Page 161 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

capabilities. Financial constraints represent one of the most fundamental
causes limiting PKOs’ efficiency. As of 28 February, Member States owed more
than US$ 1.8 billion for peace-keeping operations. A second constraint is the
inability to deploy qualified personnel in a timely fashion. “Stand-by
Arrangements” are being created to help rectify the situation. The Secretariat
will enter Member States' offers to provide personnel, equipment or services
that could be deployed rapidly or utilized in a comprehensive database to
enable present and future PKOs to function more smoothly.

However, as Somalia made abundantly clear, ample financial resources and
personnel do not alone guarantee the success of a peace-keeping operation.
The United Nations and its Member States learned that without the political
will of the combatants, the international community cannot force some small
but influential groups of people to lay down their weapons and work towards
creating the conditions for peace and stability. The decision to withdraw its
peace-keeping forces in no way means that the UN has abandoned the people
of Somalia. UN staff attached to such bodies as the United Nations
Development Programme, the World Food Programme and the United
Nations Children's Fund, together with some 800 Somalis, continue to work in
various regions throughout the country. UNDP, for example, is funding multi-
million-dollar projects designed to develop rural communities, revitalize the
fisheries sector, reconstruct urban environments, retrain demobilized soldiers,
and is active in the health, education, water supply and agricultural sectors. The
UN will continue to monitor developments within Mogadishu closely and
looks forward to the time when conditions will exist to permit the UN to
return.

In evaluating the UNOSOM operation, let us remember that the famine
would have claimed thousands of additional lives had not UN peace-keepers
secured the delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance. Now, farmers
in some areas are producing surplus food nocks. In many parts of the country
(that receive less media coverage), local government institutions have been re-
established and people have been able to resume the normal course of their
lives. Education and health facilities have steadily improved.

What must not happen is for the international community to reach the
errant conclusion that peace-keeping does not work. Recent successes include
Cambodia, El Salvador, Mozambique and Namibia. Croatia's decision to
permit UN peace-keepers to remain deployed through its territory until a new
mandate is worked out is a welcome development that will forestall a likely
resumption of all-out warfare.

139