United Nations Updates Mandate on Iraq, Expands Role

In the sordid history of 21st century Iraq, August 19, 2003 sticks out as a chilling turning point. The US had invaded five months earlier and since holed up their governing operation inside a secluded Green Zone on a bend in the Tigris river. Looting, unrest, and a general sense of chaos had overtaken the city, despite the rosy assurances US officials.

The UN, however, set up headquarters out among the population at the Canal Hotel, the mission led by one of the world's most respected diplomats, the Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello.

When the massive truck bomb exploded outside the hotel, under his window, it killed him and 21 others including staff from countries all over the world: Egypt, UK, Italy, France, US, Iraq, Philippines, Iran, Canada, Jordan and Spain.

In a sense, that day, any internationalism left for a post-Saddam Iraq, after the US's snub of the UN and its battle with France and Germany about the invasion, went up in smoke. Since, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has moved on, replaced by Ban Ki-Moon. New leaders rule France and Germany. Iraq has fallen through the hands of malfeasance into a nightmarish civil war.

Now, almost exactly four years later, the Security Council has unanimously approved an update to its mandate, UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), broadening the UN's role in the broken country. Despite the worrying security situation, Ban is in favor.

There are currently about 50 UN staff working in the Green Zone. That number is expected to increase, and while the mission had been working on elections issues and monitoring human rights, in an expanded role, the UN will now try to promote reconciliation between warring Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.

The thinking is that the impartiality of the UN will engender its hand at the negotiating table. Yet, without a table to sit at, that's tough to imagine, regardless if the organization may be the best qualified in the world for such a challenge.

More importantly, considering the UN's fresh wounds from Baghdad, even if Ban asks his top people to go, would they?

(Image of the Canal Hotel bombing.)