Peacewatch.

The year 1998 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations peacekeeping operation - the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), which came into being in 1948. The UN Chronicle asked one of the most distinguished and career-varied of international peacekeepers, Brigadier-General Klaas C. Roos, to contribute this assessment.

It is 53 years after the horrors of the Second World War and also 53 years after the world has been blessed with the decision of 51 peace-loving nations to establish a world body "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind ...". Thus on 24 October 1945 the United Nations was founded, an international organization with an explicit interest in peace, as the founding fathers clearly have stated in the preamble of the Charter of the United Nations, where they determined: "... to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest ...".

The Charter leaves open the possibility to use armed force, in article 42 of its chapter VII, a provision which has become known as the peace enforcement provision.

However, one would look in vain for a similar provision dealing with the concept of peacekeeping. There is no such an article to be found in the Charter, despite the fact that peacekeeping has almost become a trademark for the UN's efforts to maintain peace and security.

This year will mark 50 years since the first deployment UN peacekeepers, a landmark which unfortunately indicates that only three years after founding the United Nations, already the ideals of a lasting peace in the world had to be corrected.

On the other hand, however, with the deployment in 1948 of the first military observers of UNTSO in support of Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden, the Security Council's Mediator, the United Nations showed to the world that it took its 1945 ideals on world peace seriously.

More than 30 missions, ranging from full-fledged military forces to military and civilian observer missions, as well as combinations of those, were deployed in various trouble spots practically all over the world ever since that first, still ongoing mission in the Middle East.

It has to be observed that the word "peacekeeping" for these Security Council activities is not as old as these activities in support for peace are. The concept slowly developed with the UN practice over the years.

As mentioned, the UN Charter only provides for peace enforcement action in Chapter VII, whereas Chapter VI deals with "pacific settlement of disputes" through, among other things, "negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or to other peaceful means ..." (Article 33). The former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold once mentioned peacekeeping as the "chapter six and a half" of the Charter.

Though over the years quite a few definitions have been developed, the United Nations has never formulated an exact definition for peacekeeping. But instead a few "peacekeeping principles" have been developed like the principle of consent of the parties, the non-use of force, except in strict self defence, and the neutral position of the peacekeeping force to all factions or parties.

The domain of peacekeeping used to be almost entirely owned by the military. But over the years a civilian input slowly arose. Looking at today's composition of peacekeeping operations, one can notice a relatively diminishing military component and growing civilian components. Among the various civilian components these days, civilian police (CIVPOL) and electoral experts form an integral part of the whole mission.

After a modest civilian police input in the missions in the sixties - the UN Operation in the Congo (ONUC) and the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) - the very first mission with a substantial CIVPOL component was the United Nations Transition Assistance Group in Namibia (UNTAG) in 1989. With an initial deployment of 500 civilian police officers, the CIVPOL component was increased to 1,500 prior to the elections. I had the privilege to serve in that mission as the Chief Operations in the CIVPOL Headquarters.

For more than one reason, this CIVPOL mission can be characterized as a pioneer mission. First of all, there was no professional backup in the Secretariat like the military had with their Military Adviser and his small staff. Secondly, I think it is safe to say that we all had to learn to cooperate in a really international police force consisting of national police contingents of initially 15 and later 25 nations with rather different backgrounds. Probably most significant was the mandate for the civilian police. We were tasked to monitor the local police forces rather than actively engage in executive police work as we were all used to in our national environment.

For the military, these "strange" uniformed colleagues caused confusion, since despite the uniform these "police monitors" did not seem to exercise the traditional military customs and discipline. They apparently were not used to work in formed units like companies and battalions.

Indeed the average CIVPOL monitor was, like most policemen and policewomen in the world are, much more individually oriented than his military colleagues. The police monitor would not only monitor the local police, but he would also focus his attention on individual citizens in the mission area to see if they were treated well and that their human rights were not abused by local authorities. Where the average military would perform mainly on the outskirts of society, focusing on his military counterpart, the police monitor almost by definition performs his task in the midst of society.

Valuable lessons were to be learned from this first CIVPOL mission in Namibia, lessons that could be put into practice only a few years later in war-torn former Yugoslavia and in Cambodia. The mission in Cambodia especially deserves some extra attention here, because UNTAG is a good example of the increasing importance of civilian input in peacekeeping missions. With 6 out of the 7 components being purely civilian, UNTAC also became one of the most complex missions ever for the United Nations.

The deployment of UNTAC started in the spring of 1992. Again, I had the honour to participate, this time appointed by the Secretary-General as the Police Commissioner for the UNTAC CIVPOL.

Personally, I could make good use of the lessons from Namibia, but unfortunately the Secretariat still lacked a police planning cell in New York. The rather complex military mission seemed to be well prepared as I noticed during one of my visits in New York, but hardly anybody was able to give me the necessary technical and tactical information needed to set up 3,600 police monitors coming from 32 different contributing States. Moreover, most police forces are not used to a large planning staff like the military. Despite these major disadvantages, with a small group of dedicated police colleagues who had all served with me in Namibia, we managed to set up the operation. Eventually, the UN civilian police in Cambodia would be deployed in over 200 CIVPOL stations throughout the country.

The fact that the UN civilian police traditionally serves unarmed caused problems in Cambodia because we were supposed to protect the UN civilians, including UN Volunteers, from the electoral component in all those places where the military would not be deployed. Providing security and protection against non-compliant gangs of Khmer Rouge and bandit groups was of course a mission impossible for the unarmed CIVPOL.

Unfortunately, every incident involving a UN civilian was often blamed on CIVPOL. Lack of discipline and even sometimes cowardice were mentioned after an incident.

It was utterly unfair to accuse the police officers of cowardice since many of them risked their own life to help their civilian colleagues, and many of them were literally shot out of their stations and houses, and also CIVPOL colleagues payed the highest price in the service of peace. Opinions on CIVPOL became really mean in those cases where different financial arrangements caused jealousy.

Of course, I did have the typical commander's problems in relation to discipline of some of my policemen. Good communication with the commanders of the national contingents helped in most cases to restore a good discipline, but in some cases repatriation was the only remedy.

A really disturbing aspect was the sometimes heard opinion connecting bad performance and ill discipline with certain nationalities. This has always been intolerable to me because, especially in the United Nations, such distinctions should not be made. Once the Secretary-General formally requests a Government to participate in a mission, its contingent is considered suitable in the opinion of the United Nations and criticism on these contingents is in fact criticism on the Secretary-General.

Professional performance and good discipline are nevertheless of the utmost importance. In the new approach in peacekeeping where rebuilding and reconstruction of a society is a main mandate, civilian police especially plays an important role because law enforcement is almost a prerequisite for a successful reconstruction of any society.

It is, therefore, not only important that CIVPOL missions are lead by responsible leaders, but also that Member States contributing to a civilian police component are aware of their responsibility in the preparations starting with a good selection system, followed by a thorough training period in which disciplinary aspects and international cooperation form an integral part.

A lot has changed since the pioneer days in Namibia. Today, new CIVPOL missions are prepared by the CIVPOL Unit under the excellent leadership of my good friend, Commissioner Rathor of India. But even a fully operational CIVPOL Unit does not discharge police chiefs in the field nor national authorities from their constant efforts to guarantee a good discipline among CIVPOL monitors, so that admiration of UN police officers will replace the criticism that sometimes was heard in the past.

May 1998 marks the beginning of an era in which peacekeeping win be a successful instrument to bring peace to those countries that have equal rights to peace as those countries that are already enjoying a peaceful situation for more than a generation.

If we want to be serious about our efforts to contribute in our own modest way to a little extra peace in the world and to a little less grief and sorrow for so many people, we better concentrate on good cooperation between all those peacekeepers in all these various missions, rather than criticize each other.

Brigadier-General Klaas C. Roos was appointed Force Provost Marshal of the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai, Egypt, in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1985.

In 1989, he became the Chief Operations Officer of the civilian police component of UNTAG and was promoted Colonel. Upon return to the Netherlands in 1990, he was appointed Senior Operations Officer of the Defence Staff in the Hague, in charge of international peace and humanitarian operations.

In 1992, he was appointed UN CIVPOL Commissioner for Cambodia as Brigadier-General. In 1993, after completion of his United Nations service in Cambodia, Brigadier-General Roos was appointed Deputy Commandant of the Royal Marechaussee in the Netherlands.