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United Nations Peacekeeping Operations Ramesh
Chandra Thakur Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Ramesh Chandra Thakur, Albrecht Schnabel
ISBN(s): 9780585434094, 0585434093
Edition: Kindle
File Details: PDF, 1.19 MB
Year: 2001
Language: english
United Nations
peacekeeping operations:
Ad hoc missions,
permanent engagement
a United Nations
University Press
TOKYO u NEW YORK u PARIS
( The United Nations University, 2001
The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and
do not necessarily re¯ect the views of the United Nations University.
United Nations University Press is the publishing division of the United Nations
University.
UNUP-1067
ISBN 92-808-1067-7
Contents
Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
List of acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Part IV: A new beginning? The road to Brahimi and beyond . . . . . . 213
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
For the peacekeepers who died in the line of duty
They gave their lives for peace
Acknowledgements
The idea for this book was triggered by the United Nations University's
October 1999 UN Day Symposium on Peacekeeping, in which some of
the book contributors participated. The positive response to the sympo-
sium encouraged us to invite our speakers, along with other selected con-
tributors, to join in an examination of the lessons that should be learned
from past peacekeeping practices for future peacekeeping operations. The
contribution of our book to the ongoing debate on the nature, legality, and
practicality of peacekeeping lies in the unique composition of the chapter
contributors ± half of them are academic ``observers'' of peacekeeping,
while the other half are practitioners who have been intimately involved,
in the ®eld and at UN Headquarters, in the planning and execution of
some of the most crucial peacekeeping operations of the past 10 years.
We hope that the combined insights of these contributions will prove
useful to scholars, practitioners, and students of UN peacekeeping.
We are indebted to Yoshie Sawada, our administrative assistant, and
Chifumi Mizutani, the programme's secretary, for their tireless support in
the many administrative aspects of this project.
The publication of this book bene®ted greatly from the support we re-
ceived from UNU Press and its Head, Janet Boileau. We greatly appre-
ciate the careful copyediting work by Cherry Ekins, and the very helpful
comments provided by the anonymous peer reviewers of the draft manu-
script. Finally, we are indebted to our families who have again endured the
many hours we spent on this, our second, co-edited book project.
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
Ramesh Thakur
Albrecht Schnabel
Tokyo, May 2001
List of acronyms
x
LIST OF ACRONYMS xi
EU European Union
FOD UN Field Operations Division
FUNCINPEC National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful,
and Cooperative Cambodia
ICISS International Commission on Intervention and State
Sovereignty
ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross
IDP internally displaced person
IFOR NATO Implementation Force (former Yugoslavia)
IGO intergovernmental organization
IMTF integrated mission task force
IMU Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
INTERFET International Force in East Timor
IPKF Indian Peacekeeping Force (Sri Lanka)
ISDSC Inter-State Defence and Security Committee (Southern Africa)
JCC Joint Control Commission (Moldova/South Ossetia)
JMC Joint Military Commission
KFOR Kosovo Force
KPNLF Khmer People's National Liberation Front (Cambodia)
MFO Multinational Force and Observer Group (Sinai)
MINURCA UN Mission in the Central African Republic
MISAB Inter-African Mission in Monitor the Implementation of the
Bangui Agreements
MLO military liaison of®cer
MNF Multinational Force (Lebanon)
MOG military observer group
MONUC UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
MRD motor ri¯e division
MVD Ministry of International Affairs (Russia)
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NGO non-governmental organization
OAS Organization of American States
OAU Organization of African Unity
OCHA UN Of®ce for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance
ONUC UN Operation in Congo
OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
PKO peacekeeping operation
PolRI Indonesian police force
PPS parent police service
PSO peace support operation
RECAMP Renforcement du Capabilite African pour Maintien la Paix
(Reinforcement of African Military Peacekeeping Capacity)
RPTC SADC Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre
RUF Revolutionary United Front (Sierra Leone)
SADC Southern African Development Community
SFOR Stabilization Force (former Yugoslavia)
xii LIST OF ACRONYMS
As we step over the threshold from one century to the next, the United
Nations is faced with growing demands for collective intervention along-
side declining con®dence in its effectiveness and ef®ciency, diminishing
®nancial support for its activities by some leading industrialized coun-
tries, and gathering storm clouds in the direction in which it seems to be
headed, propelled by the challenge of humanitarian intervention.2 Serious
doubts have been expressed about the institutional capacity of the UN
system to cope with the multitude of challenges confronting it in the new
millennium. In the meantime, the challenge of peacekeeping shows no
sign of abating. Since UN peacekeeping was launched over 50 years ago
in the Middle East, more than 50 operations have been deployed. Many
have played critical roles in ending or managing con¯icts in Africa, Asia,
Central America, and Europe.
During the Cold War, UN peacekeeping forces were interposed be-
tween warring parties and used to forestall major power confrontations
across global faultlines. The number of peacekeeping operations in-
creased dramatically after the end of the Cold War as the UN was placed
centre stage in efforts to resolve outstanding con¯icts. However, the
multiplication of missions was not always accompanied by coherent pol-
icy or integrated military and political responses. When the missions en-
countered problems, the ``crisis of expectations''3 of the late 1980s and
early 1990s in turn gave way to a crisis of con®dence-cum-credibility in
3
4 THAKUR AND SCHNABEL
The contributions to this volume are grouped in four parts. The ®rst
part outlines the challenges of post-Cold War peacekeeping; the second
part sheds light on regional experiences of peacekeeping missions, with
an emphasis on the post-Soviet region and Africa. In the third part practi-
tioners with extensive ®eld experience in peacekeeping share their speci®c
experiences in Cambodia, former Yugoslavia, and East Timor. Finally, the
fourth part takes stock of the recent record of UN peacekeeping, and of
the UN's own attempt to analyse, evaluate, and reform its performance in
peace operations.
This introductory chapter is designed to provide the basic background
for the chapters to follow. It does this by ®rst outlining the succeeding
generations of peacekeeping operations that have been established since
the early years of the United Nations after the Second World War. It
then analyses some of the critical issues that have arisen for international
peacekeeping missions in the types of inter-group ®ghting that comprise
today's ``normal'' con¯ict.
In Chapter 2, Roger Mac Ginty and Gillian Robinson examine the in-
tricacies of ethnic con¯ict, and the challenges they pose for UN peace
operations. They argue that in these situations traditional peacekeeping
is ill-placed, and peace enforcement is often neither doable nor desirable.
Instead, smaller-scale interventions, mostly of a preventive nature and in
close collaboration with local actors, hold greater promise to be effective
in the long run (see also the concluding chapter by Schnabel and Thakur).
Hisako Shimura, a former UN of®cial working for the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and recently a member of the Brahimi
Panel, examines the role of the UN Secretariat in organizing peacekeeping
in Chapter 3. She shows that the Secretary-General and the UN Secre-
tariat at large have played unusually dominant roles in the organization
and management of peacekeeping operations. While she does not criti-
cize this prominence, she points to the fact that it is those powerful actors
who need to be placed in a better position to recognize potential problems
at an early stage and to respond swiftly and competently. They must do
so with the professionalism that would be expected from the United
Nations, and in particular from the DPKO, but is not forthcoming in the
face of inadequate resources and personnel to meet these ever-increasing
challenges.
In Chapter 4, Michael O'Connor looks at effectiveness in peacekeeping
from a different perspective ± that of the mission on the ground. He argues
that peace agreements have to be policed actively and forcefully. This is
only possible if peacekeeping missions can rely on well-trained military
personnel on the ground and on sound military advice from UN Head-
quarters.
In Chapter 5, Neil MacFarlane examines the virtue and utility of
6 THAKUR AND SCHNABEL
Many of the issues so far discussed are then ¯eshed out in the context
of very speci®c ®rst-hand experiences of peacekeepers in Cambodia, for-
mer Yugoslavia, and East Timor. In Chapter 8, Yasushi Akashi discusses
the politics of UN peacekeeping from Cambodia to Yugoslavia. Drawing
on his experience as special representative of the Secretary-General
in both theatres, Akashi comments on the role of the Security Council,
the relations between the ®eld and UN Headquarters, the necessity for
post-con¯ict peace-building commitments, the lack of unity of the per-
manent ®ve in the Security Council, and the absolute requirement of
sustained diplomatic effort, without which mission creep and fatigue are
unavoidable. Akashi supports recent efforts to take a pragmatic approach
to peacekeeping ± one that allows the international community to be
more assertive as long as a mission is well funded, well organized, and
required to avert humanitarian disasters.
In Chapter 9, John Sanderson re¯ects on his experience in Cambodia,
and on developments there since UNTAC was concluded in 1993. He
expresses his frustration over what has been a slow and shaky recovery
process after the war. He attributes the failure to win the peace on the
UN's inexperience with post-con¯ict peace-building, and its failure to
``rapidly deploy forces to ®eld high-quality administrators in suf®cient
numbers to provide effective supervision and governance in disrupted
states''. While more ®eld experience exists today to avoid such problems,
the capacity is still lacking to occupy and run countries emerging from
war. Sanderson argues that only such a capacity will allow the United
Nations to generate lasting improvement.
Satish Nambiar, in his contribution in Chapter 10, reminds us that there
is an important difference between non-coercive peacekeeping and puni-
tive peace enforcement. In contrast to other contributors to this volume,
General Nambiar maintains that force must be used only if it is well con-
ceived and the consequences are well understood. Above all, the pursuit of
political solutions and concurrent peace-building activities have to exploit
the space created by peace enforcement and peacekeeping operations ±
the failure to do so leads only to further disarray, and it is the peace-
keepers who tend to be blamed. Nambiar draws on his experience in
former Yugoslavia and re¯ects on the damage done to the United Nations
through its failure to address Kosovo's problem at an early stage and
through NATO bypassing the Security Council to launch its air war over
Kosovo. While humanitarian law may well deserve to be enforced with
military might, this might must come from the United Nations, and not
some dominant country or regional alliance.
John McFarlane and Willliam Maley round off this section with a dis-
cussion of civilian police in UN peace operations in Chapter 11. Frag-
mented war-torn states with a serious inability to perform the normal
8 THAKUR AND SCHNABEL
Article 1(1) of the UN Charter declares the primary purpose of the or-
ganization to be the maintenance of international peace and security. The
world failed to realize a collective security system centred on the United
Nations during the Cold War, and appears no nearer to the goal today.
10 THAKUR AND SCHNABEL
..
Traditional peacekeeping had several distinguishing characteristics:
consent and cooperation of parties to the con¯ict;
..
multinational composition;
no use of force;
.
military neutrality between the rival armies;
political impartiality between the rival countries.
..
following types of tasks:
military disengagement, demobilization, and cantonment;
..policing;
human rights monitoring and enforcement;
..
information dissemination;
observation, organization, and conduct of elections;
..
rehabilitation;
repatriation;
.
administration;
working with or overseeing the operations of regional or non-UN
peacekeeping operations.
The efforts of the United Nations and member states did not always meet
demand. On the basis of its actions and inaction in Somalia, Bosnia, and
Rwanda, wrote a critic, ``the UN has become not a friend of world stability
but a menace. Wherever it intervenes, peace is neither made nor kept but
postponed.''14 The UN's credibility was seen to have been lost, in partic-
ular, in the tide of refugees swarming on the highways and byways of
former Yugoslavia: a veritable symbol of human misery. A columnist
with The Economist mentioned the following as Bosnia's contribution to
doublespeak: ``safe area'' means a deadly dangerous place; a ``rapid re-
action'' will occur next month, maybe; and a ``protection force'' is one
that offers neither.15 While the cynics might conclude that Bosnia was the
UN's Viet Nam, the romantics might respond that it is better explained as
the UN's Munich: a failure of collective nerve and will. A peacekeeping
operation in a theatre where there was no peace to keep, the UN Pro-
tection Force (UNPROFOR) in former Yugoslavia offered neither safety
to the local people, solace to the displaced and dispossessed, nor even the
consolation to the international community of having done the job to the
best of their ability. Its failure to prevent the horrors of Srebrenica in
1995 remains a stain on the world conscience for passivity in the face of
CASCADING GENERATIONS OF PEACEKEEPING 13
the calculated return of ``evil'' to Europe and a tragedy that, in the words
of the of®cial UN report, ``will haunt our history forever''.16
The pace of developments raced ahead even of third-generation oper-
ations. In Somalia and elsewhere the United Nations attempted ``peace
enforcement'', with results that were anything but encouraging17 ± hence
General Sir Michael Rose's metaphor, used in the title of this chapter, of
``the Mogadishu line'' that peacekeeping forces dare cross only at their
peril.18 While the conceptual issues associated with peace enforcement
will be discussed below, Somalia most clearly represented the birth (and
death) of the fourth generation of UN peacekeeping.
East Timor represents the evolution into the most recent, sixth genera-
tion of peacekeeping. A UN-authorized multinational force is prepared
for combat action if necessary, and is given the mandate, troops, equip-
ment, and robust rules of engagement that are required for such a mis-
sion. However, the military operation is but the prelude to a de facto UN
administration that engages in state-making for a transitional period.
That is, a ``nation'' is granted independence as a result of UN-organized
elections. But the nation concerned has no structures of ``state'' to speak
of. It is not even, like Somalia, a case of a failed state; in East Timor a
14 THAKUR AND SCHNABEL
state has had to be created from scratch. The United Nations has ®nally
confronted and addressed, in East Timor, the dilemma that haunted it in
the Congo in the 1960s and Somalia in the 1990s, namely that peace res-
toration is not possible without the establishment of law and order. But in
a country where the writ of government has either collapsed or is non-
existent, the law that is made and enforced so as to provide order can only
be that of the United Nations or of another foreign power (or coalition).
East Timor represents one type of intrastate con¯ict that was fought over
the formation of a new state. Another type of internal con¯ict concerns
cases where there is no challenge to the territorial status quo, only to the
political: that is, different factions compete and ®ght to be recognized as
the sole legitimate government of a country whose territorial boundaries
remain uncontested. Cambodia was one such example. Others include
Afghanistan and Angola, ``orphans of the Cold War'' in Dame Margaret
Anstee's evocative metaphor.20 The end of the Cold War did not mean
an end of history, nor even the end of all war.
The United Nations was designed to keep world peace, if necessary by
going to war against aggressors. The transient Cold War hostility and the
CASCADING GENERATIONS OF PEACEKEEPING 15
Robust peacekeeping
Should the United Nations use force against those who would challenge
its authority, as in Bosnia, Somalia, and Sierra Leone? The crisis that
16 THAKUR AND SCHNABEL
mainly Western armies for protection, it will be seen even more as a tool
of the West.
In other words, ground realities since the end of the Cold War have
highlighted the large gap between the two familiar poles of traditional
peacekeeping and Chapter VII enforcement. There is a need for a con-
ceptual and policy bridge for a transition from Chapter VI to Chapter VII.
At present there is no continuum from consensual peacekeeping to col-
lective enforcement. Because the mechanism for setting up a collective
security force under Chapter VII does not exist, the United Nations has
resorted to subcontracting enforcement operations. Yet the belief persists
in many modern military forces that peacekeeping is for wimps, not for
real soldiers, even though the most common form of insecurity today ±
wars within state borders ± calls for complex peacekeeping operations as
the tool of choice by the international community. Those with the military
capacity lack the political will to take part in robust UN peacekeeping;
those with the will lack the means.
``Humanitarian'' intervention
Reading the UN Charter, there is little doubt that a basic premise under-
pinning the organization is the notion of inalienable human rights that
are universally valid. Many governments argue in favour of a relativist
interpretation of human rights. Yet there is no society in which indi-
viduals do not want adequate food and shelter, the ability to be able to
speak freely, to practise their own religion, and to avoid torture and im-
prisonment by the state without ®rst being charged and subjected to a fair
trial. None of this is culture-speci®c.
A steady loss of government control over transborder exchanges has
been accompanied by increased demands and expectations of the United
Nations from the peoples of the world. In the case of human rights, this
takes the form of people seeking the protection of the international or-
ganization from abuses by their own governments. Governments, how-
ever, continue to be suspicious of claims by international bodies of a
quali®ed right to intervene.
In practice, the legitimacy of intervention turns upon the answer to
questions about the four main elements involved in any act of intervention:
actor, act, target, and purpose. The most immediately acceptable justi®ca-
tion for intervention is the collectivist principle: not why intervention was
undertaken, but who took the decision to intervene. Since 1945, the most
widely accepted legitimator of international action has been the United
Nations. The International Bill of Rights after all comprises three seminal
UN accomplishments: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of
1948, and the two covenants on civil-political and socio-economic-cultural
18 THAKUR AND SCHNABEL
The need for clear mandates and goals, matching military and ®nan-
cial resources, performance benchmarks, etc., has long been recognized
but rarely followed. Disagreement among Security Council members is
papered over by ambiguous language, the price for which is paid by peace-
keepers in the ®eld. Another well-known lesson is that peacekeepers
cannot function where there is no peace to keep. Missions keep being
mounted in the Micawberesque belief that everything that can go right
will go right. The Brahimi panel comments on the UN tendency to base
decisions on best-case planning assumptions in situations with a history of
worst-case behaviour. Yet a third lesson, learnt at great cost and human
suffering in the 1990s, is that the need for impartial peacekeeping should
not automatically translate into moral equivalence among the con¯ict
parties on the ground.
The Brahimi Report criticizes the Security Council's record of decisions
unsupported by the necessary resources to implement them. It recom-
mends that no Council decision be taken to create a peacekeeping opera-
tion (or substantially change its mandate) until the Secretary-General can
certify that the necessary personnel and equipment have been offered.
This recommendation, if adopted, should cut down on the number of un-
realistic resolutions that have been debasing the Council's currency in
recent years.
More open and democratic decision-making procedures by the Security
Council would also help to promote a culture of accountability: member
states should be held responsible for disasters ¯owing from ¯awed policy.
So should UN of®cials. Policy failures are compounded by managerial
mistakes made by the Secretariat. As US Permanent Representative
Richard Holbrooke and others have noted, the DPKO is effectively the
UN's ministry of defence, except that it is on a more or less permanent
war footing. Its human, technical, logistical, and ®nancial capacity to en-
gage in this mammoth, worldwide, round-the-clock task is underwhelming.
Many former force commanders, including Generals John Sanderson and
Satish Nambiar, have commented on the strategic disconnect between
their needs in the ®eld and the calibre and professionalism of military
advice available to the Secretary-General in New York. In Chapter 4
Michael O'Connor considers a revised Military Staff Council and solid
military expertise in the DPKO as one of the most crucial, but hitherto
neglected, components of successful peace operations.
The United Nations needs to develop the professional civil service
culture of providing advice that is sound, based on a thorough assessment
of options, independent of what might be politically popular or ®t the
preconceptions of the decision-makers, and free from fear of consequences
for politically neutral of®cials. Where clearly unimplementable missions
CASCADING GENERATIONS OF PEACEKEEPING 21
Conclusion
International organizations touch our daily lives in myriad ways. They are
an important means of arranging the functioning of the state-based in-
ternational system more satisfactorily than had proven to be the case in
conditions of international anarchy. The United Nations lies at their leg-
islative and normative centre. If it did not exist, we would surely have to
invent it. Considering the ill-fated history of the League of Nations, the
UN founders would have felt pride and satisfaction that their creation is
still intact at the dawn of the new millennium, embracing virtually the
entire international community. Yet their vision of a world community
equal in rights and united in action is still to be realized.
Like the League of Nations in the inter-war period, the United Nations
embodies the idea that aggressive war is a crime against humanity, with
every state having the interest, right, and duty to collaborate in preventing
it. The innovation of peacekeeping notwithstanding, the United Nations
has not lived up to expectations in securing a disarmed and peaceful world.
For the United Nations to succeed, the world community must match the
demands made on the organization by the means given to it. The UN's
®nancial dif®culties are compounded by perceptions, not always justi®ed,
of bureaucratic inef®ciency. Based on human solidarity and transcending
national perspectives, the United Nations provides and manages the
framework for bringing together the world's leaders to tackle the pressing
problems of the day for the survival, development, and welfare of all
human beings everywhere.
Peacekeeping evolved as partial compensation for the gap between the
Charter rhetoric and the Cold War reality of collective security. As Ya-
sushi Akashi notes in Chapter 8, many of the lessons learnt are restate-
ments of long-held convictions by the peacekeeping community: the lack
of unity among the major powers; the imprecision, ambiguity, prolifera-
tion, and inconsistencies of the mandates approved by the UN Security
Council; the lack of coordination between the legislative bodies at UN
Headquarters in New York and the peacekeeping operations in the ®eld;
the unwillingness of the parties to the con¯ict to trust UN diplomacy
CASCADING GENERATIONS OF PEACEKEEPING 23
rather than their own arms; and the incongruence between the mandate
and resources given to the peacekeeping missions.
In the past, the United Nations has emphasized abortion to the neglect
of prophylaxis. It needs to sharpen its skills at identifying potential con-
¯icts before the fact so that parties to disputes can be brought together
during the period of infancy. The United Nations also needs to become
involved in post-con¯ict peace-building by identifying, supporting, and
deepening the structures that will consolidate peace and enhance people's
sense of con®dence and well-being.29 Peacekeeping is a circuit breaker in
a spiralling cycle of violence. The problem with traditional peacekeeping
was that it could at best localize the impact of con¯icts and then freeze
them. Rarely did the United Nations prevent con¯icts from breaking out
or resolve them after they did. The sixth-generation model for East
Timor has ®nally come to terms with this requirement. It remains to be
seen how successful it will be, and whether it can be replicated elsewhere.
In the midst of the swirling tides of change, the United Nations must
strive for a balance between the desirable and the possible. Its dilemma is
that it must avoid deploying forces into situations where the risk of failure
is high, but not be so timid as to transform every dif®culty into an alibi for
inaction. The Charter was a triumph of hope and idealism over the ex-
perience of two world wars. The ¯ame ¯ickered in the chill winds of the
Cold War, but has not yet died out. The organization's greatest strength
as the only universal forum for cooperation and management is its mobi-
lizing and convening potential. The global public goods of peace, pros-
perity, sustainable development, and good governance cannot be achieved
by any country acting on its own. The United Nations is still the symbol of
our hopes and dreams for a better world, where weakness can be com-
pensated by justice and fairness, and the law of the jungle replaced by the
rule of law.
The United Nations has to strike a balance between realism and ideal-
ism. It will be incapacitated if it alienates its most important members, in
particular the USA. Its decisions must re¯ect current realities of military
and economic power. Margaret Karns and Karen Mingst note in Chapter
12 that the United Nations faces the dilemma of reducing dependence on
the USA, yet creating and sustaining US diplomatic, material, and ®nan-
cial support in order to meet the demands and expectations from differ-
ent pockets of crises around the world for peacekeeping operations in the
future. But the United Nations will also lose credibility if it compromises
core values. It is the repository of international idealism, and utopia is
fundamental to its identity. Even the sense of disenchantment and dis-
illusionment on the part of some cannot be understood other than in this
context.
24 THAKUR AND SCHNABEL
Notes
1. The views expressed in this chapter are the personal opinion of the authors. They do not
necessarily re¯ect the views of the United Nations University.
2. See Ko® Annan, Facing the Humanitarian Challenge: Towards a Culture of Prevention,
New York: UN Department of Public Information, 1999.
3. The phrase is taken from Ramesh Thakur and Carlyle A. Thayer (eds), A Crisis of Ex-
pectations: UN Peacekeeping in the 1990s, Boulder: Westview, 1995.
4. Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, A/55/305-S/2000/809, New
York: UN General Assembly/Security Council, 21 August 2000, p. xiii.
5. Henry Wiseman, ``The United Nations and international peacekeeping: A comparative
analysis'', in UN Institute for Training and Research, The United Nations and the
Maintenance of International Peace and Security, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987,
pp. 263±333.
6. Paul F. Diehl, Daniel Druckman, and James Wall, ``International peacekeeping and
con¯ict resolution: A taxonomic analysis with implications'', Journal of Con¯ict Resolu-
tion, Vol. 42, No. 1, February 1998, pp. 33±55.
7. The two most prominent analysts, at least in English, were Professor Alan James and
veteran UN peacekeeper Major-General Indar Jit Rikhye. General Rikhye was also the
founding president of the International Peace Academy in New York. See in particular
Alan James, The Politics of Peacekeeping, New York: Praeger, 1969; Alan James, Peace-
keeping in International Politics, New York: St Martin's Press, 1990; Indar Jit Rikhye,
Michael Harbottle and Bjùrn Egge, The Thin Blue Line: International Peacekeeping and
Its Future, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974; and Indar Jit Rikhye, The Theory
and Practice of Peacekeeping, London: C. Hurst, 1984. See also Paul F. Diehl, Interna-
tional Peacekeeping, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993; and Henry
Wiseman (ed.), Peacekeeping: Appraisals and Proposals, New York: Pergamon, 1983.
Representative works from more recent times include William J. Durch, The Evolution
of UN Peacekeeping: Case Studies and Comparative Analysis, New York: St Martin's
Press, 1993; John Mackinlay and Jarat Chopra, ``Second-generation multinational oper-
ations'', Washington Quarterly, Vol. 15, 1992, pp. 113±134; and Steven R. Ratner, The
New UN Peacekeeping: Building Peace in Lands of Con¯ict after the Cold War, New
York: St Martin's Press, 1996. The United Nations itself has published straightforward
and authoritative accounts in The Blue Helmets: A Review of United Nations Peace-
keeping, 3rd edn, New York: UN Department of Public Information, 1996.
8. See Henry Wiseman and Alastair Taylor, From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, New York:
Pergamon Press for the International Peace Academy, 1981.
9. See Mala Tabory, The Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai, Boulder: West-
view, 1986.
10. See Ramesh Thakur, International Peacekeeping in Lebanon: United Nations Authority
and Multinational Force, Boulder: Westview, 1987.
11. See Ramesh Thakur, Peacekeeping in Vietnam: Canada, India, Poland and the Interna-
tional Commission, Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1984.
12. The Congo crisis of the 1960s, and the UN operation there from 1960 to 1964, could be
said to have been precursors to the complex emergencies and third-generation missions.
13. See Michael W. Doyle, UN Peacekeeping in Cambodia: UNTAC's Civil Mandate,
Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995; Trevor Findlay, Cambodia: The Legacy and Lessons of
UNTAC, Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 1995.
14. Simon Jenkins, ``Fanning the ¯ames of war'', The Times (London), 9 November 1994.
15. Johnson, ``The injuries of war'', The Economist (London), 29 July 1995, p. 72.
CASCADING GENERATIONS OF PEACEKEEPING 25
16. Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 53/35 (1998),
New York: UN Secretariat, November 1999, paragraph 503.
17. See Samuel M. Makinda, Seeking Peace from Chaos: Humanitarian Intervention in
Somalia, New York: Lynne Rienner for the International Peace Academy, 1993; and
Ramesh Thakur, ``From peacekeeping to peace enforcement: The UN Operation in
Somalia'', Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 32, September 1994, pp. 387±410.
18. Michael Rose, ``The Bosnia experience'', in Ramesh Thakur (ed.), Past Imperfect, Fu-
ture UNcertain: The United Nations at Fifty, London/New York: Macmillan/St Martin's
Press, 1998, p. 139.
19. For an excellent analysis of the issues surrounding such a division of labour, see David
Malone, Decision-Making in the UN Security Council: The Case of Haiti, 1990±1997,
Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.
20. Margaret Joan Anstee, Orphan of the Cold War: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the
Angolan Peace Process, 1992±93, New York: St Martin's Press, 1996. On Afghanistan
see William Maley (ed.), Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban, New
York: New York University Press, 1998.
21. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and
Peacekeeping, New York: UN Department of Public Information, 1992, paragraph 20.
22. Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations During the 1994
Genocide in Rwanda, S/1999/1257, New York: United Nations, 15 December 1999.
23. Stephen Lewis, ``After Rwanda, the world doesn't look the same'', International Herald
Tribune, 10 July 2000. Lewis was one of the members of the OAU panel. General Ro-
mero Dallaire was commander of the UN force in Rwanda at the time of the genocide.
24. Ramesh Thakur, ``Teaming up to make human rights a universal fact'', International
Herald Tribune, 10 December 1998.
25. Olara A. Otunnu, ``Promoting peacemaking and peacekeeping: The role and perspec-
tive of the International Peace Academy'', in Thakur, note 18, pp. 213±214.
26. Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, note 4.
27. This section is drawn mainly from David M. Malone and Ramesh Thakur, ``UN peace-
keeping: Lessons learned?'' Global Governance, Vol. 7, No. 1, January±March 2001,
pp. 11±17.
28. For a recent collection of essays examining the peacekeeping requirements for Africa,
see Jakkie Cilliers and Greg Mills (eds), From Peacekeeping to Complex Emergencies:
Peace Support Missions in Africa, Johannesburg and Pretoria: South African Institute of
International Affairs and Institute for Security Studies, 1999.
29. This was recognised by Boutros-Ghali in An Agenda for Peace, note 21, paragraphs 55±
59.
2
Peacekeeping and the violence
in ethnic con¯ict
Roger Mac Ginty and Gillian Robinson
26
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Non conviene che tu vada sola, specialmente dopo quella tua
bambinata che diede da discorrere oltre al bisogno. T’accompagnerò
io al primo momento di libertà. — Ed ella replicò con inusata
mansuetudine: — Come vuoi. — Per disgrazia il conte era
occupatissimo a cercare una nuova pariglia pel suo landau e non
aveva in quei giorni un minuto disponibile. Anche la contessa era
tanto tanto occupata.... a riposarsi dalle fatiche del carnovale e a
prepararsi alle penitenze della quaresima.... Però ell’aveva dato
ordine espresso a uno dei servi di passare ogni mattina dal
professore, e, quel che più importa, quando il servo tornava dalla
sua spedizione, ell’aveva l’abitudine non troppo comune di star a
sentire ciò ch’egli le riferiva. Anzi un paio di volte ella esclamò: —
Povero Teofoli! Quanto mi dispiace!
Il bello si è che pel solo dubbio d’incontrar la Serlati non si recava da
Teofoli nemmeno la Ermansi, la quale avrebbe pur voluto portare il
suo perdono in extremis all’amico che l’aveva offesa, ferita nel suo
amor proprio, posposta ad una civetta. Le due donne erano ormai
nemiche mortali, e la Ermansi parlando della Giorgina, diceva: — In
società devo subirla; se la trovassi in casa del professore temo che
mi dimenticherei d’essere una dama. — Ora, a essere una dama la
contessa ci teneva troppo per non sfuggir tutte le occasioni che
potevano farla discendere al grado di pedina. Rinunciò quindi al suo
magnanimo proposito affidando al conte marito l’ufficio di sostituirla.
In luogo della Serlati e della Ermansi, all’ultimo momento e quando
l’infermo aveva già perduto i sensi e non ravvisava nessuno, giunse
la sorella Teofoli da Roma. Era una signora magra, stecchita, dalla
fisonomia impassibile, d’un’età che non si sarebbe potuta
determinare a prima vista. In realtà aveva dieci o dodici anni meno
del fratello che studiava all’estero mentr’ella era fanciulla, che, per le
necessità della sua carriera, era rimasto lontano anche dopo, e col
quale ella non aveva nè analogia di gusti, nè consuetudine di vita, nè
frequenza di relazioni epistolari. L’imminente catastrofe la lasciava
fredda; mostrava appena quel tanto di dolore ch’era voluto dalle
convenienze; aveva piuttosto l’aria dell’erede che volgendo in giro lo
sguardo valuta, così a un dipresso, gli oggetti destinati a divenire in
breve sua proprietà. In fondo, di tutte le persone che in quell’ora
suprema s’affollavano nella casa, ell’era la meno afflitta, la meno
commossa; e verso quelle persone ella provava un sentimento
difficile a definirsi, un misto di stizza e di soggezione; le parevano
intrusi, e nel medesimo tempo una voce le diceva che l’intrusa era
lei, lei che del fratello non aveva curato la gloria, lei che ne ignorava i
trionfi e le debolezze. Pure, intrusa o no, poichè la parentela le dava
una larva di padronanza, ella si affrettò a far prevalere la sua volontà
in un soggetto delicatissimo. Tepida credente, ma ligia alle forme,
ma convinta della santità d’una massima che il suo consorte,
impiegato superiore al Demanio, amava spesso ripetere: bisogna far
sempre quello che fa la maggioranza; ella si scandalizzò altamente
che Teofoli si fosse ridotto a quel punto senz’adempiere alle pratiche
di buon cattolico. Che poi egli fosse vissuto sempre fuori d’ogni
religione positiva, che avesse ne’ suoi scritti e ne’ suoi discorsi
sostenuto dottrine razionaliste erano piccolezze che alla brava
signora non importavano affatto; le importava soltanto ch’egli
uscisse dal mondo, per dir così, con le sue carte in regola. Mandò
quindi lì per lì a chiamare un prete. Costui, un po’ per sincero zelo
religioso, un po’ per il vanto di ricondurre in grembo alla Chiesa
l’illustre professore Teofoli, accorse subito, e non fu colpa sua se
mentr’egli saliva le scale l’illustre professore Teofoli esalava
l’estremo sospiro. Però la Curia fu di manica larga, tenne conto al
morto del buon volere manifestato da chi rappresentava la famiglia e
si mostrò ben lieta di accompagnarlo con le sue preghiere e di
avvolgerlo nello sue pompe. Alcuni arricciavano il naso,
protestavano contro questa specie di violenza postuma usata ad un
uomo di cui erano notissime le opinioni, e Dalla Volpe in particolare
schizzava veleno pensando che la cosa avrebbe fatto piacere a sua
moglie. Ma già conveniva piegare il capo, perchè in mancanza di
qualsiasi disposizione del defunto non c’era chi avesse diritto di
opporsi all’autorità della sorella. Del resto, anche molti indifferenti,
molti scettici davano ragione a lei; dicevano ch’ell’aveva fatto
benissimo, che non c’è il prezzo dell’opera a singolarizzarsi per
questioni di forma, e che i funerali religiosi sono più belli dei funerali
civili.
XVIII.
I.
Non sono che dieci anni. Ero nel banco Prosperi da qualche tempo,
addetto alla corrispondenza in lingue straniere.
Quantunque il più giovine e l’ultimo arrivato dei commessi, ero
trattato con distinzione speciale; forse conferiva al mio credito la
conoscenza delle lingue, forse s’era scoperta in me qualche
attitudine per gli affari, forse il mio carattere inspirava fiducia. Fatto si
è che non mi si nascondeva nulla, e che nelle operazioni importanti il
principale chiedeva spesso il mio parere. Ero stato anche due o tre
volte a pranzo su in casa, e la signora Agnese s’era mostrata
gentilissima meco. Ma la sua era una gentilezza fredda, un po’
altera, ben diversa da quella del marito. I miei colleghi non
l’amavano; dicevano ch’ella non era donna adatta pel signor
Roberto, ch’ella aveva gusti troppo raffinati, troppo aristocratici, e
che a lui sarebbe convenuto di prender per moglie una figliuola di
negozianti con mezzo milione di dote, invece di questa che gli aveva
portato pochissimo e che senza esser nobile aveva tutti i fumi della
nobiltà. Però quelli che si ricordavano del matrimonio (e non ci
voleva molto a ricordarsene perchè il matrimonio datava solo da sei
anni) dovevano riconoscere che il signor Roberto e la signora
Agnese s’erano sposati per inclinazione e che difficilmente si poteva
vedere una coppia più bella e più innamorata. Adesso l’amore
durava in uno solo dei coniugi, nel signor Roberto, ed era un amore
ardente, appassionato, un amore a cui non sarebbe parso grave
alcun sacrifizio pur di riconquistare quel cuore che gli sfuggiva. Del
resto, nessun’altra accusa seria, tranne quella di ricambiare con un
riserbo gelato tanta tenerezza, si faceva alla signora Agnese. Non
era nè vana, nè civetta, nè esigente; se non trovava la felicità nella
sua casa non la cercava di fuori. — Ah se avesse avuto figliuoli! —
esclamava qualcheduno. E l’esclamazione coglieva nel segno.
Ho detto che non era esigente. Guai se fosse stata! Ogni desiderio
di lei era una legge pel marito; e non soltanto i desideri espressi
palesemente, ma anche quelli appena adombrati, ma anche quelli
supposti. Uomo savio com’era, il signor Roberto, per compiacerla,
avrebbe dato fondo al suo patrimonio.
Fu appunto per soddisfare uno di questi desideri sfuggitole dal
labbro ch’egli mi consegnò una mattina una lunga nota tutta di suo
pugno pregandomi di tradurla in inglese e d’inserirla nella lettera
ch’io dovevo scrivere il giorno stesso ai nostri corrispondenti di
Hiogo nel Giappone, i signori James Holiday e C.º. Noi avevamo in
corso coi signori Holiday un grossissimo affare; un’importazione di
60 mila sacchi di riso da loro acquistati per nostro conto e ch’essi
dovevano caricare appena arrivasse a Hiogo il vapore inglese King
Arthur, capitano George Atkinson, che in quel momento si trovava a
Venezia e che avevamo noleggiato apposta. Ma la nota
consegnatami dal principale si riferiva a cosa affatto diversa. Essa
conteneva la preghiera, rivolta in particolare a M.r James Holiday,
che i Prosperi avevano conosciuto due anni addietro in un suo
viaggio in Europa, di comperare e spedire per mezzo del King Arthur
tutto l’occorrente per arredare alla giapponese un salottino di cui
s’indicavano le dimensioni e si univa la pianta. Si fidava nel buon
gusto di M.r Holiday lasciandogli mano libera per la scelta degli
oggetti, e dandogli per la spesa il limite approssimativo di mille a
milleduecento sterline. Questo importo doveva essere aggiunto a
quello del riso e compreso nelle tratte con cui i signori Holiday si
sarebbero rimborsati del loro avere sui banchieri di Londra Eliot,
Green e Cº.
Naturalmente, io dissi che mi sarei accinto subito al lavoro.
— Procuri di aver spicciato la posta per le due — ripigliò il signor
Roberto. — Vorrei che mi accompagnasse a bordo del King Arthur.
Devo parlare col capitano, ed ella sa che l’inglese non è il mio forte e
che mi è sempre utile di avere un interprete.... A proposito, — egli
soggiunse dopo una breve pausa, — verrà con noi anche mia moglie
che non ha mai visitato un gran vapore mercantile.
Alle due in punto la signora Agnese era in banco in cappellino e
mantiglia, col ventaglio appeso alla cintura e con un ombrellino di
seta rossa in mano.
Il principale mi chiamò: — Ha scritto quella lettera a Hiogo?
Io feci col capo un segno affermativo.
— Abbia la cortesia di portarla qui — seguitò Prosperi — e di
leggere a mia moglie la parte che concerne il salottino giapponese.
Andai a prendere il foglio e cominciai la mia lettura traducendo
dall’inglese in italiano.
La signora Agnese sorrise. — Legga pure nell’originale. Capisco
abbastanza.
Dovetti compiacerla, benchè mi seccasse questa specie di esame di
pronuncia. Ella mi porse un’attenzione benevola, e quand’ebbi finito
mi indirizzò qualche frase gentile circa alla mia facilità di scrivere e
parlare le lingue straniere. Però (e si rivolse a suo marito) aveva
delle obbiezioni di massima. È vero, ell’aveva detto, che rimettendo
a nuovo alcune stanze del palazzo si sarebbe potuto fornire di
ninnoli giapponesi il salottino d’angolo, ma l’aveva detto così di volo,
non sognandosi nemmeno che si trattasse d’una spesa grave.
Venticinquemila lire e più per un salottino!... Era una pazzia.... No,
no, ella ne avrebbe rimorso per tutta la vita.
Il signor Roberto che s’era levato da sedere le mise una mano sulla
bocca pregandola di non insistere. La pazzia, s’era tale, la faceva lui;
ella non aveva fatto che dar forma a un’idea ch’egli ruminava già da
due anni, da quando M.r Holiday era stato a Venezia. Non si
sgomentasse della spesa; l’ultimo bilancio s’era chiuso con un utile
di oltre mezzo milione, e permetteva di levarsi qualche capriccio.
Come conclusione di questo discorso il signor Roberto mi tolse di
mano la lettera, la firmò, e mi ordinò di portarla nella stanza vicina
perchè la copiassero e la mandassero immediatamente alla posta.
— Cosa fatta, capo ha, — egli disse. — E adesso non perdiamo
tempo. Ceriani, è pronto?
Di lì a poco scendevamo tutti e tre la scaletta che dal banco metteva
nell’entratura, una lunga entratura di palazzo veneziano, con la riva
da una parte e un ampio cortile dall’altra.
Io guardavo con maggior attenzione dell’usato la giovine coppia che
mi stava dinanzi; due belle persone, ma due tipi affatto diversi. Egli
alto, largo di spalle e di torace, ben piantato sulle gambe nervose,
bruno d’occhi, di capelli e di barba, di carnagione rosea che si
coloriva forse un po’ troppo intensamente dopo il pasto, dopo una
passeggiata, nel calore d’una discussione; insomma un
temperamento sanguigno esuberante di forza e di vitalità. Ella,
pallida, bionda, magra: un profilo di cammeo sopra un corpo di
silfide; capelli lisci e finissimi spartiti regolarmente sulle tempie e
avvolti in treccia dietro alla nuca, grandi occhi azzurri dalla
guardatura un po’ incerta e fantastica, piedi e mani che uno scultore
avrebbe preso volentieri a modello; nel complesso un impasto di
correttezza classica e d’idealità romantica.
Si montò in gondola. Quantunque non fossimo che alla metà di
marzo era una temperatura da primavera inoltrata, e la gondola
aveva, anzichè il felze nero e opprimente, una elegante tenda di
raso a frangie. Arrivammo in dieci minuti nel Canale della Giudecca,
forse meno gaio, meno artistico di quello di San Marco, senza lo
sfondo superbo del Palazzo dei Dogi e della Piazzetta; non meno
bello però nè meno pittoresco nella doppia linea delle Zattere e della
Giudecca, quelle rivolte al mezzogiorno, questa un po’ in ombra, un
po’ severa, un po’ triste, se non fossero i rii che la traversano e che
lasciano vedere da lontano sotto gli archi dei ponti i muricciuoli degli
orti incoronati d’allegra verdura, e di là dall’Isola un altro e più ampio
tratto di laguna anch’esso riscintillante ai raggi del sole. E in questo
Canale, più assai che nel bacino di San Marco, s’agita e ferve,
piccolo o grande che sia, il commercio marittimo di Venezia, e a tutte
l’ore si vedono bastimenti a vela e piroscafi andare, venire, o cullarsi
indolentemente sull’onda come se posassero dalle fatiche del
viaggio.
Il giorno della nostra visita al King Arthur c’era un insolito
movimento. Mi ricordo che passò a poca distanza da noi, mandando
un urlo rauco e prolungato come un gemito di belva ferita, un vapore
inglese, vuoto, enorme e mostruoso, con quasi tutto lo scafo fuori
dell’acqua; intorno a un altro della Navigazione italiana arrivato
appena s’affollava uno sciame di barche e battelli; da un terzo,
ancorato in mezzo al Canale, si scaricava il carbone facendolo
scendere nelle peate per un piano inclinato e sollevando un nembo
di polvere scura o densa; uno dei grossi navigli della Peninsulare, di
quelli che si spingono direttamente a Bombay e Calcutta, pronto a
salpare prima di notte, levava già le ancore e fumava dalla
caminiera. E quanto più ci avvicinavamo alla Giudecca, ov’era
ormeggiato il King Arthur, tanto più spesseggiavano i legni e tanto
più cauta doveva proceder la gondola per non urtar nelle catene e
nei gavitelli.
Durante il tragitto il signor Roberto parlò quasi solo. Parlò di
quest’importazione di riso giapponese, la prima che si facesse in
Italia, e del profitto e dell’onore ch’egli sperava trarne. Disse dei gran
passi che s’eran fatti a Venezia, dopo il 1866, a dispetto dei
pessimisti e dei denigratori di professione, e rammentò i tempi
quando, per ogni prodotto di regioni lontane, si doveva ricorrere al
mercato di Londra. Se ci fossero altri dieci negozianti che avessero il
suo spirito d’iniziativa, — egli soggiunse con legittimo orgoglio, —
Venezia sarebbe la prima piazza d’Italia.
Nelle pause del suo discorso lo sguardo del signor Roberto cercava
quello di sua moglie, e più d’una volta la sua mano si posò sulla
mano di lei. Io notai a due riprese ch’ella, quand’era possibile,
sfuggiva il contatto, e questa mal celata ripugnanza per un uomo di
cui ell’era l’idolo offendeva in me il sentimento della giustizia e
dell’equità. Andavo persuadendomi che la scarsa simpatia dei miei
colleghi per la signora Agnese non era infondata.
La scala si fermò ai piedi della scaletta del King Arthur, in cima alla
quale il capitano Atkinson stava ad aspettarci. Era un uomo di
mezza età, di tinta olivastra, di statura giusta e lineamenti regolari,
con un’espressione di malinconia nei grandi occhi grigi. Tutto
sommato, un bell’uomo, dall’aria distinta e signorile, ma uno di quelli
che a guardarli non mettono di buon umore. Del rimanente, la sua
tristezza si spiegava col fatto che gli era morta alcuni mesi addietro a
Londra, mentr’egli viaggiava nei mari dell’India, una moglie giovine e
adorata. Egli ne portava il lutto e ne’ suoi abiti neri pareva un
policeman, o un impiegato delle pompe funebri.
Taciturno per indole e ancor più taciturno dopo la disgrazia che
l’aveva colpito, quel giorno però il capitano Atkinson si sforzava di
esser loquace e faceva con perfetta cortesia gli onori del suo
bastimento, conducendoci a visitarne tutte le parti, dal ponte del
comando alla stiva, dalla cucina alle macchine, prendendo per mano
la signora Agnese nei punti difficili e rispondendo con molta
chiarezza alle sue domande sul meccanismo dell’elica, sull’orario di
bordo, sui segnali, sul carico e lo scarico delle merci. M’accorsi ben
presto che la signora Prosperi non solo capiva l’inglese, ma lo
parlava speditamente, con un fraseggiare elegante, con una
pronuncia corretta. Ell’avrebbe potuto quanto me e meglio di me
servire d’interprete a suo marito. Compiuto il giro del naviglio, il
capitano Atkinson ci fece entrare in un salottino addobbato con
molto decoro ch’era attiguo alla sua cabina e ove erano preparati
abbondanti rinfreschi. Io approfittai di questo momento per
comunicare al capitano certi desideri del mio principale circa a
qualche piccola modificazione da introdursi nei ventilatori, e stavo
scrivendo una noterella in proposito da lasciare a bordo, quando
s’intese un lieve rumore nella cabina. Master Atkinson si alzò,
aperse adagio l’uscio e diede un’occhiata attraverso lo spiraglio. Poi
tornò indietro con un sorriso sul labbro, un sorriso che faceva uno
strano effetto in quel viso triste, e disse: — C’è la mia bimba di là....
Dorme come un angelo e Tom la veglia.... il mio cane di Terranuova.
Era lui che aveva urtato un mobile.... Quando c’è lui è come se ci
fossi io.
— Ha una bimba con sè? — esclamò la signora Agnese. E nel far
questa semplice interrogazione un vivo incarnato le si diffuse sulle
guancie.
Egli chinò il capo affermativamente. — La mia unica figliuola.... L’ho
presa a bordo poche settimane fa, quando partii da Londra.... È
orfana di madre.... Con chi starebbe?... Di qui a qualche tempo forse
la metterò in un collegio.... Adesso è troppo piccina.... Ha cinque
anni.
Il capitano Atkinson, commosso, levò gli occhi verso la parete da cui
pendevano due fotografie; quella del King Artur, e un’altra più
piccola, difesa da un vetro e inquadrata in una cornice di legno,
d’una donna giovine, bionda, dall’aria gracile, una di quelle fisonomie
dolci che si raccomandano.
— Oh me la faccia conoscere la sua bambina, — supplicò la signora
Agnese.
— Anche subito, se si contenta di vederla addormentata.
— Si figuri.... Pur di non svegliarla.
— Oh per questo non si dia pensiero.... Finchè non abbia dormito le
sue due ore di fila, non la sveglierebbero le cannonate.
— In tal caso.... — replicò la signora.
— E se invece pregassimo il capitano di condurcela domattina,
quando deve venire in banco alle undici? — propose il signor
Roberto. — Farebbe colazione con noi.
— Magari! — soggiunse la signora Agnese. E non si quetò fin che
Master Atkinson non ebbe accettato l’invito. Ma questa non le parve
una buona ragione per non veder subito la piccina.... Le bastava
vederla di lontano.... per un momento.
Il capitano volle compiacerla. — Mi lasci passare avanti allora, —
egli disse. — Tom non le permetterebbe neppure di affacciarsi alla
soglia se non ci fossi io.
In fatti, quando il capitano aperse l’uscio della cabina, la prima cosa
che si vide fu il cane di Terranuova che seduto sulle due zampe
posteriori custodiva l’ingresso. A un cenno imperioso del padrone
egli si tirò in un angolo manifestando con un lieve brontolìo la sua
disapprovazione.
Per una curiosità forse indiscreta m’ero avvicinato anch’io e stavo
dietro alla signora Agnese. Il signor Roberto era rimasto seduto e
sfogliava un atlante.
La bimba dormiva profondamente nella sua cuccetta, posata su un
fianco, con la faccia rivolta verso l’uscio, tantochè la si vedeva
benissimo senza entrare nella cabina. Somigliava alla fotografia
appesa al salotto, ma era molto più bella, un vero angioletto dalla
capigliatura bionda che formava una specie d’aureola intorno al
visino di latte e di rosa.
— Oh che amore! — disse la signora Agnese smorzando la voce e
giungendo le palme in atto di adorazione. — E che nome ha?
— Ofelia, — rispose Master Atkinson.
— Strano nome! — pensai, evocando la dolce figura della
infelicissima innamorata di Amleto.
— Venga, venga avanti, — riprese il capitano lusingato nel suo
orgoglio di padre.
La signora Agnese non se lo fece dire due volte, e accostatasi in
punta di piedi alla cuccetta si chinò sulla bimba e le sfiorò con un
bacio la bocca.
Tom inquieto si mosse dal suo angolo, interrogando con gli occhi il
capitano. — Che novità sono queste? Perchè la disturbate?
No, non la disturbavano, ed ella seguitava a dormire sorridendo nel
sonno.
Resistendo alla tentazione di baciarla una seconda volta, la signora
Agnese s’avviò per uscire. Il cane, ormai rassicurato, le si fregò
amorevolmente intorno alle vesti; ella gli fece una carezza e rientrò
nel salottino ove suo marito l’aspettava. A me disse passando: —
Com’è bella, non è vero? — E subito dopo si rivolse al signor
Roberto con un mite rimprovero: — Perchè non hai voluto vederla?
Egli chiuse l’atlante. — La vedrò domani.
— È così bella! — ella ripetè.
Il signor Roberto abbozzò un triste sorriso; uno di quei sorrisi che
sono tanto vicini alle lacrime.
Ricordata al capitano Atkinson la promessa di venir a colazione la
mattina dopo con l’Ofelia, lasciammo il bastimento. Nel ritorno le
parti erano invertite. Prosperi taceva, la signora Agnese, trasfigurata
d’aspetto, spiegava un’insolita facondia. Ma non parlava che d’una
cosa, la sola che le fosse rimasta impressa tra le molte vedute;
parlava di quell’orfanella vegliata amorosamente da quel cane di
Terranuova.
Nello smontar dalla gondola ella mi disse: — Badi che aspetto anche
lei domattina a colazione.
II.
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