Thursday, April 11, 2013

The New Mercenaries - Out-sourcing War

Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, in order, are the top three countries supplying troops to the 93,368-strong United Nations peacekeeping force. Soldiers from these countries, together with Nepal, make up one-third of the total force. The other main contributors to the force are countries in Africa.
$7 billion annual bill for the United Nations peacekeeping forces are overwhelmingly paid by the United States, Japan and Britain. Countries are reimbursed for each soldier they provide at the rate of $1,028 per soldier per month. In addition, countries get payments for the equipment they send.

“The fact of the matter is, if you send forces for U.N. peacekeeping, you get a lot of revenues,” said Satish Mishra, a senior fellow specializing in politics and governance at the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai.
The Indian government, meanwhile, receives payments from the United Nations in United States dollars, but pays soldiers in rupees, which helps increase foreign currency inflows

Western nations are more wary of sending their troops to conflict-stricken areas that they don’t view as a crucial part of their foreign policy, while developing countries appear to be more willing to bear the human loss of life in these areas, other analysts said.
“There is a lesser emphasis in developing countries on the human cost of sending peacekeeping forces,” said Mr. Mishra. “But whenever developed countries such as the United States have sent troops to foreign countries, the deaths of soldiers have led to a lot of popular resentment against the government.”

Five Indian soldiers were recently killed in South Sudan.

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