As head of the organisation that stands for world peace, and a long-time peacekeeper himself, he had to try.
This time, the peacekeepers observed but did not engage.
At the time, 49 peacekeepers were believed to have been taken hostage.
The last time Nigerian peacekeepers came to Liberia, in the mid-1990s, they showed an alarming tendency towards organised crime.
For example, the force's personnel policies include no enlistment contract, and fighters can leave any time, the peacekeepers say.
"It would be very separate and very different," he said, making the point that while French forces might be in Mali at the same time as peacekeepers they would operate under a separate chain of command.
At the same time, UN peacekeepers should help those still in danger to reach safe locations, secure areas with large numbers of displaced people, and increase the monitoring of areas to which the displaced are returning.
The three men were among the last to be expelled, the 2011 ruling said, and by that time the peacekeepers, known as "Dutchbat" for Dutch battalion, had already seen Bosnian Serb troops abusing Muslim men and boys and should have known they faced the real threat of being killed.
The ruling said the three men were among the last to be expelled on 13 July, and by that time the peacekeepers already had seen Bosnian Serb troops abusing Bosniak men and boys and should have known they faced the real threat of being killed.
It is now thirteen years later and I am in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, where, this time, UN peacekeepers (MONUC) are not passively standing by and watching the massacres, but are actually supporting the perpetrators.
