THE MISSION OF COUNT FOLKE BERNADOTTE, A COSTLY LESSON IN MISPERCEPTIONS (abridged)
Professor Sune Persson Associate Professor (docent) in Political Science, University of Göteborg ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE, LONDON, 2 JUNE 2004
The UN achieved little in 1948 after the assassination of their UN Mediator Count Folk Bernadotte: Declaring no sanctions against the proto-state of Israel or other practical remedial action globally. The murderers were set free. And understandably, the Arab states and other smaller states, like Sweden, began to share the same conclusion – That the United Nations was ill-equipped to protect her representatives, in times of intense conflict. (From this point on, we can follow up to the recent blowing up of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, including the UN Special Representative. The conclusion remains: That the United Nations Security Council ‘permanent powers’ are likely to first and foremost defend their “pre- eminence”.)
The misperceptions of Count Bernadotte and of his collaborators in 1948? He could of course not imagine that the UN Secretary General, Trygve Lie of Norway, as we know now, cooperated in great secrecy with the Israelis and secretly handed over to the Israelis confidential documents including the papers of the UN Mediator. Finally – he vastly overestimated the Americans and their political will and capability to support the United Nations.
Will Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s determination today prove sufficient to overturn this inherent UN Organisation structural weakness? Only time can tell.