1988 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to UN peace-keeping forces; the quest for peace ... a universal undertaking.

Now 10,000 strong, the United Nations peace-keepers-soldiers from countries around the world who monitor regional trouble spots-have been awarded the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize.

Blue-helmeted troops gathered around their radios to hear the news at outposts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, on the island of Cyprus, in southern Lebanon, Sinai, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and along the India-Pakistan border.

The Nobel Committee on 29 September revealed their choice in Oslo, Norway. Thus it recognized that"the quest for peace is a universal undertaking involving all the nations and peoples of the world", as UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar told an enthusiastic General Assembly that same day.

The recent achievements of the UN have been neither sudden nor fortuitous; rather, they are the result of the persistent and dedicated work done throughout the many years of the Organization's peace-keeping activities", he said.

"The Prize is a tribute to the idealism of all those who have served the Organization, and in particular to the courage and sacrifices of all those who have contributed, and continue to contribute, to the peace-keeping operations."

General Assembly President Dante Caputo called it a tribute as well to the Secretary-General, whose intelligent and dedicated efforts have without any doubt been a vital, indeed crucial, element in the creation of this new international context which is clear to all of us".

Half a million

"Blue Helmets"

Some 500,000 persons-mostly military personnel, but also many civilians-from 58 countries throughout the world have served as UN peace-keepers since the first operation was launched in the Middle East in 1948. Currently there are just over 10,000 from 35 countries involved in seven peacekeeping operations-two of them launched since May 1988, one to help implement the Geneva Accords on Afghanistan, the other to monitor the end to hostilities in the Gulf region.

Diplomatic efforts still in progress may soon result in the dispatch of another 7,500 to monitor implementation of a settlement for the independence of Namibia, and a smaller force to Western Sahara, for which the UN recently successfully crafted a peace agreement.

The Nobel Committee said the 1988 Prize was made because the peace-keepers "represent the manifest will of the community of nations to achieve peace through negotiations, and the forces have by their presence made a decisive contribution towards the initiation of actual peace negotiations".

This is the eighth time that the work of the UN has been recognized by the prestigious Nobel Committee. Lord Boyd Orr, first Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, received it in 1949. Ralph J. Bunche, working as the UN Secretary-General's Acting Mediator, was awarded it in 1950 for the crucial role he played in achieving the 1949 armistice between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold received it posthumously in 1961. The Genevabased UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) received it twice-in 1954 and again in 1981-for its humanitarian work worldwide. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was the recipient in 1965. The International Labour Organisation received it in 1969.

Upsurge in prestige

The award coincides with an upsurge in the Organization's prestige throughout the world in the wake of diplomatic breakthroughs concerning Afghanistan, the IranIraq conflict, southern Africa and Western Sahara.

Under-Secretary-General Marrack Goulding, the former British diplomat now in charge of all UN peace-keeping operations, calls it "beautifully timed", coinciding with "a great upsurge of interest in the United Nations". He paid tribute to his predecessor and countryman, Brian Urquhart, a UN international civil servant for more than 40 years until his retirement. Mr. Urquhart, he said, had played "a giant's role" in the development of peace-keeping for almost 40 years, until he retired in 1986.

Both men will accompany Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar to Oslo to pick up the Prize on 10 December-the anniversary of Swedish philanthropist Alfred Nobel's death in 1896. They will return to UN Headquarters in New York with a diploma, a gold medal and 2.5 million Swedish kronor-about $388,000.

Hats off around

the world

The news made the front pages of major newspapers around the world.

The Boston-based Christian Science Monitor said the award was "a sound choice" that honoured, in large measure, Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar.

In Paris, Le Monde said the Prize was "resounding recognition" of the usefulness of the UN. The Globe and Mail of Canada said that Canada's frequent contributions to UN peace-keeping had become the proudest post-war tradition for the Canadian military.

The courage not to use force

Soldiers from 35 countries are serving in the seven peace-keeping operations now in place. They wear UN blue helmets, blue berets or blue aviator caps with the military uniform of their own nations.

The commanding officers are appointed by the Secretary-General and take orders from him. About 2,000 civilians perform support services for the operations.

Lt.-Gen Gustav Hagglund, who until June 1988 was Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)-perhaps the most embattled of any current UN operation-recently said a UN "peace soldier" must be above all "calm, patient, loyal and courageous". Ironically they must have the courage not to use force in the face of a potential threat.

Those who serve as military observers carry no weapons, armed only with binoculars or telescopes and notebooks. Because they are considered impartial witnesses and respected by all sides, their reports help prevent misunderstandings between opposing sides and reduce the risk of renewed conflict, Lt.Gen. Hiigglund said.

Others-members of UN peacekeeping contingents along cease-fire lines between armed hostile forces-carry only light firearms, which they are instructed to use as a last resort in self-defence.

They risk their lives in the cause of peace. A total of 733 peacekeepers have died while serving the UN, and one, Lieutenant-Colonel William Higgins of the United States, is being held hostage after being abducted in southern Lebanon.

In southern Lebanon, young UN soldiers at more than 100 checkpoints stop vehicles day and night, probing under hoods and in trunks for illegal arms and explosives, wielding mirrors on long metal poles to continue their dangerous searches under the cars or trucks.

In the Golan Heights, in the shadow of Mt. Hermon where ferocious fighting occurred regularly until a UN presence was installed, the peace-keepers take minesweepers in hand, walking the former battlefields in search of the remnants of those battles.

Outside the Cypriot capital of Nicosia, where UN troops have been stationed continuously for more than 24 years, farmers with beards and rough hands till small gardens in the "buffer zone" between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, patrolled by UN soldiers with rifles in hand.

What price-tag?

Since the first group of observers was hastily dispatched to the Middle East in 1948 to separate Arabs and Israelis at war, there have been a total of 15 UN peacekeeping operations, The yearly price tag for the UN now runs $230 million, equivalent to more than a fourth of its annual budget.

And the UN peace-keeping function could expand dramatically in the near future, with operations possible soon in Namibia and Western Sahara. A resolution of the situation in Kampuchea could also involve a UN presence.

Even with the proposed Namibia operation estimated to cost possibly as much as $600 million, UnderSecretary-General Goulding feels it would be "not such a bad deal", as it would still be less than the annual budget of the New York City Fire Department.

Peace-keeping operations, particularly the ones in Lebanon and Cyprus, seem to be perennially in the red, Mr Goulding said. He hopes the Nobel Prize will encourage some countries to pay their back assessments.

"The essential point is that these operations, which are set up by the international community, should be internationally financed", UnderSecretary-General Goulding states. "Their cost should not fall on the taxpayers of the Member States who so generously contribute troops to them."