United Nations Peacekeeping in Kosovo
Dear Supporter of UNA-BC,
Our next meeting of the Bill Kellogg UNA-BC Discussion Series will be held on Friday, February 20, 1:00 -2:30 p.m. in the Boulder Creek Room of the Main Branch of the Boulder Public Library. Our discussion on “United Nations Peacekeeping in Kosovo” will be led by Steve Janko.
Steve Janko is a resident of Colorado Springs and a retired attorney who specialized in international law. While he was still a university student, he took the fall 2000 semester off from his international law studies at the University of Miami and volunteered to join a United Nations peacekeeping effort to help refugees return to their homes in Kosovo. In his role as an army reservist & peacekeeper, Steve helped protect churches from sabotage, searched vehicles for weapons, and promoted peace through interviews on Kosovo radio shows. Steve's work also involved ensuring Kosovo's 2000 elections went smoothly by planning the transportation of election ballots and ensuring that the 80 election sites in the American sector were safe for voters. After serving in Kosovo Steve completed his international law studies and began serving around the world as an active-duty military attorney for nearly 20 years.
Steve remains a big proponent of the United Nations, international law and multilateralism. Steve will discuss the importance of following the UN Charter and obtaining a UN Security Council resolution prior to the use of military forces in countries like Bosnia and Kosovo, and the major issues which occur when there is no UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force, as seen, for example, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo demonstrated how the UN can help to define a mission with obtainable humanitarian goals, including the establishment of safe zones for ethnic minorities, working toward economic and political stabilization, and supporting temporary administrative governments guided by UN experts and NGOs with decades of experience. Unilateral military actions without UN security council approval often fail because they have no international legal authority or support, may lack a clearly defined mission, and fail to tap into the expertise which NGOs and UN experts can provide to support the mission. After Steve's presentation on his peacekeeping experience in Kosovo, he'll open the forum up to questions about the current challenges faced by the UN and multilateralism and what we can do to bolster the rule of law.
