SECRETARY-GENERAL, OPENING PLANNING ELEMENT FOR 'SHIRBRIG', SAYS PIONEERING INITIATIVE IS MILESTONE IN EFFORTS TO ENHANCE UN MACHINERY FOR PEACE
Press Release
SG/SM/6311
PKO/59
SECRETARY-GENERAL, OPENING PLANNING ELEMENT FOR 'SHIRBRIG', SAYS PIONEERING INITIATIVE IS MILESTONE IN EFFORTS TO ENHANCE UN MACHINERY FOR PEACE
19970902 Kofi Annan Says Stand-by Forces High-Readiness Brigade to Be Part Of Efforts to Strengthen UN Ability to Respond Quickly When Crisis EruptsFollowing are remarks by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the opening ceremony of the Planning Element for the Multinational United Nations Stand-by Forces High-Readiness Brigade (SHIRBRIG), in Copenhagen, today:
I am pleased to join you today and to recognize a milestone in efforts to enhance the United Nations machinery for peace.
Nearly 10 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the post-cold-war world is still taking shape. People on all continents are glimpsing opportunities for economic success and political freedom that were never open to them before. At the same time, however, the uncertainties and transformations of the new global era have brought instability, conflict and great suffering.
Wars of terrible intensity are being waged among citizens of individual States. Armed factions target civilians as an instrument of political pressure. The ready availability of modern weaponry allows attacks of an unprecedented scale and ferocity upon the most vulnerable segments of society. Neighbouring States are destabilized in turn by uncontrollable flows of refugees, and by the humanitarian, environmental and political crises that their arrival creates.
To break this vicious circle, the international community must be able to intervene swiftly and effectively. In the short term, the rapid deployment of a peace-keeping operation can prevent enormous agony. In the longer term, early and effective intervention can spare a country from a legacy of bitterness and physical devastation that can make reconciliation and reconstruction impossible for years. Indeed, the ability to act effectively during the first phase of an operation can make the difference between that operation's failure or success.
In this context I warmly welcome the establishment of the Planning Element for the Multinational United Nations Stand-by Forces High-Readiness Brigade.
- 2 - Press Release SG/SM/6311 PKO/59 2 September 1997
For many years now, the United Nations has been seeking to strengthen its ability to respond quickly when a crisis erupts. Member States are working to create a Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters. Nearly 70 countries have identified 88,000 troops as potentially available for service in the framework of United Nations Stand-by Arrangements.
The Stand-by Forces High-Readiness Brigade will be a vital part of these efforts. I earnestly hope that the political decisions needed to bring them to fruition will soon follow. If so, the speed with which SHIRBRIG can deploy; the integration of its troops; its versatility and its self- sufficiency in the field could prove invaluable in the years ahead.
Today's inauguration of the Planning Element of SHIRBRIG is a crucial, practical development. You will now begin the work of developing common procedures, training standards and operational and logistic concepts.
But this is also a moment of enormous symbolic value.
We have seen, in recent years, particularly within the developed world, an apparent tendency to turn away in the face of suffering. The reduction in tensions between the major Powers seems to have brought a corresponding decline in the political will of many powerful States to engage in the resolution of conflicts beyond their borders or beyond their perceived interests.
This pioneering initiative says the exact opposite -- that the way ahead lies with more engagement, not less. Such a position is not without risk. But it is powerful testimony to the foresight of the States involved; to your sensitivity to the plight of those who suffer; and to your faith in the importance and viability of international cooperation.
Thus, I am confident that others will be inspired to follow your example and, for my part, will spare no effort to see that the international community rises to this challenge. In that spirit, and on behalf of the United Nations, I hereby declare this Planning Element to be open. I look forward to working with you towards its success.
* *** *