The U.N. -- The Bud Abbott of International Relations

You may or may not have been tracking the recent goings on in Kyrgyzstan and the ongoing ethnic conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. After the recent coup there violence has been ongoing though some see it receding others are sure. So in steps the UN. From The Moscow Times:

The United Nations urged Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday to take quick, decisive action to end indiscriminate ethnic killing in its volatile south as the interim government braced for new attacks in the north.

Now that IS rich. The UN is like Bud Abbott — always talking Costello into standing up to bullies while he stands back and watches Costello get his ass kicked — except not as funny. “Are you gonna take that? Get in there and give him what for!” Unlike Bud Abbott, U.N. Peacekeepers enable all manner of traffickers, warlords, gangs, and terrorist all around the world. Other than that it’s an interesting story from that region on the northern edge of our GWOT.

Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva, who took power after a deadly revolt in April that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, said the real death toll from the violence could be “several times” higher than the official numbers, Interfax reported.

The interim government has said more violence could occur in the capital, Bishkek, and another region of the north.

“We are keeping enough forces in Bishkek and are working to ensure that Bishkek stays under our control,” said Otunbayeva, who has accused supporters of Bakiyev, who is now in exile in Belarus, of stoking ethnic conflict.

Bakiyev has denied that he is behind the violence. His son Maxim was arrested in Britain after he landed at an airport in southern England, Kyrgyz media reported.

Pillay’s office said Tuesday that the violence appeared to have begun with five coordinated attacks by men carrying guns and wearing balaclavas.

“We have strong indications that this event was not a spontaneous interethnic clash — that it was to some degree orchestrated, targeted and well-planned,” her spokesman Rupert Colville told a briefing in Geneva.

Analysts say that if southern Kyrgyzstan, which shares the densely populated Ferghana Valley with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, descends into chaos, it could help militant Islamists gain a firmer footing in the volatile region.

UN special envoy Miroslav Jenca said Kyrgyzstan should take every step possible to ensure that violence did not spread to other parts of Central Asia.

“The most important task now is to stop the bloodshed,” Jenca told reporters. “This conflict should be localized.”

Interim leader Otunbayeva said Uzbekistan had shut the border to block “those seeking revenge.”

“Otherwise it would have already been a war between the two states,” she said.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it had seen signs of ethnic cleansing in clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan.

And independent UN rights investigators said they had concerns about reports of a shoot-to-kill policy adopted by the provisional government, which has sent some troops to the south.

But Nancy McEldowney, U.S. principal deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, said the violence appeared to be easing.

“I know that there was a concern initially about the violence spreading, and we saw the violence spread from Osh to Jalal-Abad,” she said.

“But reports over the course of the last 24 hours have been that spreading had abated,” she said on the sidelines of an OSCE meeting in Vienna.

There’s a lot more at the link above.

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