PRESS CONFERENCE ON UN PEACE OPERATIONS REPORT

The potential for improvement in United Nations peace operations lay in coordinating the system better and making the whole more than the sum of its parts, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference marking the end of a series of regional perspectives on the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations -– the Brahimi Report.

The consultations, held in Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Singapore and New York, were intended to gauge regional sentiment on the Brahimi Report beyond Headquarters.  They were conducted by New York University's Center on International Cooperation and the International Peace Academy and supported by the Government of the United Kingdom.  Jose Ramos–Horta, Foreign Minister of the East Timor Transitional Authority, and David Malone, President of the International Peace Academy, also participated in the press conference.

Sir Jeremy noted that while the political interest was there, the expense of peacekeeping was still a difficulty for those putting in the resources.  The developed countries feared being drawn into situations they could not manage, afford or explain to public opinion.

Developing countries were afraid of losing control of the agenda, he went on.  They worried that Brahimi might take funds away from the development process.  However, conflict management was part of development and the financing for development process would allay that fear.  In addition, there was still the worry that behind the principle of humanitarian intervention lurked a hidden agenda, or that the United Nations planned to invade where it was not wanted.

However, the consultations had revealed a keen wish to have the willing work with the able, he stressed.  The willing were those in crisis areas who had no funds; the able were those outside who had the funds, but might not want to be drawn into the crisis areas.  In Africa, particularly, the leadership was beginning to get the message that ensuring good governance, justice and political and economic structures was enough to generate confidence among those offering aid that peacekeeping assistance would not fall through the sieve.

Mr. Ramos-Horta, who took part in the Singapore and New York consultations, said there had been a widespread feeling among participants that troop-contributing countries must have greater involvement in the political decisions made in New York regarding Security Council-mandated deployment of peacekeeping troops.

He noted that one concern expressed that parallelled the concerns of people in concrete situations, such as East Timor, was the need for better coordination among the various United Nations agencies operating in a given country.  But in spite of weaknesses and failures, tremendous progress had been made on the ground.  The security pillar of the United Nations had provided the political and psychological climate for everything else to develop.

A correspondent asked how the wish of troop contributors for closer consultation with the Security Council could be reconciled with their wariness of hegemony by the Council's five permanent members.

Mr. Malone replied that it was not so much wariness, but a sense of bitterness.  Africans were not worried about the prospect of intervention, but about the lack of intervention.

Sir Jeremy added that people wanted the permanent members to intervene, but not to impose or dictate.  They would not accept permanent five leadership, but they did accept permanent five responsibility.  There could be no responsibility without leadership.

However, there was a growing egalitarianism in the United Nations and nobody would accept the leadership of an elite, he stressed.  The Security Council was not accepted as an elite within the membership, and the permanent members were not accepted as an elite within the Security Council.  But that did not mean that permanent members must not contribute funds, effort and intellectual leadership to try and sort out the problems of a chaotic intergovernmental system at the United Nations.

Regarding the question of resources, he said the role of the United States over the coming period would be extremely important.  It was providing funding now, but it must make its input and leadership consistent.

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