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POLITICS: UN Gears for Upsurge in Peacekeeping Troops

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 3 2006 (IPS) - The United Nations is gearing itself for a dramatic upsurge in the size of its peacekeeping force worldwide, from the current 93,000 troops to an unprecedented 140,000 next year.

“When I took this job a decade ago,” says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “there were 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers in the field.”

But as he steps down as the world body’s chief administrative officer at the end of December, the number of peacekeepers would have registered a phenomenal increase – and as never before in the 61-year history of the organisation.

Outside of the United States, the United Nations has the largest contingents of troops deployed throughout the world.

Of the three most recent Security Council mandates, the increased deployments to Lebanon and East Timor would push the current total to 112,000 in 18 U.N. peacekeeping operations worldwide.

If Sudan eventually agrees to a new peacekeeping force in Darfur – despite its current opposition to it – the number of U.N. troops would exceed 140,000.

In a message Friday marking the 50th anniversary of the creation of the first U.N. peacekeeping mission – the U.N. Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Middle East – Annan said that 60 missions later, “U.N. peacekeeping operations have become an indispensable weapon in the arsenal of the international community.”

“They provide a legitimate and impartial response to conflict; an opportunity for burden sharing; an effective means to take tangible action; a bridge to stability and long term peace and development.”

But he warned that U.N. peacekeeping “faces another enormous challenge.” He pointed out that U.N. peacekeeping is stretched as never before. “Yet we confront that challenge with informed optimism.”

UNEF was established by the General Assembly 50 years ago this weekend monitoring the withdrawal of the armed forces of France, Israel and Britain from Egyptian territory. The first units landed in Ismailia on the Suez Canal within 10 days of the General Assembly decision.

“The mission was an extraordinary success,” Annan said Friday. By the end of the year, French and British forces had left the Suez Canal zone and Israeli forces withdraw three months later. “The first U.N. peacekeeping operation using armed forces was born,” Annan added.

He also warned that peacekeeping will never be the right tool for every situation. “It must accompany a peace process; it cannot substitute for one.”

Addressing delegates last month, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno of France said peacekeeping is constantly evolving, “never more so than today, with more U.N. peacekeepers deployed around the world than at any time before.”

He said five years ago, no one would have predicted that 110 of the 192 member states would be contributing troops – labeled “blue helmets”- to peacekeeping missions worldwide. Or that there would be demonstrations around the world demanding deployment of U.N. troops.

“Who could have foreseen the deployment of 14 naval vessels in a U.N. peacekeeping operation?” he asked, “or that the annual U.N. peacekeeping budget would be almost six billion dollars” – more than five times the U.N.’s regular budget.

Of the 18 U.N. missions currently underway, eight are in Africa: in Western Sahara; Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Ethiopia and Eritrea; Liberia; Cote d’Ivoire; Burundi; Sudan and Sierra Leone.

The largest number of troops comes from developing nations, the top ten from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Nepal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Uruguay and South Africa.

Currently, over 67 percent of all U.N. military and police personnel come from developing nations while less than 5.8 percent come from the 25-member European Union (EU) and about 0.5 percent from the United States.

U.N. peacekeeping missions are created and defined by the 15-member Security Council, of which the five permanent members, namely the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, play significant roles.

Calling for the expansion of the Security Council – a plan that has been kicked around the United Nations for more than 20 years – Annan points out that “it will not be easy to raise numbers of troops from countries which feel inadequately represented in the Security Council that is deciding the mandates” for peacekeeping missions.

“And raising troops for peacekeeping is far from being the only problem,” he said last month.

The Security Council also needs greater political participation of all regions, “if it is to be accepted as fully legitimate by all- as it must be, in order to address major challenges to the Middle East peace process, and in Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan, and many corners of the world.”