20.10.2014.
Potential for peace export
Worldwide, there are currently 16 UN peacekeeping operations and some 125,000 military, police and civilians serving in these operations, which is an all-time high. In the wake of the regional conference "Being a Peacekeeper", Chief of the UN Office in Belgrade Peter Due spoke in his interview for magazine Odbrana about his assessment of the current participation of members of the Armed Forces of Serbia in UN peacekeeping operations, which he sees as very positive.
-Serbia contributes more than 200 military personnel and some 10 police personnel to UN peacekeeping operations. This is a significant contribution. You are the regional leader and in the top ten of all European countries. You have been steadily increasing your military contributions over the past years, and I know you are committed to further increasing military contributions. I hope you will also be able to increase police contributions soon. Your major contribution is of course to UNIFIL in Lebanon and to UNFICYP in Cyprus, but your smaller contributions, also to missions in Africa, are also much appreciated. Africa is where most of the UN peacekeeping operations currently are and where almost 90% of all UN peacekeepers are deployed.
Besides the question of numbers or quantity, there is the question of quality. Your troops are highly professional and well trained and equipped. They are respected. They are the kind of troops that we need in our increasingly complex and demanding UN peacekeeping operations. We need enabling units: field hospitals, engineers, aviation etc.
What are the prospects and the benefits of such engagement of our members? Engaging in some other missions?
-You will soon be sending troops to MINUSCA in the Central African Republic, a new and very challenging mission. Mali is another challenging theatre. We are very happy that a European country like Serbia is sending troops to some of our big missions in Africa, where the needs are great and the mandates multidimensional.
Your participation is good for the UN and for international peace and security, but it is also good for Serbia. It further enhances your international reputation and standing- your men and women are deployed in the service of peace in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter – and it gives your armed forces international experience, which is useful for you not only in a UN context. While it costs Serbia money to deploy internationally, the UN reimburses a part of these costs.
What will be the focus of a regional roundtable "Being a Peacekeeper" in Belgrade 20-21 October?
-I am very excited about this regional roundtable, which we are organizing together with the Government of Serbia and with thesupport of Norway, France, Switzerland and UNDP/SEESAC.We are bringing to Belgrade the head of UN peacekeeping, Under-Secretary-General Herve Ladsous, and his top military and police advisers from New York, to meet with relevant officials from Serbia and other countries in the Western Balkans and some 20 other partner countries and regional organizations. Ladsous and his team will brief on the current challenges facing UN peacekeeping across the globe and we will have sessions on regional cooperation, the importance of women in peacekeeping, the mechanics of how to contribute military and police to UN peacekeeping, and a session on how the UN works in partnership with regional organizations on peace and security. The overall goal will be to further enhance the contribution of the countries of the Western Balkans to UN peacekeeping, individually and jointly.
-The “Being a Peacekeeper” meeting will highlight the significant contributions already being made by some countries in the region, in particular the host -Serbia-, and the potential for further contributions. It will also showcase how the Western Balkans, which used to be the scene of armed conflicts and major peacekeeping operations and imported or consumed security, has become stable and able to export and help provide peace and security to other more needy parts of the world. This is a very positive development.
We also believe that the drawdown of ISAF may mean that some countries in the region, which have so far focused their efforts on Afghanistan(and earlier in Iraq), will be able to contribute more to UN peacekeeping operations.
The high-level roundtable in Belgrade on 20-21 October is meant as the start of a process with more technical meetings on UN peacekeeping planned for 2015 in other Western Balkan capitals.
How can regional cooperation in Western Balkans affect involvement in the peacekeeping missions of the UN?
-As I said, our hope is that the “Being a Peacekeeper” meeting can further enhance national and joint contributions. There is already a lot of positive regional cooperation on military matters in the Western Balkans, also in terms of international peace operations. In the future, we hope that we will see Western Balkan countries deploying units to UN peacekeeping together. There have already been some efforts in this regard, but we hope to encourage even more. This could for example be in the medical field or in terms of mines, EOD and IED clearance. It is great to see countries that experienced conflict contribute to peacekeeping efforts elsewhere, and it is great to see former adversaries working together in the service of peace under the UN flag. It shows how your region has made great progress. The way Serbia worked with Norway in Chad and with Spain in Lebanon are other good examples of peacekeeping partnerships that we want to explore at the “Being a Peacekeeper” meeting.
Why was the UN Peacekeeping Summit in New York important?
-There are currently 16 UN peacekeeping operations and some 125,000 military, police and civilians serving in these operations. That is an all-time high. Our operations have taken on increasingly significant and challenging roles in response to contemporary threats to international peace and security. Some operate in theaters with little peace to keep and with spoilers and terrorists. Some UN operations have therefore also been given robust mandates. As a result, our operations are coming under significant stress and casualties have recently increased, for example in Mali. However, we have not seen any major setbacks or failures on the scale of what happened in the 1990s - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda and Somalia – and UN peacekeeping has improved and surged. But some are concerned that we are approaching the limits of what UN peacekeeping can do and that the risks are increasing.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched a major review of all peace operations. Some may remember the related and very successful review led by Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi – the so-called Brahimi panel and review – conducted some 15 years ago, which led to a very important strengthening of the UN peacekeeping tool.The Secretary-General feels it is time for another strategic review aimed at making UN peacekeeping ever more effective and efficient and relevant to today’s challenging environment.
In light of the increasing challenges and the Secretary-General’s review of peace operations, a peacekeeping summit was held in New York on 26 September. It brought together the UN and some 30 countries, including Serbia and Croatia from this region. Many heads of state and government were in attendance and Vice-President Biden of the US, which played an important role in convening the meeting. The meeting expressed continued and strong support for UN peacekeeping and a number of new contributions and pledges of support were made. It was also agreed to meet again in September 2015 to further assess progress made and remaining challenges. That meeting will also be informed by the outcome of the review initiated by the Secretary-General.
What are the tasks and missions of the UN Office in Belgrade?
-UNOB is a political office, which performspolitical liaison and reporting functions. Our main focus is on the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), but we have also been asked to monitor and report to New York on political developments in the Western Balkans, and as a result I travel throughout the region and also try to explore how we can enhance regional cooperation. The “Being a Peacekeeper” roundtable is an example of our regional efforts. I report to the Secretary-General through the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which I have served for many years in New York and as a civilian in several peacekeeping operations, and through the Department of Political Affairs. UNOB is separate from but coordinates closely with UN Resident Coordinators, UNDP offices and UN Country Teams in Serbia and throughout the region, who focus more on development activities.
Why is it important presence of UN forces in Kosovo and Metohija?
-UNMIK remains in Kosovo and continues to do its best to uphold Security Council resolution 1244 (1999). While many operational activities have been transferred to the EU, UNMIK remains the status-neutral framework for international presences in Kosovo, including those of the EU, OSCE and KFOR. While UNMIK is no longer welcomed by all, I think it is important to recognize the important role played by UNMIK since 1999 and how it still provides this framework for international efforts in Kosovo and quietly tries to help in many other ways. We, in the UN, of course applaud the progress made between Belgrade and Pristina in the context of the EU-facilitated dialogue and hope that further progress will soon be made on that track.
Biljana MILJIC
