inside the glass house

UN peacekeeping: Annan faced with western snub
NEW YORK-- A former UN Secretary-General once remarked that civil wars are no longer civil -- whether in Sierra Leone, Sudan or Haiti. The United Nations, which has been mandated to keep the peace, is now saddled with the task of bringing order to countries embroiled in a rash of civil wars.

Last week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to the UN's 191 member-states to provide an additional 30,000 troops for an anticipated surge in demand for peacekeeping operations in the world's battle zones, mostly in Africa.

The number and scope of UN peace operations are approaching what may become their highest levels ever, improving prospects for conflict resolution but also stretching thin the capacities of the system, Annan said in a report to the 59th session of the General Assembly which opens next week.

The demand has been prompted by three factors: the possible creation of a new 10,000-strong peacekeeping force for violence-prone Sudan, and significant increases in troops for two existing peace missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Haiti.

If 30,000 troops are added to the 50,000 already deployed, the total number of UN troops would exceed the all-time high of 78,000 troops during the world body's peacekeeping peak in 1993.

But most Western nations -- with well-equipped and professionally-trained troops -- are refusing to risk their soldiers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where most of the UN peacekeeping operations are in force.

The reasons may be political or perhaps even racist. Why risk soldiers in a region, which is hopelessly mired in seemingly irresolvable civil conflicts? Or are black Africans more expendable than white soldiers?

As a result, Western nations have abdicated the role of peacekeeping primarily to developing countries. Last year, Annan complained that although Western nations have the world's best-equipped military forces, they have refused to actively participate in peacekeeping operations, except to provide training, logistical support and equipment.

As of July, the 10 largest troop contributors to UN operations were from developing nations: Pakistan (8,544 troops), Bangladesh (7,163), Nigeria (3,579), Ghana (3,341), India (2,934), Ethiopia (2,863), South Africa (2,480), Uruguay (1,962), Jordan (1,864), and Kenya (1,831).

For the first time, Sri Lanka is sending a contingent of over 700 troops to join the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti. In contrast to developing nations, the number of troops from western nations averaged less than 600. The largest contributors are United Kingdom (567 troops), Canada (564), France (561), Ireland (479), and the United States (427).

The UN's 17 peacekeeping operations currently in force extend from Cyprus and Georgia to Sierra Leone and Western Sahara. The four new operations authorised this year are in Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti and Burundi.

Brazil, which is the lead military force in the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, has complained that it does not have enough troops to stop renewed conflict in the Caribbean nation.

The Security Council authorised a UN force of 6,700 troops to Haiti last June. But so far, only about 2,500 have arrived in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. The Sri Lankan contingent will push the total to over 3,200 but it is still less than half the full capacity.

"This gap needs to be filled by somebody", Col. Luiz Felipe Carbonell, a spokesman for the Brazilian contingent, told reporters last month. In Haiti, where the predominant languages are French and Creole, most of the UN troops either speak only Portuguese or Spanish. And most of the Sri Lankan troops speak only Sinhala.

The three largest military contingents in Haiti are from Portuguese-speaking Brazil (1,210 troops) and Spanish-speaking Argentina (486) and Chile (454). Beginning next month, Sri Lanka will field the second largest contingent, after Brazil. The reluctance of the Security Council to authorise a larger UN peacekeeping force is also linked to funding.

The US and Japan, which pay the major share of the budget, are unwilling to spend more on peacekeeping because they complain it strains their national budgets. The US now accounts for about 27 percent of the UN's total peacekeeping bill, which is expected to nearly double to $4.0 billion by next year if the total troop strength hits the 80,000 mark.

Annan says the jump in the demand for UN peace operations is a welcome signal for new opportunities for the international community to help bring conflicts to a peaceful solution. However, he warns, those opportunities can only be truly seized if the necessary commitments of political, financial and human resources are made, and if each peace process is seen through to completion. But judging by the current political environment, the prospects seem bleak.

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