There are currently more than 82,000 troops deployed on UN peacekeeping missions around the world. States receive US$1,332 per person deployed per month. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Nigeria are four of the top seven troop-contributing countries in the world. However, some of the countries supplying the largest contingents of troops to UN missions are renowned for poor human rights records, and their armed forces have been involved in years of domestic counter-insurgency efforts.
“If UN troops have a track record of aggressive counter-insurgency tactics at home, they may be liable to turn a blind eye - or even assist - equally tough tactics against rebel groups and militias while on peacekeeping duty,” explained Richard Gowan, associate director at New York University’s Centre on International Cooperation. “The fact that UN personnel have troubling records of brutal counter-insurgency at home is especially worrying because in many countries, such as Mali and the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], UN peace operations are blurring into counter-insurgency missions themselves,” he said.
Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has received extensive criticism - including for “torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests, and approximately 800 killings over the last 10 years. RAB officers are among those recruited into UN peacekeeping missions.
In 2004 Royal Nepal Army tortured and killed at a facility used to train peacekeeping troops. That year, the eighth of a civil war between Maoist rebels and the royal government, more than 3,000 Nepalis were serving on UN peacekeeping missions.
“The UN has lost credibility as its core values have been marginalized… With no systematic vetting of peacekeeping troops by either the government or the UN, even high-profile alleged abusers have been deployed in lucrative posts in UN missions,” the International Crisis Group has stated.
Suhas Chakma, director of the Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) and author of the peacekeeper vetting report on India, decried the peacekeeper selection process, explaining that troops involved in India’s various counter-insurgency operations - from Jammu and Kashmir to the Naxalite Maoist insurgency that has plagued parts of the country since the late 1960s - are often popular candidates. “When you have to prove yourself in one of the country’s ‘extremely difficult areas’ in order to get picked for a peacekeeping mission, then it’s a selection process that favours those who have already been deployed in situations rife with human rights abuses,” Chakma said.
In 2013 the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions noted: “the level of extrajudicial executions in India still raises serious concern. This includes deaths resulting from excessive use of force by security officers.”
“Vetting for deployment with the UN peacekeeping missions would imply tackling the use of human rights violations in domestic counter-insurgency operations,” ACHR argued. “This is something India appears reluctant to do.”
Nigerian army, too, has been criticised for excessive force upon civilians in the counter terrorist war against Boko Haram.
“If a blue helmet deployment is seen as a ‘reward’ for troops who have undertaken high-intensity counter-insurgency operations… those personnel are naturally not going to put their lives on the line in the service of the UN,” Gowan explained, gesturing at a 2014 report by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services which found that peacekeeping troops often failed to use force to protect civilians. “There's a risk that peacekeeping turns into a sort of military vacation scheme.”
See here for report on Bangladesh army
“If UN troops have a track record of aggressive counter-insurgency tactics at home, they may be liable to turn a blind eye - or even assist - equally tough tactics against rebel groups and militias while on peacekeeping duty,” explained Richard Gowan, associate director at New York University’s Centre on International Cooperation. “The fact that UN personnel have troubling records of brutal counter-insurgency at home is especially worrying because in many countries, such as Mali and the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], UN peace operations are blurring into counter-insurgency missions themselves,” he said.
Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has received extensive criticism - including for “torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests, and approximately 800 killings over the last 10 years. RAB officers are among those recruited into UN peacekeeping missions.
In 2004 Royal Nepal Army tortured and killed at a facility used to train peacekeeping troops. That year, the eighth of a civil war between Maoist rebels and the royal government, more than 3,000 Nepalis were serving on UN peacekeeping missions.
“The UN has lost credibility as its core values have been marginalized… With no systematic vetting of peacekeeping troops by either the government or the UN, even high-profile alleged abusers have been deployed in lucrative posts in UN missions,” the International Crisis Group has stated.
Suhas Chakma, director of the Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) and author of the peacekeeper vetting report on India, decried the peacekeeper selection process, explaining that troops involved in India’s various counter-insurgency operations - from Jammu and Kashmir to the Naxalite Maoist insurgency that has plagued parts of the country since the late 1960s - are often popular candidates. “When you have to prove yourself in one of the country’s ‘extremely difficult areas’ in order to get picked for a peacekeeping mission, then it’s a selection process that favours those who have already been deployed in situations rife with human rights abuses,” Chakma said.
In 2013 the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions noted: “the level of extrajudicial executions in India still raises serious concern. This includes deaths resulting from excessive use of force by security officers.”
“Vetting for deployment with the UN peacekeeping missions would imply tackling the use of human rights violations in domestic counter-insurgency operations,” ACHR argued. “This is something India appears reluctant to do.”
Nigerian army, too, has been criticised for excessive force upon civilians in the counter terrorist war against Boko Haram.
“If a blue helmet deployment is seen as a ‘reward’ for troops who have undertaken high-intensity counter-insurgency operations… those personnel are naturally not going to put their lives on the line in the service of the UN,” Gowan explained, gesturing at a 2014 report by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services which found that peacekeeping troops often failed to use force to protect civilians. “There's a risk that peacekeeping turns into a sort of military vacation scheme.”
See here for report on Bangladesh army
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