inside the glass house

Unpaid debts, sexual abuse charges an enigma for UN peacekeeping
NEW YORK-- When the government announced a ceasefire in December 2001 following its 18-year separatist war with the LTTE, there was widespread speculation -- later proven wrong -- that if peace breaks out in Sri Lanka, the unemployed Tiger cadres would be integrated into the armed forces as part of what the UN calls post-war "disarmament and demobilisation."

The lull in fighting also led to rumours that the government was contemplating dispatching some of its troops to UN peacekeeping operations -- perhaps to keep them gainfully employed and also to earn hard currency for state coffers.

Asked if this was true, a visiting Sri Lankan politician remarked rather cynically at that time: "We can not only send our troops on UN peacekeeping missions but also our suicide bombers". And added thoughtfully: "But don't quote me on that".

Suicide bombers as foreign exchange earners for Sri Lanka?
But mercifully, the Tiger suicide bombers have remained idle for the last 30 months -- and so have our troops.

Last week there were reports that the government, after all, plans to send about 750 troops -- Sri Lanka's biggest single contingent -- to participate in the UN's latest peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean island of Haiti.
The mission in Haiti should not only provide our troops with military discipline but also valuable experience in post-conflict situations.

The UN doles out about $950 per month per soldier, but most countries continue to pay troops their local salaries and divert the rest of the money to the state treasury. Additionally, the UN also pays for equipment, such as armoured personnel carriers, mine-resistant vehicles and helicopters, that troops bring along with them.

Since a large proportion of our troops speak only Sinhala, the biggest single hurdle to clear would be the language barrier in Haiti where the only two spoken languages are French and Creole.

This has also been a problem for blue-helmeted UN troops from countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh who speak only their native languages while being deployed to UN missions in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kosovo, and most recently, Cote d'Ivoire.
How they survive by communicating in sign languages is also an exercise in military diplomacy.

But as the UN gears itself to dispatch thousands of troops into new political trouble spots, its peacekeeping operations are being undermined by a shortage of funds, unpaid debts and charges of sexual abuse against women and children caught in the crossfire.

The growing new problems come at a time when the world body is set to increase its peacekeepers, from the current 53,500 troops to a high of over 70,000 by the end of the year.

The 15 peacekeeping missions on three continents are expected to increase to 18 -- with new deployments in Haiti, Burundi and Sudan -- virtually doubling the UN's annual peacekeeping budget to a hefty $4.0 billion.

The world's poorer nations, who provide the bulk of the troops, are however complaining that the Organisation has fallen behind in its payments for troops and equipment provided for peacekeeping missions.

In most of these countries, peacekeeping troops are like migrant labour earning hard currency for the government back home.
As of December last year, the UN owed $439 million dollars to 71 countries currently participating in UN operations.

The five biggest debts are owed to Pakistan ($53.2 million), Bangladesh ($47.8 million), India ($32.3 million), Jordan ($29.2 million) and Nigeria ($28.3 million).
As of April, the 10 largest troop contributors for UN operations were from developing nations: Pakistan (7,680 troops), Bangladesh (6,362), Nigeria (3,398), India (2,930), Ghana (2,790), Nepal (2,290), Uruguay (1,833), Kenya (1,826), Ethiopia (1,822) and Jordan (1,804).

In contrast, the number of troops from Western nations averaged less than 600 each, the largest troop contributors being Portugal (558 troops), US (562), UK (550), France (509) and Ireland (485).
Clearly, most Western nations have been shying away from peacekeeping missions, particularly in Africa, because they don't want to jeopardize their troops.

"Developing nations are virtually subsidising UN peacekeeping operations," says a South Asian diplomat. "We cannot afford to continue providing troops without quick reimbursements."

Santiago Wins of Uruguay says the United Nations owes his country about $14.4 million, which includes payments for troops who served in Cambodia and Somalia in the 1990s. "We have not been reimbursed for more than a decade," he told the UN's administrative and budgetary committee last month.

Funds for the peacekeeping budget come from assessed contributions from the 191 member states. But as of December last year, the UN was owed over $1.1 billion dollars in outstanding peacekeeping arrears. The biggest single defaulter was the US which owes $482 million to the peacekeeping budget.

The world body blames the outstanding arrears as one of the primary reasons for defaulting on payments to troop-contributing nations.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has also been hit by a rash of new complaints about sexual abuse of women and children by peacekeepers, civilian staff and humanitarian organisations operating either with the blessings of the world body or under a UN flag.

A system-wide investigation by the world body has been triggered by a new report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan who says that six out of 48 UN agencies operating in the field have received reports of 24 new cases of sexual exploitation or abuse, mostly by blue-helmeted peacekeepers, during 2003.

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