The Ronin
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2017
- Messages
- 3,386
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- Location
By Colonel Md Aftab Hossain, afwc, psc
“Overstretched, underfunded and overburdened peacekeeping operations create ‘Yawning Gap’ between expectations and performance.” (1)
4th Committee Close of Debate, 66th General Assembly
Introduction
UN Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKOs) have been proved to be the most effective tools for maintaining peace and security of the world for last six decades. Therefore, peacekeepers have become the most important element in UN systems who are sacrificing even their lives for the peace and stability of the world.
These sheer sacrifices of the peacekeepers to promote peace and stability of the world needs to be recognized, honoured and highlighted to world bodies in different occasions. Side by side it demands periodical study to evaluate the performance/ result of the peacekeepers deployed on ground as they operate in places where physical, social, economic and political environment are changing frequently.
The peacekeepers perform their responsibilities amidst evolving challenges like shortage of manpower, non-cooperation of host country, logistics challenges etc. Therefore, it is evident that there are likely to be gap between expectations and results due to many ground realities as UN missions normally takes place in the most physically and politically difficult environments where political situation remains volatile and security situation remains unpredictable. At this back drop as a leading Troops/Police Contributing Countries (T/PCCs), it is imperative for Bangladesh to identify those gaps and find out ways ahead to overcome those. (2)
In this paper, an endeavour has been made to highlight expectations of UN Secretariat, other stakeholders, host country and even home country from a peacekeeper deployed in the UN missions vis-a-vis the expectations of peacekeepers from counterparts around the world. The paper has also discussed the challenges of peacekeepers in meeting the expectations and ways ahead to overcome those impediments.
Finally, the paper has concluded with few recommendations relevant to Bangladesh. The paper has been written basing on the personal experience of serving as Planning Officer in DPKO (New York), contingent member of field mission and serving as Colonel Staff of Overseas Operations Directorate. (3) However, personal experiences were validated through interviews, sharing experiences and discussions.
EXPECTATIONS FROM THE PEACEKEEPERS VIS-A-VIS EXPECTATIONS OF THE PEACEKEEPERS FROM DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS
Expectations from the Peacekeepers
As a guardian of the word, UN takes care of all the issues around the world, especially for the suppressed people under difficult conditions. UN Security Council (UNSC) takes all necessary steps to protect humanity and tries to ensure a peaceful, secured and stable world. To materialize those, the peacekeepers deployed in the field face multi-pronged pressure from different corners. Those are as follows:
a. Expectations of UN: UN expects peacekeepers will create a secured environment that will enable all the organs of UN, non-government organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders to work for the successful implementation of the mandated tasks that has been set in the UNSC resolutions. Nowadays, implementation of the challenging mandates demand psychological change in the mind-set for the robust, multi-dimensional and sometimes traditional peacekeeping as situation demands.
b. Expectations of General Mass of the World: General mass of the world expect that peacekeepers will insure human rights and people should live peacefully due to their presence.
c. Expectations of Host Country: The victims and host nation expect peacekeepers will protect them from all odds at all costs. Peacekeepers will ensure not only the absence of conflict and hostilities but also the human rights for them.
d. Expectations of Warring Factions: The warring factions of the mission area always expect UN peacekeepers to remain impartial and avoid involving them in the internal clash between/among factions. They minutely observe whether the peacekeepers are inclined to the ruling party or not.
e. Expectations of Home Country: T/PCCs expect that their peacekeepers will uphold the name and fame of their country in international environment in implementing mandated tasks. They will remain highly professional, disciplined, and keep them away from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA).
Expectations of the Peacekeepers from Different Stakeholders
Deployed peacekeepers are basically soldiers of different nations habituated to work silently for the peace but still preserve a strong desire in their hearts to be supported and cooperated by all stakeholders. These expectations vary but generally speaking those are as follows:
a. Expectations to UN: The peacekeepers desire that UN will ensure their capacity building while working for the implementation of mission mandates. The capacity building includes passing the resolutions, ensuring legal rights to work on the land of other nations, developing policy for the use of force, delineating rules of engagement (ROE) etc. It also assists in having Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and Status of Mission Agreement (SOMA).
b. Expectations to General Mass: The peacekeepers keenly observe the reaction of general mass of the world to any incident/accident that takes place in mission areas. Peacekeepers always expect a justified and logical yet friendly opinion from them.
c. Expectations to Host Country and Warrior Factions: The peacekeepers probably expect lion’s share of the support and cooperation from the host nation for the implementation of mandate. The peacekeepers also expect that the parties to the conflict will support them to perform their responsibilities with freedom.
d. Expectations of Home Country and Families: Deployed peacekeepers remain away from their own country. So, they expect timely combat support and logistic supply to keep them operationally fit. They also expect mental and morale support from their families in the home country.
Summary: By and large, in last six decades, UNPKOs has many successes of providing the essential security and support to millions of people except the failure of mid-90s in Rwanda, Somalia and Bosnia. However, success of UNPKOs is never guaranteed, because it takes place in the most physically and politically difficult environments, thus invite new challenges.
In response, the trend of peacekeeping has been shifted from ‘traditional peacekeeping (under chapter VI) to peace enforcement with complex ‘multidimensional’ peacekeeping (under chapter VII) which necessitates a paradigm shift to the mind-set of the peacekeepers. In the present context, POC is one of the major mandated tasks as the civilians have increasingly become the victims of armed conflict.
Therefore, everyone expects that the peacekeepers will do everything to establish peace and security of the world even risking their own lives. Besides, the deployed peacekeepers have also expectations to get support and wholehearted cooperation from different stakeholders including host nation.
CHALLENGES FACED BY THE PEACEKEEPERS IN THE FIELD MISSIONS TO MEET THE EXPECTATIONS
Few of the important challenges faced by the peacekeepers in the field are as follows: Challenges Related to the Protection of Civilian (POC). The UNSC has mandated most of the current PKOs with the mandate of POC from physical violence under Chapter VII. (4) At present 95% of total globally deployed peacekeepers work for POC. (5) The performance of peacekeepers is viewed very seriously by UN and other stakeholders. Effective POC faces numerous challenges as described below.
a. Conceptual Challenges of POC: Though the concept of POC has developed before 15 years in UNAMSIL but took long time to have an operational definition about POC. (6) Multiple actors involve in POC activities, tend to have differing perception and understanding about POC, especially in distinction between humanitarian protection and military coercive use of force to protect civilians.
Moreover, there are difficulties of distinguishing ‘Civilian’ from ‘Combatant’ because the simple possession of a weapon does not necessarily give a person the status of combatant. Civilians who are in possession of arms for protection of property but are not currently engaged in hostilities are not ‘combatant’ rather entitled to be protected. Once the civilians exploit these opportunities, the uncertainty and insecurity of civilian as well as peacekeepers remain a point of concern.
b. Inadequate Peacekeepers to Provide POC: The state below in Table 1 shows the number of the civilians need to be protected by one peacekeeper.
From the ratio of above mentioned statistics, it is observed that the number of peacekeepers is inadequate to protect the civilians against any attack by the armed group. It should be a matter of concern whether such less number of peacekeepers can protect a civilian? (8)
Studies show that it is not possible to ‘protect everyone from everything’ with usual population versus the peacekeepers ratio deployed in UN mission. Often civilians are protected from harsh conditions with limited or insufficient resources but once the peacekeepers cannot protect everybody, the civilians lose confidence on peacekeepers and start showing noncooperation.
Complex Command and Control (C2) Arrangement of UN: In UN mission the contingents and individuals are placed under operational control of the Force Commander (FC) but not under the full command. As the FC and Sector Commanders are not from the same nation, in a crisis situation the contingents do not react the way they would do in their national environment.
This C2 arrangement of UN is resulting the unexpected performance by the deployed peacekeepers. Research shows that due to the complexity of operations and the limitations imposed by the national governments, a centralized command and a form of decentralized mission type/ style are generally used in the frame of UN operations at all levels: strategic, operational and tactical. (9) Therefore, UNPKOs sometimes suffer from confusion caused by poor C2 arrangements.
Frequent Changes in Key Personnel: As per policy all the staffs/ peacekeepers rotate yearly/half yearly which cause difficulties in pursuing and maintaining the continuity of operations. For example, since its inception in 2003, MONUSCO had minimum 14 different set of staffs/peacekeepers in last 14 years.
Therefore, due to frequent changes in staffs, the accountability and continuity of the operations are hampered. It also slows down implementation of mandate and sometime misses the track. Moreover, every staff takes some time to get him acquainted with the business and start checking out before one month. Therefore, excluding the leave period a staff can serve for 8 to 9 months in one year tenure.
Difficulties in Realizing the Real Challenge: Table 2 below shows the top 10 contributors in finance and troops contribution for UN.
From the statistics it is evident that the developed countries are leading in financial contribution for UN while the developing countries are contributing troops for peacekeeping missions. So, the actual difficulties faced in the field missions by the peacekeepers or troops contributors may not be realised to that extend by the financial contributors as they do not have sufficient deployed peacekeepers.
Therefore, the real difficulties faced by the deployed troops may not get due attention in planning process of the mission which later on generates impediments for the peacekeepers. The finance contributors focus on result at any costs but the T/PCCs have to think for security, logistic supply and other issues along with the result.
Disproportionate Task: Beside the POC, there are many important mandated tasks to be completed in missions which require huge amount of force to be deployed. Therefore, the contingents are occupying more number of MOBs and TOBs than mentioned number in SUR to perform the required operational tasks. (10)(11)
Therefore, the peacekeepers are putting themselves in a risk and sacrificing their lives. In recent years, increased number of casualties of the peacekeepers is shown in graph below.
Terrorist Activities by Different Factions/Armed Groups: Recent trend shows that terrorist attack, improvised explosive device (IED), suicidal vehicle borne IED (SVBIED), remotely controlled IED is a common phenomenon of terrorists activities in the mission areas. Most of the countries’ military are not basically meant for counterterrorism activities which is basically the job of police.
Therefore, the fear and uncertainty of threat are hampering the mandated tasks. The recent attack on Mechanism Operation de Coordination (MOC), Mali and attack on civilian in Juba, South Sudan in July 2016 brought two things in forefront i.e. how devastating the armed group may be and how helpless the peacekeepers are!
Lack of Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV): The terrorist attacks have made the road movements and operations unsafe. Shortages of MPVs and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) are hindering implementation of mandated tasks by the full utilization of deployed peacekeepers.
Heterogeneous Forces Composition and Lack of Cohesion in the Contingent: Deployed peacekeepers in UN mission came from 123 different T/PCCs. In a single mission like MONUSCO, there are 54 T/PCCs. Due to difference in background, training standard and other factors’ understanding on the same issues vary from TCC to TCC.
Therefore, it sometime becomes difficult for a heterogeneous force to work together with similar understanding of issues for a common goal that is implementation of UN mandate. Moreover, there are different elements like logistic, maintenance, medical etc. within a contingent to make it self-sustained which also require time to build-up cohesion among the members of the contingent.
Language Barrier and use of Civilian Interpreters: Six large UN peacekeeping missions are hosted in Francophone countries (in CAR, Mali, Haiti, Lebanon, West Sahara, and DR Congo) where Bangladesh is a major contributor. (13) Bangladesh also contributes to UNAMID and UNMISS in Sudan and South Sudan respectively where the local language is Arabic. Though officers’ skill in English is good but troops yet to attain minimum required level skill.
The levels of communication of both officers and troops lack tremendously in the requisite skill in French and Arabic. (14) Bangladesh employ military/civilian interpreters to overcome this language barrier. Therefore, understanding and visualization of the interpreters (who is at time non-military person) and his capability of communicating the commander efficiently has a direct impact in planning and success of operations.
Difficulties in Logistics Support: Logistic supply is the lifeline for keeping any deployed forces battle worthy. Maintaining several contingents with thousands of troops far away from Bangladesh in Africa is posing huge logistic challenges. Besides, there are hurdles in getting custom clearance and transporting them to few land locked countries like Mali and CAR.
Therefore, the shipment of spare parts and other equipment do not reach in time in most cases. There are instances when resupply took more than nine months and the demanded equipment/materials of existing contingent were being used by subsequent contingent. Uncertainty in logistics support sometime hampers the operational efficiency of the contingents.
WAYS AHEAD TO OVERCOME THE IMPEDIMENTS TO MEET THE EXPECTATIONS
Steps Suggested for Bangladesh
Study and Evaluation of On-going Trend of Peacekeeping: There is no magical solution by which peacekeepers can meet the expectations of all stakeholders. The paradigm shift of the pattern of terrorist activities towards peacekeepers in recent days should be carefully studied to understand the intention and capability of the armed groups.
In the coming days, there is a strong likelihood that UN peacekeepers had to operate in environments characterized by the presence of transnational terrorist networks. Think tanks comprised of former and present leadership with peacekeeping experience should study the contemporary issues and devise strategies for Bangladesh. This careful study will determine the requirement of training, equipment, mind-set and above all requirement of determination to achieve the objectives leaving aside many odds.
Language Proficiency: Enhancing language proficiency in English, French and Arabic should be the major concern of Bangladesh Armed Forces. To fulfil the requirement, number of dedicated Language Centre may be established for potential peacekeepers for their continuous practice as it takes time to build up the proficiency and skill on languages. (15)
Troops should focus on efficiency in English and selected troops may also undergo training on French and Arabic languages. Skill on French and Arabic language will also help candidates of Bangladesh to get selected for posts in UN secretariat and field missions.
Modernizing the Peacekeepers: Contingents are now undertaking complex and multidimensional tasks that include POC and robust peacekeeping. For the ensuing tasks, the Armed Forces need to be modernized to meet the challenges of the UNPKOs. The TCCs with better equipment is likely to have edge over other TCC’s and Bangladesh should try to make the contingent fully equipped before deployment. Considering the IED attacks the modern equipment should include Explosive Ordnance Disposal Suit, MPV, UAV etc. to modernize the contingents.
Focused Training with due Attention: Commanders at all level should conduct scenario based training on mandate and ROE. Pre-deployment training (PDT) should also include the directives on use of force. As POC is the prime focus of all the missions, the deployed contingent should be thoroughly trained on POC. Beside the basic training, all junior leaders should be trained to improve leadership qualities.
Training of Interpreter: Due to the shortage of military interpreter at present, Bangladesh is employing civilian interpreter who may not be able to interpret correctly due to the lack of knowledge on military matters. It has to be borne in mind that interpretation is not just translation rather understanding the whole issue and interpret it in correct way. Otherwise there are possibilities of misinterpretation. Therefore, the civilian interpreters must undergo orientation training in formations/training institutions.
Acquire Sufficient Knowledge of Terrain and Demography: Though training on demography and other aspects are included in three weeks’ PDT but a peacekeeper deployed only for one year or less is insufficient to know in details about territory and demography of a new country. But a local terrorist who is born and brought up in that land is likely to be in an advantageous position to fight against Peacekeepers. Therefore, duration of PDT should be increased with more focus on territory and demography.
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA): Bangladesh should take all necessary measures through motivation and administrative action to avoid SEA cases. It should be born in mind that one single incident can diminish all hard earned positive image of Bangladesh. Background history of the individuals should be taken into consideration before selecting them for missions or any foreign assignments.
Gender Mainstreaming: There are many tasks related to women and children those can be better performed by female peacekeepers. Besides, UN pursues the agenda of employing 50% female peacekeepers. Though Bangladesh Army is yet to provide female troops but Bangladesh has already established her credibility by providing all-female Formed Police Contingent (FPU) to Haiti (MINUSTAH) and DR Congo (MONUSCO). The tempo should be continued and inclusion of female soldiers in Army is likely to bring dividend in future. In case of nominating candidate for higher posts at UN Secretariat and field missions, female candidate should get priority as they have better scope to be selected.
Logistic Support: At present most of the Bangladeshi contingents are deployed in Mali, CAR, South Sudan, Sudan and DR Congo. To ease up the logistic supply at least two Advance Logistic Base should be established; one in Mali and other one in Sudan to support missions in CAR, South Sudan, Sudan and DR Congo as shown in Figure:4. The suppliers should be allowed to deliver directly to those bases or in the missions instead of bringing those equipment/spares in Bangladesh and again sending them to missions following a long and hazardous procedure.
Steps Suggested for UN to Implement
Designated Sectors for TCCs: Presence of heterogeneous and diversified forces from different countries in same mission area reduces the combat efficiency of the peacekeepers. To overcome this weakness, one particular sector’s area of responsibility (AOR) may be assigned to a particular leading TCC (like Bangladesh) who will provide sector commander along with majority of the forces of that sector. The said force is likely to perform better in crisis like POC as the cohesion among units and understanding of the commanders at all level will be similar. Moreover, peacekeepers of the responsible TCC will be more concerned about the name and fame of their country.
Avoiding Relocation of Contingents: After deployment, a contingent works and establishes a positive (or negative) repute and it continues by the follow up contingents of same nation. Basing on the establish repute, the locals and other organizations extend their support towards the contingent. A considerable time is needed to establish positive repute which assists in the implementation of the mission mandate. Sometimes the contingents are relocated to adjust with the requirement of Force Headquarters (FHQ). These changes disrupt the continuity of implementation of mission mandate as expected.
Conclusion
UN does not have its own forces for immediate deployment and conducting peacekeeping missions. Therefore, UN depends on different member states whose quality of force varies widely in terms of training, professionalism, mind-set, moral aspects and logistic support. Heterogeneous force, poor C2 arrangement, disproportionate tasks, linguistic barrier in communication etc. make the peacekeeping force less effective than expected.
Moreover, peacekeepers operate in physically and politically difficult environment that generates new challenges in implementing mission mandate. Therefore, the peacekeepers deployed on ground cannot meet the expectations of the different stakeholders including UN. Wholehearted support of UN in capacity building of the peacekeepers, unconditional cooperation of the host country including warrior factions and required support of other stakeholders can make a mission successful meeting the desired expectations of all the stakeholders.
The sheer sacrifice of thousands of peacekeepers deployed around the world away from their families for establishing peace and security is the key element for successful peacekeeping operations but they need the support of other stakeholders. A collaborative approach of UN, T/PCCs, host countries and the deployed peacekeepers can help to meet each others’ expectations.
On the “International Day for the UN Peacekeepers” everybody should show tribute and honour for the peacekeepers and should evaluate the peacekeepers so that they can take better preparation to ensure peace and stability. Because, they sacrifice their lives for others and ensure peace of the world as said by former SG Dag Hammarskjöld “Peacekeeping is not a job for soldiers, but only soldiers can do it.” (16)
Recommendations
Following are recommended to overcome the challenges and meet the expectations of UN by the peacekeepers:
a. Training on Languages. Training on English (for troops), French and Arabic (for officers) should get top priority for conducting effective operations and to avoid misunderstanding.
b. Training the Civilian Interpreter. Civilian interpreter should be trained to acquire workable knowledge on conducting the military operations before employing in UN missions.
c. Duration of PDT. Duration of PDT may be increased from three weeks to eight weeks incorporating all the latest requirements from UN like knowledge on ROE, POC, use of force and robust peacekeeping etc.
d. Joining the Contingents in Time. Bangladesh Armed Forces should ensure the joining of all peacekeepers in the contingents well ahead and prepare them for mission.
e. Establishing Think Tank. Group of experts on UN peacekeeping may be formed as ‘Think Tank’ for required study, strategic planning and modus operandi for future employment in UN missions.
f. Coordination with UN Headquarters. Bangladesh should raise the issues like designated sectors for TCCs and reducing relocation for deployed contingents to UN secretariat.
**END**
Footnote
1 Website: https://www.un.org/press/en/2010/gaspd465.doc.htm, accessed on 22 February 2017.
2 Provider of military and police personnel are known as troops contributing countries (TCCs) and police contributing countries (PCCs). Commonly they are known as T/PCCs. 3Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), New York is the responsible department in UN Secretariat that deals with all UN Peacekeeping Operations.
4 Chapter VII: Action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression.
5 Statement by USG, DPKO to the Special Committee on PKO, at New York, on 24 February 2014.
6 The 1st UNPKO to have POC mandate was UN Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in 1999.
7 Information collected from different websites especially from Wikipedia on different dates from 01-28 February 2017.
8 Lieutenant Daniel Blocqis an assistant professor in international law at Netherlands Defence Academy.
9 Goran Stojanovski, Lieutenant Colonel, National Defence College Academy of Latvia. Command and Control issues in UN Peacekeeping and Peace Enforcement Operations, 2013.
10 MOB -Main Operating Base, TOB - Temporary Operating Base, SUR-Statement of the Unit Requirements.
11 Discussion with Sector Commanders, Country Seniors and Contingent Commands who are presently deployed in different missions.
12 Monthly report on security situation from deployed contingent.
13 Websites of all the missions on 1 February 2017.
14 Rasul, Brigadier General Ilyas Iftekhar, ndc, psc (retired), ‘Bangladesh’s Contribution to UN Peacekeeping Missions in Africa’ - a paper for the National Seminar on “Look Africa: An Emerging Foreign Policy Option for Bangladesh’ on 2 December 2010 at BIISS Auditorium. p. 5-6.
15 Rasul, Brigadier General IlyasIftekhar, ndc, psc (retired). ‘United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Trends and Challenges’, Op. Cit. p.38.
16 Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, who died in a plane crash in what is now Zambia in September 1961.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books / Monographs
1. Holt, Victoria and Taylor, Glyn (2009) “Protecting Civilians in the Context of UNPKOs-Success, Setbacks and the Remaining Challenges”, published by UNDPKO, New York, USA.
2. Carvelho, Benjamin de and Sending Ole Jacob 2012 “Protection of Civilians in UN Peacekeeping - Concept, Implementation and Practice” (edited), Published by Nomos, Germany.
3. Annual Review of Global Peace Operations - Annual Compilation 2016, ‘ Has UN Peacekeeping Become more Deadly’, Center of International Cooperation, Published in the United States of America in 2017.
4. Annual Review of Global Peace Operations 2013, ‘Global Statistics on UN Missions’, Center of International Cooperation, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, London.
5. Zaman, Rashed and Niloy Ranjan 2012,‘Bangladesh’, edited by Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. William in ‘Providing Peacekeepers’ The Politics, Challenges, and Future of UN Peacekeeping Contribution’, published by Oxford University Press, USA
UN Publication/ UN Document/ Reports
6. UN DPKO and Department of Field Support (DFS) 2015, ‘Operational Readiness Preparation for TCCs in Peacekeeping Missions’.
7. UN DPKO and DFS 2016, ‘Use of Force by Military Components in UNPKOs’.
8. UN DPKO and a DFS 2008, ‘UNPKOs Principles and Guidelines’.
9. UN DPKO/ DFS 2015, ‘The Protection of Civilians in United Nations Peacekeeping’.
10. UN DPKO 2012, ‘UN Infantry Battalion Manual Volume – 1 &2’.
11. UN DPKO and DFS 2008, ‘Authority, Command and Control in UNPKOs’.
Articles / Journals/ Seminar Paper/Presentation/ Newspaper
12. Ahmed, Saima 2014, ‘Overcoming the Rwanda Failure: The impact of R2P on the Protection of Civilian’, ‘Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies’, Number 1, Volume 35, January 2014.
13. Hossain, Lieutenant Colonel Md Aftab, afwc, psc 2015, ‘Modern Peacekeeping Operations: Implication on preparedness on Bangladesh Armed Forces’, ‘National Defence College’, Number 1, Volume 14, June 2015.
14. Supplement on the occasion of ‘International Day of UN Peacekeepers 2016’ , ‘The Daily Independent’, published on 29 May 2016, Dhaka.
Research Papers / Study Papers
15. Goran Stojanovski, Lieutenant Colonel, National Defence College Academy of Latvia. Command and Control issues in UN Peacekeeping and Peace Enforcement Operations, 2013.
Interviews/Discussions
16. Hafiz, Lieutenant General Abdul (retired), ndc, psc, Former FC, UNOCI (Cote d'Ivoire) and FC MINURSO (Western Sahara) interviewed by author on 23 August 2014.
17. Siddiqee Colonel Al Faroque, afwc, psc interviewed by the author on 10 March 2017.
Web Sites
18. Peacekeeping Statistics Website, , (accessed on different dates in February 2017).
19. Different websites as mentioned in the Footnotes on different dates.
Source- Bangladesh Army Journal 60th Issue, 2016
“Overstretched, underfunded and overburdened peacekeeping operations create ‘Yawning Gap’ between expectations and performance.” (1)
4th Committee Close of Debate, 66th General Assembly
Introduction
UN Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKOs) have been proved to be the most effective tools for maintaining peace and security of the world for last six decades. Therefore, peacekeepers have become the most important element in UN systems who are sacrificing even their lives for the peace and stability of the world.
These sheer sacrifices of the peacekeepers to promote peace and stability of the world needs to be recognized, honoured and highlighted to world bodies in different occasions. Side by side it demands periodical study to evaluate the performance/ result of the peacekeepers deployed on ground as they operate in places where physical, social, economic and political environment are changing frequently.
The peacekeepers perform their responsibilities amidst evolving challenges like shortage of manpower, non-cooperation of host country, logistics challenges etc. Therefore, it is evident that there are likely to be gap between expectations and results due to many ground realities as UN missions normally takes place in the most physically and politically difficult environments where political situation remains volatile and security situation remains unpredictable. At this back drop as a leading Troops/Police Contributing Countries (T/PCCs), it is imperative for Bangladesh to identify those gaps and find out ways ahead to overcome those. (2)
In this paper, an endeavour has been made to highlight expectations of UN Secretariat, other stakeholders, host country and even home country from a peacekeeper deployed in the UN missions vis-a-vis the expectations of peacekeepers from counterparts around the world. The paper has also discussed the challenges of peacekeepers in meeting the expectations and ways ahead to overcome those impediments.
Finally, the paper has concluded with few recommendations relevant to Bangladesh. The paper has been written basing on the personal experience of serving as Planning Officer in DPKO (New York), contingent member of field mission and serving as Colonel Staff of Overseas Operations Directorate. (3) However, personal experiences were validated through interviews, sharing experiences and discussions.
EXPECTATIONS FROM THE PEACEKEEPERS VIS-A-VIS EXPECTATIONS OF THE PEACEKEEPERS FROM DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS
Expectations from the Peacekeepers
As a guardian of the word, UN takes care of all the issues around the world, especially for the suppressed people under difficult conditions. UN Security Council (UNSC) takes all necessary steps to protect humanity and tries to ensure a peaceful, secured and stable world. To materialize those, the peacekeepers deployed in the field face multi-pronged pressure from different corners. Those are as follows:
a. Expectations of UN: UN expects peacekeepers will create a secured environment that will enable all the organs of UN, non-government organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders to work for the successful implementation of the mandated tasks that has been set in the UNSC resolutions. Nowadays, implementation of the challenging mandates demand psychological change in the mind-set for the robust, multi-dimensional and sometimes traditional peacekeeping as situation demands.
b. Expectations of General Mass of the World: General mass of the world expect that peacekeepers will insure human rights and people should live peacefully due to their presence.
c. Expectations of Host Country: The victims and host nation expect peacekeepers will protect them from all odds at all costs. Peacekeepers will ensure not only the absence of conflict and hostilities but also the human rights for them.
d. Expectations of Warring Factions: The warring factions of the mission area always expect UN peacekeepers to remain impartial and avoid involving them in the internal clash between/among factions. They minutely observe whether the peacekeepers are inclined to the ruling party or not.
e. Expectations of Home Country: T/PCCs expect that their peacekeepers will uphold the name and fame of their country in international environment in implementing mandated tasks. They will remain highly professional, disciplined, and keep them away from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA).
Expectations of the Peacekeepers from Different Stakeholders
Deployed peacekeepers are basically soldiers of different nations habituated to work silently for the peace but still preserve a strong desire in their hearts to be supported and cooperated by all stakeholders. These expectations vary but generally speaking those are as follows:
a. Expectations to UN: The peacekeepers desire that UN will ensure their capacity building while working for the implementation of mission mandates. The capacity building includes passing the resolutions, ensuring legal rights to work on the land of other nations, developing policy for the use of force, delineating rules of engagement (ROE) etc. It also assists in having Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and Status of Mission Agreement (SOMA).
b. Expectations to General Mass: The peacekeepers keenly observe the reaction of general mass of the world to any incident/accident that takes place in mission areas. Peacekeepers always expect a justified and logical yet friendly opinion from them.
c. Expectations to Host Country and Warrior Factions: The peacekeepers probably expect lion’s share of the support and cooperation from the host nation for the implementation of mandate. The peacekeepers also expect that the parties to the conflict will support them to perform their responsibilities with freedom.
d. Expectations of Home Country and Families: Deployed peacekeepers remain away from their own country. So, they expect timely combat support and logistic supply to keep them operationally fit. They also expect mental and morale support from their families in the home country.
Summary: By and large, in last six decades, UNPKOs has many successes of providing the essential security and support to millions of people except the failure of mid-90s in Rwanda, Somalia and Bosnia. However, success of UNPKOs is never guaranteed, because it takes place in the most physically and politically difficult environments, thus invite new challenges.
In response, the trend of peacekeeping has been shifted from ‘traditional peacekeeping (under chapter VI) to peace enforcement with complex ‘multidimensional’ peacekeeping (under chapter VII) which necessitates a paradigm shift to the mind-set of the peacekeepers. In the present context, POC is one of the major mandated tasks as the civilians have increasingly become the victims of armed conflict.
Therefore, everyone expects that the peacekeepers will do everything to establish peace and security of the world even risking their own lives. Besides, the deployed peacekeepers have also expectations to get support and wholehearted cooperation from different stakeholders including host nation.
CHALLENGES FACED BY THE PEACEKEEPERS IN THE FIELD MISSIONS TO MEET THE EXPECTATIONS
Few of the important challenges faced by the peacekeepers in the field are as follows: Challenges Related to the Protection of Civilian (POC). The UNSC has mandated most of the current PKOs with the mandate of POC from physical violence under Chapter VII. (4) At present 95% of total globally deployed peacekeepers work for POC. (5) The performance of peacekeepers is viewed very seriously by UN and other stakeholders. Effective POC faces numerous challenges as described below.
a. Conceptual Challenges of POC: Though the concept of POC has developed before 15 years in UNAMSIL but took long time to have an operational definition about POC. (6) Multiple actors involve in POC activities, tend to have differing perception and understanding about POC, especially in distinction between humanitarian protection and military coercive use of force to protect civilians.
Moreover, there are difficulties of distinguishing ‘Civilian’ from ‘Combatant’ because the simple possession of a weapon does not necessarily give a person the status of combatant. Civilians who are in possession of arms for protection of property but are not currently engaged in hostilities are not ‘combatant’ rather entitled to be protected. Once the civilians exploit these opportunities, the uncertainty and insecurity of civilian as well as peacekeepers remain a point of concern.
b. Inadequate Peacekeepers to Provide POC: The state below in Table 1 shows the number of the civilians need to be protected by one peacekeeper.
From the ratio of above mentioned statistics, it is observed that the number of peacekeepers is inadequate to protect the civilians against any attack by the armed group. It should be a matter of concern whether such less number of peacekeepers can protect a civilian? (8)
Studies show that it is not possible to ‘protect everyone from everything’ with usual population versus the peacekeepers ratio deployed in UN mission. Often civilians are protected from harsh conditions with limited or insufficient resources but once the peacekeepers cannot protect everybody, the civilians lose confidence on peacekeepers and start showing noncooperation.
Complex Command and Control (C2) Arrangement of UN: In UN mission the contingents and individuals are placed under operational control of the Force Commander (FC) but not under the full command. As the FC and Sector Commanders are not from the same nation, in a crisis situation the contingents do not react the way they would do in their national environment.
This C2 arrangement of UN is resulting the unexpected performance by the deployed peacekeepers. Research shows that due to the complexity of operations and the limitations imposed by the national governments, a centralized command and a form of decentralized mission type/ style are generally used in the frame of UN operations at all levels: strategic, operational and tactical. (9) Therefore, UNPKOs sometimes suffer from confusion caused by poor C2 arrangements.
Frequent Changes in Key Personnel: As per policy all the staffs/ peacekeepers rotate yearly/half yearly which cause difficulties in pursuing and maintaining the continuity of operations. For example, since its inception in 2003, MONUSCO had minimum 14 different set of staffs/peacekeepers in last 14 years.
Therefore, due to frequent changes in staffs, the accountability and continuity of the operations are hampered. It also slows down implementation of mandate and sometime misses the track. Moreover, every staff takes some time to get him acquainted with the business and start checking out before one month. Therefore, excluding the leave period a staff can serve for 8 to 9 months in one year tenure.
Difficulties in Realizing the Real Challenge: Table 2 below shows the top 10 contributors in finance and troops contribution for UN.
From the statistics it is evident that the developed countries are leading in financial contribution for UN while the developing countries are contributing troops for peacekeeping missions. So, the actual difficulties faced in the field missions by the peacekeepers or troops contributors may not be realised to that extend by the financial contributors as they do not have sufficient deployed peacekeepers.
Therefore, the real difficulties faced by the deployed troops may not get due attention in planning process of the mission which later on generates impediments for the peacekeepers. The finance contributors focus on result at any costs but the T/PCCs have to think for security, logistic supply and other issues along with the result.
Disproportionate Task: Beside the POC, there are many important mandated tasks to be completed in missions which require huge amount of force to be deployed. Therefore, the contingents are occupying more number of MOBs and TOBs than mentioned number in SUR to perform the required operational tasks. (10)(11)
Therefore, the peacekeepers are putting themselves in a risk and sacrificing their lives. In recent years, increased number of casualties of the peacekeepers is shown in graph below.
Terrorist Activities by Different Factions/Armed Groups: Recent trend shows that terrorist attack, improvised explosive device (IED), suicidal vehicle borne IED (SVBIED), remotely controlled IED is a common phenomenon of terrorists activities in the mission areas. Most of the countries’ military are not basically meant for counterterrorism activities which is basically the job of police.
Therefore, the fear and uncertainty of threat are hampering the mandated tasks. The recent attack on Mechanism Operation de Coordination (MOC), Mali and attack on civilian in Juba, South Sudan in July 2016 brought two things in forefront i.e. how devastating the armed group may be and how helpless the peacekeepers are!
Lack of Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV): The terrorist attacks have made the road movements and operations unsafe. Shortages of MPVs and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) are hindering implementation of mandated tasks by the full utilization of deployed peacekeepers.
Heterogeneous Forces Composition and Lack of Cohesion in the Contingent: Deployed peacekeepers in UN mission came from 123 different T/PCCs. In a single mission like MONUSCO, there are 54 T/PCCs. Due to difference in background, training standard and other factors’ understanding on the same issues vary from TCC to TCC.
Therefore, it sometime becomes difficult for a heterogeneous force to work together with similar understanding of issues for a common goal that is implementation of UN mandate. Moreover, there are different elements like logistic, maintenance, medical etc. within a contingent to make it self-sustained which also require time to build-up cohesion among the members of the contingent.
Language Barrier and use of Civilian Interpreters: Six large UN peacekeeping missions are hosted in Francophone countries (in CAR, Mali, Haiti, Lebanon, West Sahara, and DR Congo) where Bangladesh is a major contributor. (13) Bangladesh also contributes to UNAMID and UNMISS in Sudan and South Sudan respectively where the local language is Arabic. Though officers’ skill in English is good but troops yet to attain minimum required level skill.
The levels of communication of both officers and troops lack tremendously in the requisite skill in French and Arabic. (14) Bangladesh employ military/civilian interpreters to overcome this language barrier. Therefore, understanding and visualization of the interpreters (who is at time non-military person) and his capability of communicating the commander efficiently has a direct impact in planning and success of operations.
Difficulties in Logistics Support: Logistic supply is the lifeline for keeping any deployed forces battle worthy. Maintaining several contingents with thousands of troops far away from Bangladesh in Africa is posing huge logistic challenges. Besides, there are hurdles in getting custom clearance and transporting them to few land locked countries like Mali and CAR.
Therefore, the shipment of spare parts and other equipment do not reach in time in most cases. There are instances when resupply took more than nine months and the demanded equipment/materials of existing contingent were being used by subsequent contingent. Uncertainty in logistics support sometime hampers the operational efficiency of the contingents.
WAYS AHEAD TO OVERCOME THE IMPEDIMENTS TO MEET THE EXPECTATIONS
Steps Suggested for Bangladesh
Study and Evaluation of On-going Trend of Peacekeeping: There is no magical solution by which peacekeepers can meet the expectations of all stakeholders. The paradigm shift of the pattern of terrorist activities towards peacekeepers in recent days should be carefully studied to understand the intention and capability of the armed groups.
In the coming days, there is a strong likelihood that UN peacekeepers had to operate in environments characterized by the presence of transnational terrorist networks. Think tanks comprised of former and present leadership with peacekeeping experience should study the contemporary issues and devise strategies for Bangladesh. This careful study will determine the requirement of training, equipment, mind-set and above all requirement of determination to achieve the objectives leaving aside many odds.
Language Proficiency: Enhancing language proficiency in English, French and Arabic should be the major concern of Bangladesh Armed Forces. To fulfil the requirement, number of dedicated Language Centre may be established for potential peacekeepers for their continuous practice as it takes time to build up the proficiency and skill on languages. (15)
Troops should focus on efficiency in English and selected troops may also undergo training on French and Arabic languages. Skill on French and Arabic language will also help candidates of Bangladesh to get selected for posts in UN secretariat and field missions.
Modernizing the Peacekeepers: Contingents are now undertaking complex and multidimensional tasks that include POC and robust peacekeeping. For the ensuing tasks, the Armed Forces need to be modernized to meet the challenges of the UNPKOs. The TCCs with better equipment is likely to have edge over other TCC’s and Bangladesh should try to make the contingent fully equipped before deployment. Considering the IED attacks the modern equipment should include Explosive Ordnance Disposal Suit, MPV, UAV etc. to modernize the contingents.
Focused Training with due Attention: Commanders at all level should conduct scenario based training on mandate and ROE. Pre-deployment training (PDT) should also include the directives on use of force. As POC is the prime focus of all the missions, the deployed contingent should be thoroughly trained on POC. Beside the basic training, all junior leaders should be trained to improve leadership qualities.
Training of Interpreter: Due to the shortage of military interpreter at present, Bangladesh is employing civilian interpreter who may not be able to interpret correctly due to the lack of knowledge on military matters. It has to be borne in mind that interpretation is not just translation rather understanding the whole issue and interpret it in correct way. Otherwise there are possibilities of misinterpretation. Therefore, the civilian interpreters must undergo orientation training in formations/training institutions.
Acquire Sufficient Knowledge of Terrain and Demography: Though training on demography and other aspects are included in three weeks’ PDT but a peacekeeper deployed only for one year or less is insufficient to know in details about territory and demography of a new country. But a local terrorist who is born and brought up in that land is likely to be in an advantageous position to fight against Peacekeepers. Therefore, duration of PDT should be increased with more focus on territory and demography.
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA): Bangladesh should take all necessary measures through motivation and administrative action to avoid SEA cases. It should be born in mind that one single incident can diminish all hard earned positive image of Bangladesh. Background history of the individuals should be taken into consideration before selecting them for missions or any foreign assignments.
Gender Mainstreaming: There are many tasks related to women and children those can be better performed by female peacekeepers. Besides, UN pursues the agenda of employing 50% female peacekeepers. Though Bangladesh Army is yet to provide female troops but Bangladesh has already established her credibility by providing all-female Formed Police Contingent (FPU) to Haiti (MINUSTAH) and DR Congo (MONUSCO). The tempo should be continued and inclusion of female soldiers in Army is likely to bring dividend in future. In case of nominating candidate for higher posts at UN Secretariat and field missions, female candidate should get priority as they have better scope to be selected.
Logistic Support: At present most of the Bangladeshi contingents are deployed in Mali, CAR, South Sudan, Sudan and DR Congo. To ease up the logistic supply at least two Advance Logistic Base should be established; one in Mali and other one in Sudan to support missions in CAR, South Sudan, Sudan and DR Congo as shown in Figure:4. The suppliers should be allowed to deliver directly to those bases or in the missions instead of bringing those equipment/spares in Bangladesh and again sending them to missions following a long and hazardous procedure.
Steps Suggested for UN to Implement
Designated Sectors for TCCs: Presence of heterogeneous and diversified forces from different countries in same mission area reduces the combat efficiency of the peacekeepers. To overcome this weakness, one particular sector’s area of responsibility (AOR) may be assigned to a particular leading TCC (like Bangladesh) who will provide sector commander along with majority of the forces of that sector. The said force is likely to perform better in crisis like POC as the cohesion among units and understanding of the commanders at all level will be similar. Moreover, peacekeepers of the responsible TCC will be more concerned about the name and fame of their country.
Avoiding Relocation of Contingents: After deployment, a contingent works and establishes a positive (or negative) repute and it continues by the follow up contingents of same nation. Basing on the establish repute, the locals and other organizations extend their support towards the contingent. A considerable time is needed to establish positive repute which assists in the implementation of the mission mandate. Sometimes the contingents are relocated to adjust with the requirement of Force Headquarters (FHQ). These changes disrupt the continuity of implementation of mission mandate as expected.
Conclusion
UN does not have its own forces for immediate deployment and conducting peacekeeping missions. Therefore, UN depends on different member states whose quality of force varies widely in terms of training, professionalism, mind-set, moral aspects and logistic support. Heterogeneous force, poor C2 arrangement, disproportionate tasks, linguistic barrier in communication etc. make the peacekeeping force less effective than expected.
Moreover, peacekeepers operate in physically and politically difficult environment that generates new challenges in implementing mission mandate. Therefore, the peacekeepers deployed on ground cannot meet the expectations of the different stakeholders including UN. Wholehearted support of UN in capacity building of the peacekeepers, unconditional cooperation of the host country including warrior factions and required support of other stakeholders can make a mission successful meeting the desired expectations of all the stakeholders.
The sheer sacrifice of thousands of peacekeepers deployed around the world away from their families for establishing peace and security is the key element for successful peacekeeping operations but they need the support of other stakeholders. A collaborative approach of UN, T/PCCs, host countries and the deployed peacekeepers can help to meet each others’ expectations.
On the “International Day for the UN Peacekeepers” everybody should show tribute and honour for the peacekeepers and should evaluate the peacekeepers so that they can take better preparation to ensure peace and stability. Because, they sacrifice their lives for others and ensure peace of the world as said by former SG Dag Hammarskjöld “Peacekeeping is not a job for soldiers, but only soldiers can do it.” (16)
Recommendations
Following are recommended to overcome the challenges and meet the expectations of UN by the peacekeepers:
a. Training on Languages. Training on English (for troops), French and Arabic (for officers) should get top priority for conducting effective operations and to avoid misunderstanding.
b. Training the Civilian Interpreter. Civilian interpreter should be trained to acquire workable knowledge on conducting the military operations before employing in UN missions.
c. Duration of PDT. Duration of PDT may be increased from three weeks to eight weeks incorporating all the latest requirements from UN like knowledge on ROE, POC, use of force and robust peacekeeping etc.
d. Joining the Contingents in Time. Bangladesh Armed Forces should ensure the joining of all peacekeepers in the contingents well ahead and prepare them for mission.
e. Establishing Think Tank. Group of experts on UN peacekeeping may be formed as ‘Think Tank’ for required study, strategic planning and modus operandi for future employment in UN missions.
f. Coordination with UN Headquarters. Bangladesh should raise the issues like designated sectors for TCCs and reducing relocation for deployed contingents to UN secretariat.
**END**
Footnote
1 Website: https://www.un.org/press/en/2010/gaspd465.doc.htm, accessed on 22 February 2017.
2 Provider of military and police personnel are known as troops contributing countries (TCCs) and police contributing countries (PCCs). Commonly they are known as T/PCCs. 3Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), New York is the responsible department in UN Secretariat that deals with all UN Peacekeeping Operations.
4 Chapter VII: Action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression.
5 Statement by USG, DPKO to the Special Committee on PKO, at New York, on 24 February 2014.
6 The 1st UNPKO to have POC mandate was UN Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in 1999.
7 Information collected from different websites especially from Wikipedia on different dates from 01-28 February 2017.
8 Lieutenant Daniel Blocqis an assistant professor in international law at Netherlands Defence Academy.
9 Goran Stojanovski, Lieutenant Colonel, National Defence College Academy of Latvia. Command and Control issues in UN Peacekeeping and Peace Enforcement Operations, 2013.
10 MOB -Main Operating Base, TOB - Temporary Operating Base, SUR-Statement of the Unit Requirements.
11 Discussion with Sector Commanders, Country Seniors and Contingent Commands who are presently deployed in different missions.
12 Monthly report on security situation from deployed contingent.
13 Websites of all the missions on 1 February 2017.
14 Rasul, Brigadier General Ilyas Iftekhar, ndc, psc (retired), ‘Bangladesh’s Contribution to UN Peacekeeping Missions in Africa’ - a paper for the National Seminar on “Look Africa: An Emerging Foreign Policy Option for Bangladesh’ on 2 December 2010 at BIISS Auditorium. p. 5-6.
15 Rasul, Brigadier General IlyasIftekhar, ndc, psc (retired). ‘United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Trends and Challenges’, Op. Cit. p.38.
16 Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, who died in a plane crash in what is now Zambia in September 1961.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books / Monographs
1. Holt, Victoria and Taylor, Glyn (2009) “Protecting Civilians in the Context of UNPKOs-Success, Setbacks and the Remaining Challenges”, published by UNDPKO, New York, USA.
2. Carvelho, Benjamin de and Sending Ole Jacob 2012 “Protection of Civilians in UN Peacekeeping - Concept, Implementation and Practice” (edited), Published by Nomos, Germany.
3. Annual Review of Global Peace Operations - Annual Compilation 2016, ‘ Has UN Peacekeeping Become more Deadly’, Center of International Cooperation, Published in the United States of America in 2017.
4. Annual Review of Global Peace Operations 2013, ‘Global Statistics on UN Missions’, Center of International Cooperation, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, London.
5. Zaman, Rashed and Niloy Ranjan 2012,‘Bangladesh’, edited by Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. William in ‘Providing Peacekeepers’ The Politics, Challenges, and Future of UN Peacekeeping Contribution’, published by Oxford University Press, USA
UN Publication/ UN Document/ Reports
6. UN DPKO and Department of Field Support (DFS) 2015, ‘Operational Readiness Preparation for TCCs in Peacekeeping Missions’.
7. UN DPKO and DFS 2016, ‘Use of Force by Military Components in UNPKOs’.
8. UN DPKO and a DFS 2008, ‘UNPKOs Principles and Guidelines’.
9. UN DPKO/ DFS 2015, ‘The Protection of Civilians in United Nations Peacekeeping’.
10. UN DPKO 2012, ‘UN Infantry Battalion Manual Volume – 1 &2’.
11. UN DPKO and DFS 2008, ‘Authority, Command and Control in UNPKOs’.
Articles / Journals/ Seminar Paper/Presentation/ Newspaper
12. Ahmed, Saima 2014, ‘Overcoming the Rwanda Failure: The impact of R2P on the Protection of Civilian’, ‘Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies’, Number 1, Volume 35, January 2014.
13. Hossain, Lieutenant Colonel Md Aftab, afwc, psc 2015, ‘Modern Peacekeeping Operations: Implication on preparedness on Bangladesh Armed Forces’, ‘National Defence College’, Number 1, Volume 14, June 2015.
14. Supplement on the occasion of ‘International Day of UN Peacekeepers 2016’ , ‘The Daily Independent’, published on 29 May 2016, Dhaka.
Research Papers / Study Papers
15. Goran Stojanovski, Lieutenant Colonel, National Defence College Academy of Latvia. Command and Control issues in UN Peacekeeping and Peace Enforcement Operations, 2013.
Interviews/Discussions
16. Hafiz, Lieutenant General Abdul (retired), ndc, psc, Former FC, UNOCI (Cote d'Ivoire) and FC MINURSO (Western Sahara) interviewed by author on 23 August 2014.
17. Siddiqee Colonel Al Faroque, afwc, psc interviewed by the author on 10 March 2017.
Web Sites
18. Peacekeeping Statistics Website, , (accessed on different dates in February 2017).
19. Different websites as mentioned in the Footnotes on different dates.
Source- Bangladesh Army Journal 60th Issue, 2016
