Speeches
Remarks by DCM Piper A. W. Campbell, Opening of International Peacekeeping Seminar
Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh
July 02, 2007
Good morning and Welcome. As a former peacekeeper and someone who spent 3 years writing Security Council resolutions about peacekeeping, I'm delighted, on behalf of the U.S. government, to open this seminar on Requirements Based Training. I’m very pleased that we, the Center for Excellence, U.S. Pacific Command, and the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations were able to make this seminar a reality, here in Phnom Penh. Participants this week come from over fifteen countries, including several significant troop contributors. I suspect you’re going to learn as much from each other as from the instruction.
To open the conference, I’ve been asked to share some thoughts on how my government views UN peacekeeping operations.
United Nations peacekeeping has gone through a period of extraordinary growth over the last several years. Since September 2003, new UN peacekeeping missions, with total troop levels over 33,000, have been created in Liberia, Burundi, Haiti, Cote d’Ivoire, and Sudan. The United States voted for each of those missions in the Security Council, because we are satisfied that each of them serves our national interests, is right-sized, and includes an exit strategy. We also strive to ensure that UN missions, being sent to operate in dangerous places, are properly trained, have adequate mandates, and are equipped and staffed to do what we ask of them.
Today, more than 81,000 uniformed personnel and almost 15,000 civilians are serving the cause of peace in 18 peacekeeping operations around the globe. They are maintaining ceasefires and monitoring borders, disarming former combatants, fostering reconciliation, facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance, helping refugees and displaced persons to return home, and ensuring conditions for democratic elections, the rule of law, reconstruction and economic recovery.
UN peacekeepers have paid a heavy price over the years. Over 2,300 peacekeeping personnel have been killed in the line of duty since 1948. 131 UN peacekeeping personnel were killed in 2005 alone, and in 2007, another 31 made that sacrifice. Their deaths illustrate why my government takes so seriously the importance of giving peacekeepers what they need to be adequately protected while they perform their duties.
Certain inherent aspects of UN peacekeeping prevent peacekeeping missions from performing at the same level as a national unit of a militarily strong state. The UN has no standing forces, and must therefore solicit troop contributions for each Mission. 112 Member States contribute uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping.
As we meet here today in South Asia, it must be noted that Pakistan, Bangladesh and India together provide almost one third of all UN peacekeepers.
Each UN peacekeeping mission is a separate entity. Each UN mission operates in different circumstances. The various national units made available for UN missions often operate such that they have little contact with other national units in the same mission. Many peacekeepers in a mission have never been part of a UN peacekeeping mission before. UN peacekeeping does not enjoy the continuity or esprit de corps of a national army, and so there is much reinvention of the wheel each time a new mission is begun or a new unit rotates into an existing mission. None of this is amenable to a quick or lasting solution.
We nevertheless ask a great deal of UN peacekeepers. The theory and practice of UN peacekeeping has evolved enormously since the end of the Cold War. Blue-helmeted monitoring of a static ceasefire line is largely a thing of the past. UN peacekeepers now find themselves regularly charged with the responsibility of protecting themselves and innocent civilians in their areas of operations. There are often calls for them to be more aggressive against ill-pacified rebels and irregular units, and unfortunately UN peacekeepers are increasingly the target of hostile fire. It is a constant challenge for UN peacekeeping forces to maintain their neutrality and to avoid involvement in the local politics where they are deployed, but at the same time to stand ready to protect themselves and, where so mandated, to protect civilians.
Any comprehensive discussion of UN peacekeeping must acknowledge that peacekeeper behavior has occasionally come up short. In particular, cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by individuals serving in several missions have damaged lives, threatened security and tarnished the reputation of UN peacekeeping. In response, the previous Secretary General proposed and began to implement sweeping changes to prevent such misconduct and enforce UN standards of conduct. He had, as does his successor, the full support of the U.S. government in those efforts.
My organization, the U.S. Department of State, takes its responsibilities within the U.S. government, with respect to UN peacekeeping and to the Congress and to the taxpayers, very seriously. We keep UN peacekeeping operations under constant review. We resist calls to saddle UN peacekeeping with more than it can reasonably do because we want UN peacekeeping to succeed, not to fail.
In the U.S. interagency process, we examine the Secretary General’s reports very seriously, taking them for what they are – recommendations to Members States. The final word rests with the Security Council, and in many cases we work with our colleagues on the Council to pass resolutions that differ from the Secretary General’s recommendations. We also report to and consult with interested U.S. Congressional committees, both formally and informally, on a regular basis on significant developments related to UN peacekeeping.
Once begun, UN peacekeeping missions, like many humanitarian missions, are difficult to close. Local populations quickly grow used to the stabilizing presence of UN peacekeepers. Present as they are in some of the least developed places on earth, the local spending of UN missions and UN peacekeepers is also often a factor in the local desire to see them stay. We will continue to work to ensure that the UN has exit strategies for its peacekeeping missions and that UN peacekeeping operations draw down as the mission mandates are fulfilled. We pay such close attention to the details of each UN peacekeeping operation because we want to see PKO resources deployed in the wisest possible manner.
In conclusion, let me refer to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s comments made during the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, May 29 2005. In his message, the Secretary General said, “UN peacekeepers work every day to give practical meaning to the words of the United Nations Charter ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’.”
That is what all of you will be doing this week, working to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. You have the full support of my government.
Thank you.
