International

U.N. warns of resource crunch

Under strain: U.N. peacekeepers celebrate the International Day for the United Nations Peacekeepers in Naqura, Lebanon, on Thursday. — PHOTO: AFP

UNITED NATIONS: The head of U.N. peacekeeping pleaded with the international community on Thursday to address gaps in support for peacekeeping missions, pointing especially to the shortfall in Darfur.

Speaking on the 60th anniversary of U.N. peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno bemoaned the U.N.’s habit of authorising missions and pushing their deployment before they are fully staffed and equipped.

“A gap between a mandate and resources, it destroys the credibility of the operation,” said Mr. Guehenno, adding: “It’s much harder to re-establish one’s credibility if you begin to lose it than to keep it, if you deploy with a position of strength.”

“We don’t have the firepower that would allow us to do what we’re expected to do. And that’s very dangerous,” he said of the mission in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced. Only some 9,000 of the 26,000 troops authorised for the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force have been deployed.

Thursday marked six decades since the first U.N. peacekeeping force was deployed in West Asia. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that since its small beginnings, “peacekeeping has developed into a flagship enterprise” of the U.N. More than 1,11,000 men and women are deployed in over a dozen conflicts under the U.N. flag.

Mr. Guehenno said in the future he hoped the Security Council would not give the final authorisation for peacekeeping missions until they had lined up troop commitments.

“The U.N. has no standing Army,” he said. “It’s not enough to authorise a mission, you have to give that mission the means to do the job.”

The U.N. mission in Darfur has confronted a series of obstacles in its efforts to secure troop and equipment commitments. Sudan’s government spent months resisting a U.N. intervention before agreeing in June to a compromise deal for a “hybrid force” that would remain predominantly African.

That request led to more delays, as Khartoum vetoed some offers for non-African units. A joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force took over duties in Darfur in January from the beleaguered AU mission.

When asked if the Darfur force lacks credibility, Mr. Guehenno said he believed it did.

“The gaps, they are very public. If the international community wants to really make a difference in Darfur, those gaps absolutely have to be filled,” he said.

Mr. Guehenno also spoke of the challenge of confronting allegations of abuse by peacekeepers that have plagued missions from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor, West Africa and Congo, saying that rooting out abuse would require “a cultural change” among troop contributors. The issue was thrust into the spotlight after the U.N. found in early 2005 that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.

Since then, the U.N. adopted a “zero tolerance” policy toward sexual exploitation and abuse and a universal code of conduct.

It requires training for all peacekeepers, but punishment for wrongdoers is left to individual countries.

The department has also focused on increasing the ease with which incidents of abuse can be reported, said Mr. Guehenno. But he emphasised the U.N. still had to convince countries that contribute troops that covering up abuse is more shameful than acknowledging and punishing it. — AP

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