USE OF PEACE-KEEPING MUST BE CREDIBLE AND LEGITIMATE, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS PEACE-KEEPING SEMINAR

Press Release
SG/SM/6398
PKO/64

USE OF PEACE-KEEPING MUST BE CREDIBLE AND LEGITIMATE, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS PEACE-KEEPING SEMINAR

Following is the statement of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the seminar "Adapting to a Changing World: Recent Lessons from United Nations Peace-keeping Operations", organized by the Government of Denmark and held in New York, on 17 November:

Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this important seminar. The level at which your governments are represented illustrates clearly the importance that you attach to the challenges facing peace-keeping that we will discuss today. Like the United Nations itself, you come from nations or organizations with a history in peace-keeping. You, like the United Nations, have struggled to adapt and change with each new and unique conflict, be it within the boundaries of a State or across borders.

Within each conflict, however, there are certain common factors, certain issues which do reoccur. The more we examine these issues, the better prepared we can be to tackle new crises, even if their evolution follows a different path. The United Nations now routinely faces challenges which do not fit into a neat peace-keeping package -- the volatile, so-called "grey area" operations in which power has devolved to factional and even sub- factional levels.

The demands of peace and security increasingly require us to meet threats posed by conflicts which are on one level internal, but which have serious international implications. In our efforts to meet these challenges, the international community has suffered some setbacks, but also achieved more successes in which all of us can take pride. These accomplishments, as well as setbacks, have provided important lessons that can serve us well in the international community's efforts to contain and resolve conflict. I would like to discuss a few of these crucial lessons with you today.

First, I would like to stress the timely availability of troops in emergencies. We are, therefore, encouraged that a number of States, within the context of the United Nations Stand-by Arrangements, are developing units which could be deployed immediately upon a decision of the Security Council

should these countries decide to participate. So far, 67 countries have expressed their willingness to participate, providing a list of the capabilities they can offer to a peace-keeping operation. To assure the availability of troops, however, troop-contributing countries must be reimbursed. That, in turn, is only possible if governments pay their peace- keeping dues in full and on time. There is rising concern among troop- contributing countries in this regard.

The second lesson is that Member States of the United Nations need to be able to deploy their troops more quickly to a peace-keeping operation. Only then will they be able to establish a credible presence before a conflict escalates to unmanageable proportions, as in the Great Lakes region of Africa since 1994. One measure on which the Secretariat, as you know, has worked closely with Member States to establish is the nucleus of a rapidly deployable mission headquarters -- the RDMHQ -- to expedite troop deployment. Unfortunately, without the financial support of Member States, the deployable headquarters will remain a distant possibility. We are hopeful, however, that funding will be forthcoming.

A third lesson is that the effectiveness of a peace-keeping operation is enhanced when personnel are prepared according to certain common standards. While training of troops for peace-keeping remains the responsibility of Member States, the Secretariat is able to support national efforts. Thus, the Department of Peace-keeping Operations Training Unit has developed training manuals, guidelines, handbooks and videos. The United Nations has also conducted regional peace-keeping workshops in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America and has instituted a training programme for the mission headquarters staff.

A fourth lesson is that political motivation and political persuasion are critical elements in a peace process. When the parties are genuinely interested in a settlement, mountains can be moved in the interest of peace. However, in chaotic conditions in which power has devolved to splinter factions that have no real interest in peace, there are palpable limits to what the international community can accomplish. A sense of community -- the will to reconcile -- cannot be imposed.

What can be done in this regard -- and this a related lesson -- are greater efforts by the international community to offer effective inducements for peace. This means that we must give the parties in conflict a greater stake in the peace than the simple absence of war. They must find tangible benefits in their quality of life, in the civility of their societies and in the responsiveness of their governments.

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A final lesson is one I touched on earlier and concerns the resort to force in peace-keeping. We have learned the lesson that, even if parties have consented to an operation, there are cases in which peace-keepers must deploy with sufficient means to give credibility to their ability to defend themselves and to achieve their mandate. In some situations, an impressive show of force is the best way to avoid having to actually use it.

This lesson has been applied successfully by the United Nations as well as by coalition operations: the United Nations Transition Authority in Eastern Slavonia and the multinational Implementation Force (IFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both have played crucial roles in maintaining peace and security in one of the world's most volatile areas. The successful cooperation between the United Nations and the Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia has underlined the role of regional organizations and subregional initiatives in peace-keeping. When this is taken into account, it is clear that peace-keeping has not declined in recent years, as some commentators have suggested, but in fact has continued to grow.

The United Nations neither holds nor seeks a monopoly in the maintenance of peace and security, and regional arrangements have an essential role to play. In this regard, the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Conflict Prevention and Management Mechanism is an important step forward, boding well for mediation, peacemaking and preventive diplomacy.

The United Nations responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security is our cardinal mission -- the first purpose declared in the Charter. How we carry out that mission will have a profound influence on our future and on the legitimacy and credibility of international society as we know it. The use of peace-keeping by the international community, in pursuit of common interests, must be credible and it must be legitimate. Credible force without legitimacy may have immediate results, but will not enjoy long-term international support. Legitimate force without credibility may enjoy universal support, even as it is unable to implement the basic provisions of its mandate.

Combined, however, under the umbrella of the United Nations, credibility and legitimacy in the use of force are not only possible, but mutually reinforcing in pursuit of a universal ideal. To achieve this unity of purpose and promise, we must and we will restore the global faith in the United Nations. I am grateful to count you as our partners in this endeavour.

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