UN operations: not only expanding, but breaking new ground.

United Nations peace-keeping activities have increased and broadened dramatically in recent years, as the Organization responds to new challenges and takes on new tasks. In the span of only five years, the UN has launched more operations than in the previous 40 years. The growth is not only in quantity, but also in nature.

Peace-keeping operations are assuming a new face, often going far beyond traditional activities. They may protect relief shipments, provide services for victims, respond to refugee needs, enforce embargoes, remove mines and seek to disarm warring parties.

In addition to their military and peace aspects, many UN operations now have a large civilian dimension: election monitoring, human rights verification, humanitarian relief, administrative management, institution-building, and the restoration of infrastructure and services.

The job of the UN today, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated recently, is not only to maintain peace, but to create an environment in which peace can be sustained. "Today's operations go far beyond peace-keeping," he said. "They have entered the area of peace-building."

From 1948 through mid-1993, more than 600,000 soldiers and civilians have served under the UN flag in 28 peace-keeping operations. Close to 1,000 peace-keepers have died while monitoring cease-fires, patrolling demilitarized areas, manning buffer zones and defusing conflicts. Now, more than 80,000 UN personnel - military, police and civilian - are deployed in 14 ongoing operations; and an anticipated expansion of several operations could require an additional 40,000 or more personnel.

Peace-keeping was pioneered and developed by the UN as a means of maintaining international peace and security. interposed between hostile States or sometimes between hostile communities within a State, international military personnel under UN command have saved countless lives and contributed to creating the conditions necessary for the peaceful settlement of disputes through negotiations.

The effectiveness of these operations derives from a combination of factors, foremost among them the presence of UN peace-keepers as a physical expression of the moral authority of the Organization and the concern of the international community.

In traditional peace-keeping operations, UN troops have carried light arms and used minimum force only in self-defence, or if armed persons tried to stop them from carrying out the orders of their commanders. UN observers normally carry no arms. When acting under peace enforcement measures, however, UN troops may be authorized to use force in carrying out their responsibilities.

An evolving technique

Peace-keeping operations have been used most commonly to supervise and help maintain cease-fires, assist in troop withdrawals and provide a buffer between opposing forces. However, such operations have become flexible instruments of policy and have been adapted to a variety of uses.

Of the established operations which were set up before 1988 - during the cold-war era - all, with the exception of that in West Irian, were what are now described as "traditional" peace-keeping operations. They were largely military in composition and in function, entrusted to maintain calm on the front line, while giving the peacemakers time to negotiate a settlement.

Over the past few years, a new political climate has emerged, contributing to an increase in demand for UN peace-keeping. Of the 15 operations set up since 1988, only 5 have been of the "traditional" military type.

The character of peace-keeping operations is also changing in response to new facts of international life in the post-cold-war era; one example: the difficulties some regimes face in dealing with the withdrawal of super-Power support, weak institutions, collapsing economies, natural disasters and ethnic strife. As new conflicts take place within nations rather than between them, the UN must deal with civil wars, secessions, partitions, ethnic clashes and tribal struggles.

Rescuing "failed States", according to Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali, may become an inherent part of second-generation peacekeeping. Complicated military tasks must be complemented by measures to strengthen institutions, encourage political participation, protect human rights, organize elections and promote economic and social development.

The reality of such remarkable changes in UN peace-keeping is also revealed in numbers. In 1987, there were some 10,000 UN military personnel, and by mid-1993 almost 70,000. As for civilian police, 35 were deployed in 1987, as against more than 4,500 by June 1993. In 1987, there were approximately 900 civilians employed in peace-keeping operations; and five years later, the number had reached more than 10,000.

Breaking new ground

Under-Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Special Committee on Peace-keeping Operations on 19 April that these UN operations were not only expanding, but had broken new ground.

The first in the new generation had been the UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG), which supervised implementation of the UN plan for Namibia's independence. Although UNTAG's military tasks were similar to those of earlier peace-keeping operations, its civilian components were equally vital to the success of the mission. They supervised every aspect of the difficult political process which led to Namibia's elections in November 1989. Namibia acceded to independence on 21 March 1990 and was admitted to the UN on 23 April of the same year.

Another example of the new multidimensional peace-keeping operation is the UN Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL), which, since 1991, has been verifying the implementation of all negotiated agreements. These pacts involve not only a cease-fire and relate measures, but also reform and reduction of the armed forces, creation of a new police force, reform of the judicial and electoral systems, human rights, land tenure and other economic and social issues. ONUSAL will also verify the March 1994 elections in El Salvador.

The UN operation in Cambodia is one of the most ambitious and complex operations thus far in the Organization's history. The Peace Agreement signed by four Cambodian parties in October 1991 required the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) to supervise various parts of the existing administration, organize elections, monitor the police, promote human rights, repatriate 350,000 refugees and begin rehabilitation of the country, as well as to carry out a familiar range of traditional military functions.

When the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) was established in early 1992 in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, its mandate in Croatia was consistent with the traditional concept of interposition and was intended to maintain and promote peace, pending a final overall settlement. Later, however, the deteriorating situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina prompted the Security Council to expand the UNPROFOR mandate to include protection of humanitarian convoys and convoys of released civilian detainees. Also, in the first preventive operation in the history of UN peace-keeping, UNPROFOR was recently deployed in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The expanded UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM 11) is designed to restore order in the country through a massive military presence, humanitarian relief operations, reconciliation and political settlement, as well as the rehabilitation of political institutions and the economy. UNOSOM II is the first UN peace-keeping operation authorized by the Council, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, to use force in the crucial task of disarming Somali factions. In fact, with this enforcement mandate, UNOSOM II may well represent the emergence of a third generation of peace-keeping operations, it has been said.

The UN Charter and

collective security

The UN Charter describes a primary purpose of the UN: "To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace."

Chapters VI and VII of the Charter spell out concrete measures which the Security Council - the principal organ vested with the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security - may take to achieve this purpose. The Council is mandated to call on the parties to settle their disputes by peaceful means, recommend appropriate procedures or methods of adjustment and, in addition, recommend actual terms of a settlement.

The action of the Council in this context is limited to making recommendations; essentially, the peaceful settlement of international disputes must be achieved by the parties themselves, acting on a voluntary basis to carry out the decisions of the Council in accordance with the Charter.

If the Council determines that a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression exists, it may use the broad powers and enforcement measures at its disposal under Chapter VII.

To prevent a situation from deteriorating, the Council may call upon the parties concerned to comply with such provisional measures as it considers necessary or desirable.

Next, it may decide, under Article 41, what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed by UN Members, including the complete or partial interruption of economic relations and means of communication and the severance of diplomatic relations.

Should the Council consider those measures inadequate, it may take, under Article 42, "such action by air, sea or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security". For this purpose, all Member States undertake to make available to the Council, on its call and in accordance with special agreements, the necessary armed forces, assistance and facilities. Plans for the application of armed force are to be made by the Council with the advice and assistance of its Military Staff Committee.

The measures outlined in Articles 41 and 42 constitute the core of the system of collective security envisaged by the Charter. A basic feature of this system is the determining role assigned to the five permanent members of the Security Council- China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These Powers can use their veto (negative vote) to block any substantive decision by the Council. Therefore, the UN collective security system, and especially its key provision concerning the use of armed force, can work only if there is full agreement and cooperation among the permanent members.

Peace-keeping as a concept is not specifically described in the UN Charter. it goes beyond purely diplomatic means for the peaceful settlement of disputes described in Chapter VI, but falls short of the military or other enforcement provisions of Chapter VII. As former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold stated, peace-keeping might be put in a new Chapter "Six and a half".

An Agenda for Peace

In June 1992, Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali presented to the Member States a special report entitled An Agenda for Peace, in which he analysed recent developments affecting international peace and security and introduced proposals for more effective UN operations in identifying potential conflicts, their short- and long-term resolution and post-conflict measures to build peace among former adversaries.

With regard to peace-keeping operations, the Secretary-General focused on meeting the growing need for personnel, logistical and financial support for UN operations, including holding in reserve basic peace-keeping equipment such as vehicles and communications gear, to facilitate quick deployment during a start-up phase. He also supported the idea of financing such missions out of States' defence, rather than foreign affairs, budgets.

"Peace-keeping is a technique", states the Secretary-General in his report, "that expands the possibilities for both the prevention of conflict and the making of peace".

Financing vital

Assured and adequate financing for peace-keeping operations is vital. Whenever a new operation is established, all personnel must be transported to the area of operation. Once in the field, they must be provided with shelter, food, medical care, transport, communications and equipment to carry out their functions.

The recent dramatic increase in demand for UN peace-keeping has resulted in a corresponding increase in expenditures. In the last two years, the annual UN peace-keeping budget has grown fivefold, from some $600 million in 1991 to $2.8 billion in 1992. The operations envisaged in 1993 could bring the figure to $4.3 billion. By mid-1993, overdue payments of Member States'obligatory contributions to peace-keeping operations amounted to some $1.4 billion.

Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Marrack Goulding told the Special Committee on Peace-keeping Operations on 5 April that although the UN lacked resources to cope with expanding "hot spots" around the globe, it could not shirk its responsibilities when called upon to render assistance.

The Committee at its annual session (19 April-19 May) called for strengthened financial arrangements for peace-keeping operations, stressing the need to ensure that appropriate accountability is maintained.

It suggested that a realistic mandate be formulated before the establishment of a peace-keeping operation, including clear objectives and a time-frame for the resolution of the problem.

In Somalia, a UN operation for the first time was given the authority, under Chapter VII of the Charter, to use force to implement Council decisions. Also for the first time, a peacekeeping operation had been deployed in a "preventive manner" in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The 34-member Committee also suggested that the Council continue to consider the preventive deployment of a UN presence or the establishment of demilitarized zones, with the objective of preventing conflict and promoting the peaceful settlement of disputes. It encouraged the involvement of Member States through regional organizations and arrangements in peace-keeping operations.

The Secretary-General was asked to take concrete steps to improve the physical security of all UN personnel deployed in the field, taking account of all material, organizational, operational and other aspects of safety.

The Committee stressed that the conclusion of a status-of-forces agreement between the UN and a host State was of the utmost importance when deploying peace-keeping operations and called on host States to give their fullest cooperation in that regard. It also emphasized the importance of the institution of appropriate rules of engagement for those operations with mandate or elements of their mandates under Chapter VII, on a case-by-case basis.