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STORY: UN / PEACEEKEPING
TRT: 2.31
SOURCE: UNIFEED - UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 9 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
9 OCTOBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Lieutenant General Maqsood Ahmed, Military Advisor for Peacekeeping Operations:
“We operate in an often very difficult environment. Mali is a case in point where we have suffered maximum casualties this year. Central African Republic, the three Sudans, Golan, and MONUSCO are some of the other challenging missions. The force commanders are operating in failing or failed states, where frankly there is no, or hardly a peace to keep. Ebola is yet another dimension of the complexity.”
5. Med shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations:
“Protecting civilians is now at the heart of many peacekeeping missions, but sadly, as the recent Office of Internal Oversight report said, there has been, and I quote, a persistent pattern of peacekeeping operations not intervening with force when civilians are under attack, unquote. This is unacceptable, because as General dos Santos Cruz spelled out, there is no risk free option, and civilians are best protected through prevention, mobility and active intervention, rather than simple presence.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“Right now in many mission areas a sense of impunity reigns. As these attacks in Mali attest, peacekeepers in 21st century missions face unprecedented risks. That is because we are asking them, you, to take on more responsibilities, in more places, and in more complex conflicts, than at any time in history.”
9. Med shot, force commanders
10. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Petr Ilyichev, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“It is unacceptable that there be any actions under the slogan of protecting civilians that in practice pursues selfish geopolitical aims including the removal of legitimate authorities in sovereign states. Actions to protect civilians should not go beyond the framework of UN Security Council mandates, which in turn must be clear and preclude dual interpretations and be fully complied with by those who are entrusted with implementation of the relevant tasks.”
11. Wide shot, Security Council
From Mali to the Golan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations peacekeeping missions are facing increasing challenges as they operate in some of the most difficult security environments around the world, senior UN military officials told the Security Council today (9 Oct) as they weighed field strategy for the world body’s Blue Helmets.
Lieutenant General Maqsood Ahmed, who is the Military Advisor for UN Peacekeeping Operations, told the Council that Blue Helmets operate in an “often very difficult environment” in “failing or failed states, where frankly there is no, or hardly a peace to keep.”
Ahmed said that Ebola “is yet another dimension of the complexity.”
The first-ever UN emergency health mission, the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) is being set up in response to the unprecedented outbreak.
The Mission will be temporary and will respond to immediate needs related to the fight against Ebola.
In his address to the Council, British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said “protecting civilians is now at the heart of many peacekeeping missions, but sadly, as the recent Office of Internal Oversight report said, there has been, and I quote, a persistent pattern of peacekeeping operations not intervening with force when civilians are under attack, unquote.”
Lyall Grant said this was “unacceptable” as “civilians are best protected through prevention, mobility and active intervention, rather than simple presence.”
US Ambassasdor Samantha Power told the Council that “right now in many mission areas a sense of impunity reigns.”
As these attacks in Mali attest, she said, “peacekeepers in 21st century missions face unprecedented risks. That is because we are asking them, you, to take on more responsibilities, in more places, and in more complex conflicts, than at any time in history.”
On 7 October, a number of unidentified assailants launched approximately six mortar rounds at the MINUSMA camp in Kidal, in the country’s northeast, resulting in the death of the Senegalese peacekeeper.
This latest attack came just four days after an ambush killed nine Nigerien MINUSMA peacekeepers in Mali’s Gao region, bringing the total number of fatalities suffered by the UN mission to 31 peacekeepers killed and 91 wounded since it first deployed on 1 July 2013.
For his part, Russian Ambassador Petr Ilyichev said it was “unacceptable that there be any actions under the slogan of protecting civilians that in practice pursues selfish geopolitical aims including the removal of legitimate authorities in sovereign states. Actions to protect civilians should not go beyond the framework of UN Security Council mandates, which in turn must be clear and preclude dual interpretations and be fully complied with by those who are entrusted with implementation of the relevant tasks.”
The Council also heard briefings from Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, the Force Commander of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and Lieutenant General Iqbal Singh Singha, Force Commander of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
Force Commanders are managing more than 90,000 soldiers in the world’s trouble-spots.
