The Geneva Option by Adam LeBor Page A

Braithwaite’s appointment as peacekeeping chief, but for once London stood firm. UN peacekeepers around the world now shot back when attacked, with serious firepower. DPKO missions were equipped with satellite communications, high-tech weaponry including attack helicopters, and privileged access to NATO and US intelligence. There would be no Srebrenicas on his watch, Braithwaite declared, further infuriating Fareed Hussein.
    Yael knew that the DPKO chief had made no secret of his contempt for the UN’s covert contacts with Hakizimani and the Rwandan Liberation Front, nor did he bother to disguise his distaste for Bonnet and Rembaugh. Unforum, a gossipy insider’s website, had even reported that Braithwaite had leaked what he knew of the UN’s contacts with the RLF to the Rwandan embassy. Braithwaite had declined to comment on the article.
    The Rwandan ambassador, a former colleague of Hakizimani’s at Kigali University, who had lost sixty-seven relatives in the genocide, was at first disbelieving, then furious. She was demanding assurances that the RLF and the Genocidaires would have no role in any future regional peace agreements. At the same time, Braithwaite was also pushing for new rules of engagement for UN troops in the Goma region, allowing them to engage RLF troops on sight and to shoot to kill. The pressure was on the SG and the 38th floor, from several directions.
    R EMBAUGH : Après Braithwaite, le déluge . We need to clean out the DPKO.
    B ONNET : Absolutely. And our friend in Goma?
    R EMBAUGH : [ laughing ] Just try and stop him. He was pushing for five or ten thousand. I told him that it would take too long. He assured me otherwise. We settled on five hundred. But he is crucial. He still has power because of 1994, but a younger generation is rising, snapping at his heels. Hakizimani is the only one that can hold this together. Our guys on the ground are clear: without him this will not work. His people will do what has to be done.
    After Braithwaite had blocked Rembaugh’s move to take over DPKO field operations, she had simply stepped around him and built her own global empire. The DPA now ran what it called “Good Offices Missions” in the world’s most volatile and strategically important regions: Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East. The GOMs were supposedly charged with conflict prevention, peace building, and post-conflict resolution, working in conjunction with the DPKO. In fact, their main purpose, as directed by Rembaugh, was not to promote peace but to fight a war—with the DPKO. Around the world, the GOMs were steadily slicing away at its mandates and power base until Rembaugh could take full political control of the peacekeeping empire. The new DPA GOM in Goma was one of the UN’s largest.
    V IENNESE VOICE : [ brusquely ] Where and when?
    R EMBAUGH : At the Tutsi refugee camp outside Goma. And soon, while Hakizimani is in New York, negotiating the peace accord. That way he cannot be blamed.
    B ONNET : Are the uniforms ready?
    R EMBAUGH : [ reassuringly ] Everything is in place. They all have been distributed.
    H USSEIN : [ plaintively ] I am sure you all understand how difficult this is for me. I have devoted my whole life to the ideals of the United Nations—
    A USTRIAN VOICE: [ interrupting ] Mr. Secretary-General, we all appreciate your many years of hard work for the most noble of causes. But we need to know that this decision is made.
    R EMBAUGH : [ conciliatory ] Fareed, like Charles said, just keep the big picture in mind. You know it’s the right thing to do. History will vindicate us.
    H USSEIN : [ reluctantly, after several seconds ] Yes. The decision is made. We go ahead.
    The sound file ended and Yael pressed the stop button. She had heard correctly. The UN secretary-general and two of his most senior officials—together with an unknown Austrian—were plotting to discredit the DPKO, force the resignation of