Peacekeeping

The new issue of UNF Insights is now available online (pdf). But first, some trivia: How many UN peacekeepers are deployed around the world? In which country are the largest number of peacekeepers deployed? What country is the largest contributor of peacekeepers around the world? There are about 6,600 troops in Haiti, from which two countries do the bulk of these peacekeepers hail? How does the United Nations pay for peacekeeping operations around the globe? How much does the United Nations Peacekeeping reimburse a troop contributing country per soldier, per month? In August, the Security Council voted for three new peacekeeping missions. In which countries would these new missions be deployed?

105 Indian police officers, set to be deployed to Liberia, make up the UN's first all-female peacekeeping group. Seema Dhundia, a unit commander, said "Women police are seen to be much less threatening, although they can be just as tough as men. But in a conflict situation, they are more approachable and it makes women and children feel safer." More

As reported yesterday, while in Washington this week Ban Ki-moon asked Congressional leaders to lift the so-called "peacekeeping cap" that Congress imposed on US contributions to the UN peacekeeping budget back in 2000. Since then, the US has been assessed at a rate higher than what it pays, resulting in constant budget shortfalls at the UN. This is a long and complicated saga, but here's the elevator pitch version:

The United Nations is taking some hits over a disturbing Daily Telegraph report alleging that some peacekeeping officials in the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) have sexually exploited children in southern Sudan.

"A ceasefire and political talks must take place in Sudan's Darfur region before an international military force there could guarantee security, the head of U.N. peacekeeping said on Tuesday. Jean-Marie Guehenno said the international community must demand assurances an African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur would be effective before it offered funding and equipment." More Plus: Darfur is in 'free fall'

"The United Nations plans to become more deeply involved in efforts to end the Lord's Resistance Army's reign of terror in northern Uganda, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday. The LRA, which says it wants to rule Uganda according to the biblical Ten Commandments, has become notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and abducting thousands of children as fighters, porters and sex slaves. About 100,000 people have been killed and nearly 2 million more driven from their homes and into camps in 20 years of brutal war waged by the group in northern Uganda, the U.N. Security Council said two weeks ago." More

In the New Republic online, Peter Beinart has written a not-to-be missed essay touting the successful nation building strategies the United Nations has been quietly developing without much fanfare here in the United States.

In the course of a two and a half hour press conference, Sudanese President Omar al Bashir rejected UN command of a hybrid AU-UN force for Darfur, saying he would only accept African Troops under African leadership. Bashir also gave an impossibly low mortality estimate - 9,000 - as the number of people who have died as a result of the conflict in Darfur. These comments could be a serious setback to the quick deployment of an effective peacekeeping force to Darfur.

"U.N. peacekeepers in Congo on Monday blocked an advance against an eastern city by soldiers loyal to a renegade general as the Supreme Court prepared to deliver its verdict on a contested presidential election result. Indian troops, part of the world's biggest U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in Democratic Republic of Congo, went into action against soldiers loyal to dissident General Laurent Nkunda who moved towards the provincial capital Goma, an officer said." More