PRESS BRIEFING BY UN READINESS BRIGADE

press briefing by un readiness brigade

The Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Multinational Stand-by High Readiness Brigade for United Nations Operations (SHIRBRIG), General Gunther Greindl, and Brigadier General Gregory Mitchell today briefed correspondents on their meetings here in New York, including on a potential mission to the Sudan.

SHIRBRIG was established in 1996 by Austria, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden.  There are now 14 nations taking full part in the initiative, with Finland, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Spain now also actively participating.  Seven countries serve as observers:  Chile, Hungary, Portugal, Senegal, Jordan, CzechRepublic and Croatia.  After reaching a sufficient level of operational capability, the Brigade was declared available to the United Nations in January 2000. 

Each SHIRBRIG member country decides on a case-by-case basis whether it will take part in any given SHIRBRIG mission.  Potential operations include preventive deployments, surveillance of truce agreements, supervising the separation of forces, humanitarian assistance and other scenarios in which the opposing sides have entered into an agreement.  All SHIRBRIG missions are mandated by the United Nations Security Council.  Once deployed, the SHIRBRIG forces come under the operational control of the United Nations mission leadership.

General Greindl said that, after declaring itself available to the United Nations in January 2000, SHIRBRIG contributed to the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) in November of that year and helped the United Nations to establish the Mission there.  In 2003, it helped to establish an interim headquarters in Liberia and now it would help establish a mission in the Sudan.

He explained that SHIRBRIG was for nations that were willing and able to contribute forces to United Nations peace operations.  That meant those countries had to be able to provide well-equipped troops, and so forth.  SHIRBRIG went into operation for six-month periods to help the United Nations in the initial start-up phase.  It did not plan on rotating troops, as it maintained a balanced and well-equipped readiness force, which Member States were not obliged to replace. 

Three key issues were being tackled in the two days of meetings this week, he explained.  The first involved the development of the operations’ concept.  The second concerned support for African capacity-building and peacekeeping, and the third was the operational involvement in the Sudan. 

Deployment options were developed and now engaged in a way that was better tailored to United Nations needs, particularly in terms of supporting mission planning at the United Nations, and then by providing a nucleus force level that went beyond the present brigade structure, he said.  Work was also under way to accept non-members under the SHIRBRIG umbrella.

On African capacity-building, he said SHIRBRIG was at a crucial juncture because Africa had now developed its institutions to better manage crises there.  For example, the Africa Peace and Security Council had started work, the African Union was mandated to manage certain aspects, and regions were becoming active in peace operations.  Also, the African chiefs of staff had now decided to establish five regional brigades, in accordance with the SHIRBRIG model, using that as a way to shape their brigades in Africa.  The plan was expected to be endorsed next month by the Heads of State there.  If Africans agreed to use SHIRBRIG as a model, the latter was willing to help, including by training officers.

Commander Mitchell said he was stationed in Denmark with a small permanent staff of 15, whose role was to prepare contingency plans and conduct training activities for the brigade, which was made up of various units stationed in their home countries.  In other words, his job was to prepare for potential missions in support of SHIRBRIG’s only client -- the United Nations.  So, the only stand-by readiness brigade focused solely on United Nations operations. 

He said his staff had worked closely with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) throughout the year, conducting training and planning activities.   The brigade had been recognized in various reports, including the Brahimi Report and the Agenda for Peace, which had called for several regional stand-by brigades.  The African Union had signalled its intent to develop five such brigades, and SHIRBRIG had offered its assistance in that regard.

SHIRBRIG’s key role was to prepare for operational missions, he explained.  It had been involved in three so far -- planning for Côte d’Ivoire and assisting Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), forming force headquarters in Liberia, and contributing to the mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where SHIRBRIG had provided the bulk of the force thus far.  It was currently focusing on a potential mission to the Sudan and had been developing, together with the United Nations, various contingency plans and options. 

Continuing, he said those plans had culminated in the recent adoption by the Security Council of a resolution authorizing a small political mission to the Sudan.  That would contain a small military component, of which SHIRBRIG would form half of the 14 members in late July.  They would provide military advice to the Special Envoy and begin to create the environment for the follow-on peace support mission, which was expected to be mandated in several months, based on the requirements of the two parties in their final ceasefire agreements.

When that occurred and a peace operation in the Sudan was established, SHIRBRIG had already been asked to form the nucleus of the force headquarters and the headquarters support elements for that mission, for which it would provide several hundred people from various SHIRBRIG members. 

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