Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Human Rights

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: UN Blue Helmets Earn Applause – And Censure

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 30 2005 (IPS) - When United Nations peacekeepers opened fire on alleged gang members in a slum of the Haitian capital some six months ago, they also killed or injured dozens of innocent men, women and children. The incident was widely condemned by human rights activists who accused the troops of being cold-blooded murderers.

By contrast, thousands of miles away in Liberia, U.N. peacekeepers have become unsung heroes who not only made it impossible for despot Charles Taylor to return to power, but also helped Liberians elect their first female president by putting an end to years of civil strife and anarchy.

While many would perceive these two episodes as representing a mixed record of performance by the world body’s peacekeeping missions in 2005, U.N. peacekeeping officials disagree.

“It has been a great year,” says David Harland, a senior official at the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), describing the end of the U.N. mission in East Timor as “a great achievement” and the departure of U.N. troops from Sierra Leone as a “landmark event”.

After helping the voluntary repatriation of more than 200,000 people who fled to West Timor to escape the violence after the 1999 referendum on independence for East Timor, the U.N. is scheduled to finish six years of humanitarian operations on the island on Saturday.

Similarly, the U.N. is winding up its mission in Sierra Leone after six years of peacekeeping there to put an end of years of vicious civil war. The West African nation is now poised to hold democratic elections in 2007.

U.N. officials say the organisation must be given credit for its role in helping arrange elections in Afghanistan this year and for successfully waging the so-called war on terrorism there with multilateralism.

“That’s an enormous victory in a country that has been in trouble for a long time,” Harland told IPS.

But what about the charges of sexual abuse of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries, and the killing of innocent civilians in Haiti by the peacekeepers?

Officials say so far the U.N. has completed more than 200 investigations into charges of sexual abuse and that it has arranged stricter training for peacekeepers on their conduct. In addition, the soldiers accused of sexual abuse are facing prosecution in their home countries.

Currently, U.N. peacekeeping troops are deployed in 17 countries around the world, with more than 80,000 personnel, including troops, police and civilian staff.

The number of operations has grown rapidly. During the first five years of the 1990s, there were more U.N. peacekeeping operations then in the previous 45 years.

Officials admit that the July incident involving U.N. troops in Haiti might have led to civilian casualties, but still defend their actions.

“Haiti is problematic and a failed state,” says Harland. “It’s out of control.”

Like the interim Haitian government that replaced the popularly elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the U.N. forces in Haiti have branded some opposition activists as “gangsters”, and have tried to deal with them militarily.

U.N. officials justify military action against rebels by arguing that the mission in Haiti had to abide by the Security Council’s verdict, which considers the interim government as legitimate.

“The government is our partner in running the elections in Haiti. Members of the Security Council support that government,” Harland explained. “They are cooperating with us.”

On a question about the role of peacekeepers as being neutral, he said neutrality was something that was not central to peacekeeping operations, adding that the mission had to act in accordance with the Security Council’s decisions.

However, Harland thinks that it’s “awful that innocents are harmed”.

The U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti was established in April 2004 to maintain peace after a U.S. military force pressed President Aristide to flee the country. Aristide, who is now living in exile, has repeatedly said he was kidnapped at gunpoint.

Independent observers link the killings in Haiti and sexual abuse in other countries to lack of proper training for the peacekeepers.

“About 80 percent of the peacekeeping troops come from the poor countries because rich countries are unwilling to contribute any of their own,” says Jim Paul, director of the Global Policy Forum, an independent group that closely observers U.N.-related developments.

Since its failure in Somalia in 1990, the U.N. has turned to more aggressive peacekeeping operations, which has contributed to an increase in troop casualties. The death toll for the U.N. peacekeepers increased from 64 in 2003 to 91 in 2004.

Harland declined to comment on why rich nations are reluctant to contribute their troops.

However, another diplomat, who asked that his name not be used, ventured that, “It’s a dangerous business, so they just pay their bills. But we are pushing hard on them.”

Some European nations such as Ireland, Sweden, France, Spain and Norway say they are willing to contribute troops next year.