Malik opposes regional arrangements in peace keeping

Malik opposes regional arrangements in peace keeping
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Sept 13: Army Chief Gen V P Malik today opposed "regional arrangements in peacekeeping" saying this would create a distinct handicap in conflict resolutions.

Asserting that India preferred peacekeeping operations to be under United Nations command and control, he said "while we agree with the concept of regional representation in peacekeeping, we prefer peacekeeping operations to be under firm UN control".

In an apparent reference to the recent demands by Nigeria and other states for control of the UN peacekeeping missions in trouble-torn Sierra Leone, Malik said such moves would tantamount to not using the complete moral authority and experience that the UN represented.

Calling for framing of a general consensus and support of a broad spectrum of international community before undertaking any international peacekeeping operations, Malik delivering a keynote address at a three-day seminar said nations "could not afford to be sucked into conflict resolution situation because of few influential members desired so".

Army Chief lamented that though the UN had a well laid out structure for command and control of peacekeeping operations, "unfortunately the structure has come under strain, blurring the chain of command due to undesirable pressure from different quarters".

Malik complained that proper "politico-military" analysis had been lacking while undertaking peacekeeping in Sierra Leone as well as in Somalia.

Organised by the prestigious United Services Institution of India (USI), the seminar, the first of its kind in India is being attended by prominent former peacekeeping force commanders like Lt Gen Satish Nambiar, Prakash Shah and Col Philip Campose, Commander UN Guards in Northern Iraq.

Asserting that peacekeeping operations had become multi-dimensional with political, humanitarian, social and economic components requiring civilian and NGOs working hand in hand with soldiers, Gen Malik said that with transnational terrorism and environment issues exacerbating new conflicts the big question before the UN today was whether it was ready to take on these challenges.

"Discernible changes", he said, were taking place within the character of peacekeeping with evidence of increasing use of force and elements of cohesion and intervention that sometime impinge on national sovereignty.

He said the experience of countless peacekeeping operations in Asia, Africa and Europe had brought out several lessons and UN force capabilities and to meet future challenges before the world body.

Some of the major suggestions made by the Army chief were undertaking careful politico-military analysis of a situation, efficient planning and proper management of peacekeeping operations.

He said there should be a right mix of military and civilian officials in UN operations and that troop contributing countries should be given proper representation as civilian observers.

Dwelling at length on India's contribution in fostering the cause of world peace and stability since New Delhi's first commitment in Korea in 1950, the Army chief asserted "patience is our national trait and yet when it has been necessary to use force, we have done it successfully as in Congo, Somalia and more recently during Operation Khukri in Sierra Leone.

In this context later interacting with reporters, the General opined that diplomacy should be "first made use of before using force".

In his address, the Army chief also called for immediate attention to stem the shortfall in training standards of troops saying "peacekeepers will always require longer period of orientation.

"Well trained personnel need also to be well equipped to perform efficiently. The new generation peacekeeping places much higher demands on logistics support than ever before".

He said that it was thus the responsibility of member states to ensure that their troops when deployed on UN missions are provided with necessary equipment and other logistics back up.

On budgeting aspect, he said reimbursements to the troops contributing countries need to be made in time and added that the world body owed about $40 million to India.