PRESS CONFERENCE ON SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING

While praising the success of United Nations peacekeeping, the world body’s top peacekeeping official today marked the sixtieth anniversary of the Organization’s peace operations with a warning that it was dangerous to put troops on the ground without a clear strategic vision, strong political backing and adequate financial support.

At a Headquarters press briefing that also commemorated International United Nations Peacekeepers Day, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno recalled sombrely the killing just yesterday of a Ugandan civilian police inspector serving with the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).  “This is a dangerous business,” he said.  “The question has always been whether we have enough resources to protect ourselves as well as the people we are mandated to protect, and frankly, as I’ve told you before:  in Darfur, we don’t.”

Mr. Guéhenno, who announced his plans to leave his post in July, stressed that the issue for the United Nations had always been about balancing critical elements:  convincing countries to supply troops for deployment to dangerous areas; mobilizing those forces; supplying the proper equipment; and providing adequate financial and material resources to carry out the respective mandates approved by the Security Council.  “[In Darfur] we don’t have the mobility, we don’t have the firepower that would allow us to do what we are expected to do and that’s very dangerous for our people,” he added.

Nearly a year after the Security Council had authorized the new hybrid force to quell the violence in Sudan’s strife-torn western region of Darfur, it still had only a fraction of its planned full complement, he said.  The gaps between deployment realities and UNAMID’s approved mandate were well-known and, if the international community really wished to make a difference in Dafur, those gaps must be filled.  “It’s all in the art of implementation.”

Mr. Guéhenno stressed that, behind the scenes, peace missions must be backed by a strong political strategy, broad engagement by the Security Council, and a sound political vision of the overall peace process.  While all that might be difficult to manage among 20 different peacekeeping operations that cycled through close to 200,000 individuals every year, it was necessary to guard against political overstretch or “putting the cart before the horse”.

The Organization had met with some success, even though real success was best judged at a distance, he said.  Indeed, places like Cambodia and Mozambique were clear, unquestionable success stories of countries that were infinitely better off after United Nations engagement than they were some 10 years ago.  “But we may become the victim of our own success if peacekeeping is seen as the instrument that can be applied to any situation.  That can be very dangerous.”

For instance, while everyone hoped that a peacekeeping operation could eventually be deployed in war-riven Somalia, which “deserved no less”, to deploy such an operation under conditions in which the United Nations was seen as another party to the conflict would be a recipe for disaster.  “We must not succumb to the illusion that military deployment could substitute for a solid political process,” he declared, adding that there was a real risk when a force was placed in the middle of an unfinished political process.

Accompanying Mr. Guéhenno was Susana Malcorra, head of the Department of Field Support, who added that the ground had to be laid so that resources could be mobilized and put to work quickly.  While some rules and regulations might need to be addressed to ensure that procurement and contracting procedures were more flexible, things could be done “fast and right”.  It was prudent for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to work on building the capacities of non-traditional partners in order to show them how to do business with the United Nations.

Mr. Guéhenno went on to highlight other challenges facing United Nations peacekeeping in its sixtieth year, including the new allegations by a leading children’s charity that peacekeepers were involved in widespread sexual abuse of children.  Responding to questions, he said that the report, released by Save the Children UK, was “very useful” because it spotlighted how much work remained to be done in ensuring that misconduct was addressed head-on and that cases of misconduct were not under-reported.  “I think that […] more has been done in the past few years than in the last 60 to address those issues, but a report like this reminds us that our effort will have to continue very strongly.”

The Save the Children report was a good one and the facts it analyzed took the right approach in pointing the finger first at the issue of under-reporting, which was a key challenge, he said.  Even though some recent improvement had been seen in that area, now, with 18 Conduct and Discipline Units in United Nations peacekeeping missions, there were more opportunities outside the chain of military command to report allegations of abuse.

“Obviously that is not sufficient; obviously there has to be more outreach to local communities,” he said, acknowledging the challenges of stepping up the effort and enforcing the Organization’s policies among some 200,000 people.  That was why the Department of Peacekeeping Operations was insisting on more and more training and better reporting.  “We have to continuously improve our processes and our outreach so that information reaches those it has to reach.”

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For information media • not an official record