UN peacekeeping

When UN peacekeepers are sent on a mission, their goal is not to conquer territories or fight against hostile troops. Instead, it is to safeguard peace between formerly warring parties.

But the reputation of UN peacekeepers has been tainted due to what happened on their missions in Somalia (1993), Rwanda (1994) and Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995). So where do the UN's blue helmets stand? Do they live up to their responsibility as global peacekeepers - or is their mandate often times not strong enough to pacify heinously fighting militia?

Peacekeeping before and after the Cold War

Since 1948, practically right after the UN were founded, peacekeepers have been deployed to various conflict regions around the globe. They were sent to Congo (1960-64), to the Dominican Republic (1964-65), to Indonesia (1962-63), and to Pakistan and India (1965–66). They also acted as mediators between Irael and Egypt (1956–67), in Lebanon (1958), as well as in Yemen (1963–64). In 1988, UN peacekeepers were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the nature of conflicts changed. Peacekeepers had to adapt to different forms of conflict resolution.

"Peacekeeping missions have become very much more proactive," said Matthias Dembinski of the Frankfurt-based Peace Research Institute. He said that after the end of the Cold War, peacekeeping missions have tended to intercede more in the social and political structures of where they are deployed.

"The missions have become much more comprehensive," Dembinski said. "It starts with preventive operations, trying to prevent conflicts from occuring in the first place." After combat actions have ceased, peacekeepers also participate in reconstruction and reconciliation efforts, attempting to re-integrate combatants back into civil society.

Some success stories

Peace researcher Dembinski said it was difficult to evaluate the success of UN peacekeeping missions. In a complex conflict situation, it was hard to say with absolute certainty that a conflict was settled thanks to the UN troops. But Dembinski said experts agreed that one mission was indeed successful: UNIFIL, the UN mission in Lebanon.

"After the war in 2006, the UN Security Council enhanced the original mandate from 1978 to monitor the cessation of hostilities," he said. "Ever since then, there has been peace in Lebanon."

Several experts also agree that the mission in the West African country of Sierra Leone was successful. Between 1999 and 2005, UN peacekeepers assisted in implementing the Lomé Peace Agreement, ending a civil war that had gripped Sierra Leone for almost a decade.

The UN also helped set up a special court to try war criminals, as well as a reconciliation commission to address the needs of the conflict's victims. In addition, UN agencies helped reform the country's economy, so that former combatants would have a job and an income.

To this day, many parents in Sierra Leone name their sons "Tony" after the former British prime minister Tony Blair, who pushed for UN action in Sierra Leone. That, too, may be seen as an indicator of the mission's success.

UN peacekeeping history's dark chapters

But those peacekeeping missions that failed caused a bigger stir than those that were successful. In 1993, UN peacekeepers failed to protect the population in Somalia not only from a famine, but also from a civil war. Failure in Somalia then led to yet another catastrophe: the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

After 18 US soldiers were killed in Somalia, and media around the world showed pictures of how their dead bodies were being desecrated, the US refused to start a further humanitarian mission in Central Africa. Not only did chances of success seem slim - Rwanda was also considered a country without any strategic importance.

But it was not just US forces that wanted to keep out of Rwanda. Critics say that the French torpedoed the mission, as well, because the French government considered Rwanda part of its own sphere of influence in Africa and did not want to alienate its allies within the government.

When 10 Belgian peacekeepers were killed in Rwanda, most of the 2,500 UN troops were withdrawn. An estimated 800,000 people were killed in the genocide that followed.

The Srebrenica massacre

The next blow for UN peacekeeping followed a year later, during the Bosnian War. Although a Dutch UN unit was in Srebrenica, it did not prevent a massacre there in July 1995. Serbian troops brutally killed some 8,000 mainly male Bosnian Muslims. The UN commander, Thomas Karremanns, later defended himself by saying he had repeatedly - but to no avail - requested that NATO units be deployed as assistance.

Bosnians later charged that the UN peacekeepers let Serbian troops proceed with their killing, knowing full well what was happening. Suits for damages were filed, charging that the Dutch government had failed to prevent the genocide. But until today, events have not been fully cleared up.

Perspectives for peacekeeping in Syria

Despite the UN peacekeeping missions' mixed record, a study conducted by the US think tank Rand Corporation showed that two out of three missions were successful. For his part, Matthias Dembinski does not want to rule out a UN peacekeeping mission to Syria like the one proposed by the Arab League.

"The situation is very much in flux, so that conditions for a mission could change quickly," he said.

Should there be some sort of peace deal between the opposition and the government in Syria, this peace would have have to monitored, Dembinski said. He doubted the Arab League would be able to fulfill this task. For this reason, he said, the "UN peacekeepers might be an option which in the end nobody would want to forego."

Author: Lewis Gropp / ar
Editor: Sabina Casagrande