PROCESS OF POST-CONFLICT DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION IS ROOTED IN AND FEEDS INTO BROADER SEARCH FOR PEACE, LOUISE FRECHETTE STATES
Press Release
DSG/SM/63
SC/6698
PROCESS OF POST-CONFLICT DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION IS ROOTED IN AND FEEDS INTO BROADER SEARCH FOR PEACE, LOUISE FRECHETTE STATES
19990708 Deputy-Secretary General Addresses Council Debate On Maintenance of Peace and Security and Post-Conflict Peace-buildingFollowing is the statement by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette to today's debate of the Security Council on the issue "Maintenance of peace and security and post-conflict peace-building: Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants in a peacekeeping environment".
I am pleased to be here today to share some thoughts with you on the role that disarmament, demobilization and reintegration play in United Nations peacekeeping.
The conflicts with which the Security Council is grappling today have given these tasks particular urgency. Those conflicts are more often than not internal civil wars, with some degree of cross-border or international implications. They tend to take place in poorer countries, with vast movements of internally displaced persons as well as refugees.
Easily available light arms, including landmines, are the weapons of choice. And often, one finds among the combatants young children conscripted as soldiers. These are, in short, highly complex and volatile situations. For us, as outsiders, the task of helping the afflicted countries find the path of peace and development presents an enormous challenge.
Within that challenge, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration are distinct tasks, but ones which often overlap, and which must in any case be approached as part of an integrated peace-building process.
These are also highly sensitive tasks. They involve fundamental questions about the extent of State authority; about the course of economic development; and about societal cohesion. Moreover, in most instances success is based both on the will of the parties to surrender their weapons and on the
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unstinting support of the international community -- a difficult combination to find.
The United Nations has been mandated to undertake disarmament in peacekeeping operations in Africa, South-East Asia, Central America, and the Balkans. Each is a different experience, reflecting a particular country's circumstances, the terms of the peace agreement and the mandate approved by the Security Council. But some general definitions apply.
Strictly speaking, disarmament is the assembly and cantonment of combatants and the voluntary handing over of their weapons to peacekeeping troops, who then ensure the safe storage of the weapons and their final disposition. In most cases, the responsibility for the assembly of combatants lies with the party to be disarmed, as provided for in a peace agreement.
Technically, demining is a separate task in its own right. But that too is an essential feature of most peacekeeping and post-conflict peace-building operations, and is much easier when the active cooperation of the parties to the conflict can be secured.
As a rule, the disarmament of civilians is not the responsibility of a peacekeeping mission, but rather a task incumbent upon national authorities, sometimes with assistance provided by the international community. However, by supporting efforts to strengthen national law enforcement capacity, a peacekeeping operation can play a key role in creating an environment in which the general populace does not deem weapons to be necessary.
"Buy back" programmes have been considered a useful means of accelerating disarmament and advancing the peace process in post-conflict periods and regions marred by insecurity. When timed properly, they can be very beneficial. However, experience has shown that, if timed wrongly, weapons exchanges which involve direct financial payments to individuals may actually be destabilizing.
For example, civilian buy-back programmes may inhibit military disarmament, in which combatants are instructed by their leaders to hand over their weapons but are not paid to do so. Furthermore, the establishment of a high price for weapons to promote disarmament could create an artificial market for weapons, and spark an overwhelming movement of weapons into the country and surrounding region.
So a cautious approach is highly desirable, even when non-monetary incentives are used. The final decision should take into account the overall context of proliferation and the potential effects at the local, national and regional levels. Weapons collection programmes may need to be linked with incentives such as the provision of jobs or training, which are not easily
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converted into cash, and related to development initiatives that benefit entire communities.
Experience has also shown that if ex-combatants do not have the means of sustaining themselves as civilians, they can be tempted into carrying arms and committing acts of banditry, thereby destabilizing the peace process. Therefore, disarmament needs to be complemented by comprehensive demobilization and reintegration programmes.
The process of demobilization involves registration, medical examinations, assistance to combatants to meet their immediate basic needs, and transportation to their home communities or, sometimes, absorption into a unified military force.
Finally, reintegration denotes a variety of steps to help ex-combatants adapt successfully to a productive civilian life. This assistance has to be given to returning refugees and internally displaced persons as well as demobilized combatants and their families. It includes employment and micro-credit programmes, vocational training and education.
Clearly, reintegration is a long-term social and economic process, which needs to continue even after a peacekeeping operation has completed its mandate.
This will no doubt be a wide-ranging debate. What should not be questioned is that the international community can offer significant support to disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes. Allow me to suggest that success will be determined to no small extent by how well we bear in mind the following considerations.
-- First, terms for the disposal of arms and ammunition should be included within peace agreements when they are first negotiated, so that the issue does not become an obstacle to peace at a later stage.
-- Second, predictable financing is critical. Starting a programme without the funding to complete it may raise expectations on the part of ex-combatants that cannot be fulfilled. This, in and of itself, can prove to be highly destabilizing. Voluntary financing of demobilization projects can also be a problem, as any delays in receiving contributions can place the entire process in jeopardy. Member States are encouraged to contribute to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Trust Fund that has been established to deal with small arms, and which includes a weapons collection and destruction component. International institutions such as the World Bank can also provide valuable technical and financial support, but there must be close coordination between the Bank and the peacekeeping operation involved.
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-- Third, the special needs of child soldiers, including girl soldiers, should, where appropriate, be seen as a crucial element in a peacekeeping operation's mandate. It has been estimated that more than 300,000 children under 18 years of age have been used as soldiers in conflicts around the world between 1995 and 1997. Some United Nations peacekeeping operations have included a special focus on the demobilization of child soldiers. United Nations bodies such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and non-governmental organizations provide special programmes for them, including counselling, education and family reunification.
But much more needs to be done. The problem will not be solved until the international community adopts a concerted approach, which must address the causes as well as the consequences of child recruitment - that is, the social, economic and political factors which make children susceptible to it.
The Security Council should in future make the needs of child soldiers a central concern when it considers specific crises, when it mandates peacemaking or peacekeeping missions, and when it designs peace-building programmes. It is also worth remembering that demobilizing child soldiers (and children who are pressed into the war effort in other roles) can be an opportunity as well as a problem. It can be the first thing the parties to a conflict are able to agree on, and so become the starting-point for a dialogue which later leads to a ceasefire and a broader agreement.
-- Fourth, the deployment of a follow-on political mission, after the termination or withdrawal of a peacekeeping operation, can be a useful means to avoid setbacks and relapses into insecurity. The inclusion within such missions of expertise in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration might not be an obvious step, but it would certainly prove beneficial.
-- Finally, a rigorous media and publicity campaign -- to educate and mobilize popular support for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration efforts -- must be built into the operation from the start.
The process of post-conflict disarmament, demobilization and reintegration is rooted in and feeds into a broader search for peace.
The international community, working through the United Nations, has a real contribution to make. I look forward to hearing your views.
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