting liberation fighters like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ruth First, Joe Slovo and Oliver Thambo. These were people the US and UK classified as “terrorists”.

Today, peace is broken universally, the challenges are picking up its pieces and how the UN can piece them together again.

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.