‘UN PEACEKEEPERS

• A spate of attacks on United Nations Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) amid anti-UN protests in the past few weeks has left two BSF jawans dead.
• The issues of growing fatalities and the lack of clear mandates for the ‘blue helmets’ were at the top of the agenda as UN Peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix held a meeting in Delhi last week as part of a tour to India, Pakistan, the UAE and Japan.
• Lacroix says soldiers need a more ‘robust’ or proactive mandate, better equipment to deal with deteriorating conditions in countries where UN Peacekeepers are posted.
• UN Peacekeeping fatalities due to malicious acts (not illness or accidents) that were once on the decline, are rising — from 13 in 2020 to 25 in 2021 and this year as many as 26 till August.
• Many of our peacekeeping operations are in an environment that is deteriorating, both from the point of view of the political environment, but also the security environment.
• And I think that is because the political efforts to solve conflict are not moving forward in most of these situations, and the threats against our peacekeepers, against the population we are protecting are increasing.
• In many of our operations, particularly the big operations in Africa, we are facing groups that are either terrorist groups or criminal groups and they are not interested in peace, they are not interested in stability, they are interested in chaos.
• One of the criticisms in New Delhi, which has lost 179 peacekeepers over the past 60 years, is that they do not get enough of a say in the kind of missions that the UN Peacekeepers take part in.
• Well, I think there has to be a geographical balance in our peacekeeping operations and indeed, we are trying to get as much of a variety of countries contributing to peacekeeping as possible
• India has complained that the mandate is for UN peacekeeping, but when soldiers actually go to the ground, it quickly becomes a mandate for peace enforcing, something they are not actually prepared for
• I totally understand the concerns, especially when it comes to the number of fatalities in peacekeeping.
• However, we have been making a lot of efforts to improve the geographical diversity of our troop- and police-contributing countries.
• We all need to sort of step up our efforts to make sure that our peacekeepers are better equipped, trained and prepared.
• Peacekeeping has its limitations. It’s not war. It’s not peace enforcement. But we have mandates to protect civilians, and we have to have “robust” mandates, which require our peacekeepers to be proactive and to be able to go after all these armed groups

10-point planindia by

• India has proposed a 10-point plan, including making those targeting UN peacekeepers more accountable.
• The initiative by India is absolutely critical, because I think it was the first time that the issue of impunity and accountability was raised as a priority within the Security Council.
• Crimes against peacekeepers can constitute war crimes. Eventually, with sustained efforts and determination, I think we can eventually achieve accountability.
• So it’s important to stay the course, however frustrating that can be.
• Is the UN considering India’s suggestion to build a memorial wall to honour peacekeepers?
• This is a welcome initiative by India. There could be an initiative at this current General Assembly that would accelerate things and we would be definitely be supportive because it is only fair that all these peacekeepers who have lost their lives under a blue flag should be remembered and honoured.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB