Off the wire
• Portuguese criminal police seize 850 kg of hashish  • Roundup: U.S. stocks end higher as investors digest Fed's Chair's comments  • Canadian government websites hacked due to controversial anti-terror bill  • Roundup: Canadian stock market edges down after U.S. Fed's announcement  • Ireland pledges assistance to citizens affected by Berkeley balcony collapse  • "The world isn't flat anymore; the world now is fast": Thomas Friedman  • UN agency airlifts lifesaving survival kits to displaced people in South Sudan  • Conference on cybercrime starts in Strasbourg  • 1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls on Fed forecast  • Portuguese author wins Camoes prize for literature  
You are here: 　 Home

UN peacekeeping commanders tell of challenges in hostile, uncooperative environments

Xinhua, June 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Commanders from three UN peacekeeping missions on Wednesday told the UN Security Council about the challenges of operating in environments from Mali, South Sudan to the Middle East and beyond, where local forces violated the laws of war, and attacked civilians and peacekeepers.

Lieutenant General Yohannes Gebremeskel Tesfamariam Force Commander of United Nations Mission in South Sudan said at an open meeting of the 15-nation Security Council that government, opposition and allied forces in South Sudan "pay little heed to the laws of war," directly target civilians and obstruct peacekeepers efforts.

Tesfamariam said that these actions showed that that the authorities were not meeting their primary responsibility of protecting civilians. "Such actions negate the principle that the authorities, and not we as the peacekeepers, have the primary responsibility of protecting civilians," he said.

Tesfamariam expressed concerns that over 130,000 internally displaced South Sudanese currently in UN Protection of Civilian sites are increasingly dependent on the sites, not only for protection, but also for service delivery.

"Without a viable peace throughout the country we must genuinely assess how long the mission would be required to provide protection to those currently inhabiting the Protection sites," he said.

Aside from the significantly deteriorating humanitarian situation in South Sudan, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is another significantly challenging environment for UN peacekeepers.

Major General Michael Lollesgaard, the force commander of MINUSMA, told the Security Council that his troops functioned in an openly hostile environment and were extremely vulnerable. MINUSMA is by far the UN's deadliest mission, with 36 soldiers killed and more than 200 wounded since 2013, Lollesgaard said.

Jihadists and other hostile groups attack "our forces with Improvised Explosive Devices, suicide attacks, laying of mines along our routes, ambushes and shelling our camps with rockets and mortars," he said.

Lollesgaard, who took up his post in March 2015, also made several recommendations. He emphasized the importance of peacekeepers understanding their environment, including intelligence gathering. He also said it was important for peacekeepers to provide information to local populations to help reassure and convince them of the peacekeeping forces' purpose.

"Commanders and soldiers on the ground should talk and interact more closely with the population telling them what we are doing, why we are here, what is going on," he said.

Lollesgaard also said that ensuring all troops had specific basic skills before deployment would help save lives, and that MINUSMA vehicles, including supply vehicles, must be protected from IEDs and mines.

The force commanders of all 16 current UN field missions are at UN Headquarters in New York to brief the Security Council on June 15-18. Endite