17 May 2004	Monday	26 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

UNITED NATIONS: A US proposal to create a 75,000-strong standby peacekeeping force composed primarily of foreign troops is receiving mixed reviews from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and peace activists.

Don Kraus, co-chair of Partnership for Effective Peace Operations, told IPS the ultimate goal of the proposed Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) is to build a well-trained, well-equipped force of non-US troops over the next five years.

"The United Nations is very excited about it," he said, since the world body could draw troops from the GPOI for its own peacekeeping operations, which is constantly short of manpower.

But, "if the global community is serious about peace," says Joan Russow of the Global Compliance Research Project, "the emphasis must be on the deligitimization of war, prevention of conflict and respect for the rule of international law" - not the creation of new peacekeeping forces.

"There should be an end to the continued disproportionate use of funds on the arms trade and the subsequent attempt to rationalize failure with 'peacekeeping', a moving away from the cycle of error - the perpetuation of error - with vain attempts to rectify the error," Russow told IPS.

Sceptical of the US plan for the new force, she suspects Washington might have ulterior motives. Russow suspects the US project is perhaps to train and equip peacekeepers from Africa and other developing nations as "a standby brigade to clean-up after US 'humanitarian interventions' or preventive/pre-emptive aggressive strikes" - as in Iraq and Haiti.

"The United States is moving from covert operations - such as 'Operation Zapata' against Cuba and 'Operation Condor' against Chile - to overt operations such as 'Operation Enduring Freedom' against Afghanistan and 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' against Iraq," she said.

The GPOI, to be codenamed 'Operation Equal Demise', fits into a new category of overt/covert transparent operations, added Russow. Kraus said that one of the major problems facing UN peacekeeping missions is capacity-building.

Now, deploying forces for those missions can take between 30 and 90 days, whereas ideally a fully-geared military contingent should be ready for action in 15 to 30 days. The proposed GPOI might provide an answer, he suggested.

Over the next five years, the United States, along with other western nations, is expected to train, equip and provide logistical support to international military forces willing to participate in peacekeeping operations, said Kraus, who is also executive director of the Campaign for UN Reform.

About 65-75 per cent of the US-sponsored initiative is expected to be funded by the group of seven (G7) industrial nations: United States, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and Japan. "That's where the money is," Kraus said.

Washington has already pledged about 660 million dollars, he added. At its peak, Kraus said, the initiative will help to double the number of troops readily available for peacekeeping operations. It will be directed specifically at Africa and will also help expand peacekeeping skills of the continent's military forces.

"I suppose 660 million dollars is cheap in the grand scheme of things, although I am not particularly optimistic about either the professionalism or usability of the force we'd train with the funds," said an editorial in the April issue of the online publication 'Outside the Beltway'.

"And they would still require augmentation from a professional military for all but the lightest missions, since I can't imagine that we're going to equip this force with anything above small arms."

Reverend Gabriel Odima of the African Centre for Peace and Democracy says, "The United States and the European Union (EU) should work with the few democratically elected governments in Africa to support peacekeeping in the region."

The forces against the development and sustenance of peace and security in Africa are "strong and powerful", and a political map of the continent would show a number of states ruled by the gun, not by the ballot, he added.

"Additionally, the United Nations has a moral responsibility to help the African people find peace and stop the bloodshed in countries like Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, Somalia and the Central African Republic," Odima told IPS.

The world body is gearing up for an "unprecedented" increase in its peacekeeping operations worldwide. But most of the troops will continue to come from developing nations like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, Ghana and Nepal, with relatively few from the United States and the European Union (EU). -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.