Somalia’s collapse has created both a military and humanitarian crisis currently rivaled only by the Bosnian conflict, which has presented the Security Council with a task they have so far been unable to handle. Somalia continues to falter in the face of inaction, with the Security Council spending over a week debating a resolution for adding training of a civilian police force. The resolution, which Representative Grace Way of the United States stated was a “nation building effort,” has been controversial among the international community as the Bosnian conflict continues to worsen and Somalia continues to degrade in the face of inaction by the Security Council. Most controversial, though, has been the inability of the Security Council to quickly respond to an ongoing Bosnian Serb offensive which threatens to further what the United Nations called in A/RES/47/121 an ethnic cleansing. As the Security Council has been unable to respond to the Bosnian conflict for over ten days, a recent report by the Secretary-General’s Office stated that Bosnian Serb forces are steadily heading towards several cities in Bosnia, which hold over 1 million Bosnian Muslim refugees who have been displaced and forced to shelter in the cities over the course of the conflict. This is in addition to their ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of small villages and towns dotting the Bosnian landscape, which has been almost entirely unimpeded by the United Nations Protection Force.

Members of the international community have called the Security Council completely out of touch with the ongoing situations in Somalia and Bosnia, as they have allowed for the acceleration of the genocide of Bosnian Muslims and almost caused an outbreak of famine and the continuation of the Somali Civil War due to inaction and disagreement. The recently passed HSC-1993/2, which authorized further peacekeeping operations in Somalia was held up for over a week over discussions of training a Somali civilian police force–which was originally planned to exist without oversight–while the Bosnian Genocide continued unabated. Given this inaction and inability to move, there have been questions of whether the Security Council can effectively act against allowing the further genocide of Bosnian Muslims. However, HSC-1993/2 has seen success in averting a worsening of the Somali crisis, with Representative Sean Casey of the Russian Federation stating, “Russia is very happy with the resolution passed earlier this morning by the Security Council, we believe that without clause IV [creating a police force] the resolution is in its best form, as it will allow the United Nations to allocate its resources where they’re needed in Bosnia.” While the conflict in Somalia has been temporarily stabilized, the Bosnian conflict has just started to be addressed again.

Representative Saul Perez of the United States stated that, “though the Security Council was unable to move quickly on this topic [of Somalia] we believe that the urgency of the Bosnian situation will allow us to move quickly as a Security Council.” However, Representative David Meyer of the United Kingdom stated, “as seen in the previously passed Resolution 798, there were credible reports of rape and actions of genocide against Bosnian Muslims, and the fact that the Security Council has allowed this situation to go on unimpeded is a stain on the reputation of the Security Council.” These conflicting views underlie a split in the ideas of the Security Council, which has caused dissent in what was previously a rather united Council. One million Bosnian Muslims are relying on the Security Council and its Member States, though action appears to be far away as the Council has only just begun discussing the Bosnian conflict again, even as trucks of Bosnian Serbs barrel towards the near-undefended cities of Bosnia.