Global Policy Forum

By William M. Reilly

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special peacekeeping panel recommended Wednesday major modifications in how the world organization enforces peace between two belligerent factions in order to avoid failures such as in Rwanda and Bosnia. However, it stopped short of recommending a U.N. army. Chairman of the panel, Algeria's Lakhdar Brahimi, released the 58-page report after formally presenting a copy to Annan. "Considering the limitations under which it discharges its functions, I think the United Nations is doing a very good job," Brahimi told reporters. "But we are confident it can do better if the will is there and we feel our recommendations could be a first step, indeed an important one, in the right direction."

He said the panel listened to the concerns of member states, senior U.N. officials and all the field offices. The recommendations echoed those concerns, but they do not come without a price tag and Brahimi said those interviewed realized that. "Each of the recommendations contained in the present report is designed to remedy a serious problem in strategic direction, decision-making, rapid deployment, operations support and the use of modern information technology," the former foreign minister of Algeria said in the report.

The recommendations included reorganizing and adding to those involved in peacekeeping at U.N. headquarters, forming Brigade-size, about 5,000 strong, units that could deploy in 30 to 90 days, depending on the mission. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington "commends the panel's recommendations to strengthen the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and enhance the U.N.'s rapid deployment capability." He said DPKO was understaffed and "needs to be organized in ways that will speed processes and better serve missions in the field." Boucher said the United States would work with the United Nations to review the report and develop plans for its implementation. The Brahimi report said, "Without renewed commitment on the part of member states, significant institutional change and increased financial support, the United Nations will not be capable of executing the critical peacekeeping and peace-building tasks that the member states assign to it in coming months and years."

Said Brahimi, "I very, very much hope the member countries are going to put their money where their mouth has been if they really believe in this organization." He pointed out there were only 32 officers at headquarters responsible for 27,000 troops from 20 nations in 14 operations. There were only nine civilian police at headquarters for 8,600 deployed in the field. "This is clearly not acceptable," he said. "This has got to change." The recommendations are expected to be high on the agenda of the Millennium Summit meeting at headquarters Sept. 6-8. Annan called for the report after more than 500 peacekeepers were "detained" by rebels in Sierra Leone in May.

The report said the use of force only in self-defense "should remain the bedrock principles of peacekeeping," but said "peacekeepers may not only be operationally justified in using force but morally compelled to do so." It said, "No failure did more to damage the standing and credibility of United Nations peacekeeping in the 1990s than its reluctance to distinguish victim from aggressor."

It said if U.N. forces continue impartiality after one party to a peace accord "clearly and incontrovertibly is violating its terms, continued equal treatment of all parties by the United Nations can in the best case result in ineffectiveness and in the worst may amount to complicity with evil." He said Annan appointed Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette to lead the "next phase of the exercise which is to follow up on the reports recommendations and to oversee on the preparation of a detailed implementation plan." Brahimi told reporters that plan would be presented to the General Assembly and the Security Council.