UN peacekeeping marred by abuse
By James Reinl
June 01, 2008 
The National
Original Source: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080531/FOREIGN/881915422/1103/SPORT&Profile=1103
UNITED NATIONS // Amid mounting allegations of misconduct committed by blue helmet troops, it was hardly an ideal moment for the United Nations to celebrate 60 years of peacekeeping.

During a solemn wreath-laying ceremony to mark the annual International Day of UN Peacekeepers in New York last week, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the head of operations, flanked by uniformed soldiers, acknowledged the difficulties facing his organisation and warned that those serving “must never lose” their “moral beacon”.
In an anniversary bid to bolster support for beleaguered peacekeeping chiefs, George Clooney, the UN’s messenger of peace, delivered a one-minute public service announcement via YouTube and other internet portals in which he outlined the skit’s simple message: “Peace Is Hard”.

Six decades after deploying its first peacekeeping operation, the UN Truce Supervision Organization, to monitor cease-fires between Israelis and Arabs, the institution is battling allegations of misconduct, impropriety and the sexual abuse of children.
The latest blow to blue helmet integrity came on Monday, with the publication of a report by Save the Children UK that describes a litany of sexual crimes committed by peacekeepers and international relief workers against children as young as six, based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti.

According to the report, some children were denied food unless they granted sexual favours. Others were forced to have sex or take part in child pornography, while many more were subjected to improper touching or kissing.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, lauded the “very valuable” report and branded the sexual exploitation of minors a “very serious issue”, reiterating the UN’s “zero tolerance” policy for personnel who engage in such behaviour.

But the study only added to a body of evidence of sexual misconduct in operations from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor, West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The issue moved into the spotlight after the United Nations found in early 2005 that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or money.
Several months later, Prince Zeid al Hussein, Jordan’s UN ambassador at the time, wrote a report that described the UN military arm as deeply flawed. He recommended withholding the salaries of the guilty and requiring countries to pursue legal action against perpetrators.

In response, the UN announced a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse, and a universal code of conduct. The UN requires training for all peacekeepers, but punishment of offenders is left to individual countries.
But in April, while officials from the department of peacekeeping operations said they were clamping down on misconduct by personnel, the BBC broadcasted an 18-month investigation that presented what it said was evidence of UN officials actually covering up wrongdoing.

The report on peacekeeping in Congo found Pakistani forces had traded weapons with local militia for gold in 2006, while Indian troops had exchanged drugs, ivory, gold and ammunition with another faction.
The BBC reported that UN investigators were blocked from pursuing investigations against the peacekeeping forces for fear of offending either Pakistan or India – two of the biggest contributors to peacekeeping operations.

The claim was bolstered on May 23 by Matthias Basanisi, a former UN investigator, who wrote in The New York Times that allegations against Pakistani troops had been “credible” and the final report from the UN’s office of internal oversight services was “little short of a whitewash”.
The Pakistani military denied the allegations and accused the BBC of a “biased attitude towards Pakistan”.

Responding to critics on peacekeeping’s 60th anniversary on Thursday, Mr Guéhenno acknowledged the imperfect record and called for more vigilance and transparency. Members of all armed forces – Department of Peacekeeping Operations and otherwise – operated in the absence of police forces and could succumb to “the power of the gun, the power of money”, he said.
“Rotating in peacekeeping operations roughly 200,000 personnel every year is an enormously risky operation in terms of discipline,” Mr Guéhenno said. “Policing a city of 200,000 people – which is not a city, because it does not have the social-controlling network that a city has – is a very dangerous situation to be in.”

Mr Guéhenno, who is generally credited with raising peacekeeping standards, said more personnel were engaged than at any other time in the organisation’s history, with more than 110,000 men and women from nearly 120 countries deployed in 20 operations globally.
Noting that 90 peacekeepers died last year, taking the total number of personnel killed since 1948 to more than 2,400, Mr Guéhenno warned that the increasingly difficult operations being assigned to his department had left the institution overstretched.

Last week saw the death of the first UN peacekeeper in Darfur, and Security Council members are currently debating whether to send troops into Somalia – an outcome causing great anxiety in the peacekeeping department’s office.
In this tense climate, Mr Guéhenno is due to step down from his eight-year tenure at the helm of global peacekeeping next month. Speculating on whether his successor will also come from France – the suspected result of a backdoor deal – the peacekeeping boss inadvertently revealed the demanding nature of the post.

“Sometimes I wonder why any country would want to have the job,” he said.

As Mr Clooney suggested in his web address, there is nothing easy about peacekeeping: the art of borrowing soldiers from one country to solve the problems of another.
“The UN has more than 100,000 peacekeepers on the ground in places that others can’t, or won’t, go, doing things that other’s can’t, or won’t, do,” he said. “Peace, like war, must be waged.”