Saw a head line on the news "UN Chief fires his top peacekeeping commander." (http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/01/u-n-chief-fires-his-top-peacekeeping-commander-in-south-sudan/ ) Now this happened after the UN chief Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon came across internal documents that put the blame on the UN peace keeping brass for failing to come to the aid of thousands of civilians in South Sudan. The Peacekeeping mission in South Sudan has been a failure in more ways than one. The UN peace keeping force was caught unprepared as South Sudan gov't troops and rebels resumed fighting. Instead of doing what a military force represents, the Peace keeping force fled and hunkered down in their bunker abandoning thousands of civilians and aid workers to fend for themselves.
The UN Peace keeping force was created during the years of the Cold War this was when the permanent members of the UN Council (U.S.A, Russia, China, Great Britain, and France) decided that the U.N should have a force that it can deploy to stop conflicts that threaten to destabilize a region. No doubt an utopian type idea; the same type of idea when some genius in Washington D.C decided to use the U.S Marines as a peace keeping force. Well anyone who is aware of this saw the how it failed. The reputation of the US Marine Corps and show of force means nothing if the military force does not act like a military force. The U.S Marines failed because the politicians on Capitol Hill and the White House tied the Marines hands behind their back. Thinking they could be a referee to controlling a conflict. As far as the U.N Peace keeping forces is concerned they are not taking seriously by government troops of any country, rebels or mercenaries because they fail to act like a military force.
It is funny how the permanent members with the exception of China are reluctant to contribute any troops to Peace keeping missions. It is well known that the individual troops that are on the U.N Peace keeping force are usually the worst troops among the contributing country's military force. I guess it is a way that the military of the contributing country can get rid of the undisciplined, troublesome, and dumb troops out of the ranks without having to spend time and effort placing them under corrective measures. Well it has been proven to be the case in the South Sudan mission. The troops that were provided for the mission were from China, Ethiopia, India and Nepal. The force commander was Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki from Kenya. Under his watch two Chinese Peace keepers were killed and others injured. UN aid workers were terrorized and raped. There are separate allegations that the Peace keeping force stood idle and failed to stop incidents of sexual assaults.
Maybe the U.N ought to make an example and seek to court martial the General. In essence money will be better spent by hiring Mercenaries they will be more effective. You pay them well and they will do the job; UN aid staff will be protected and the South Sudan government troops and rebels will think twice before attacking because the Mercenaries will fight back.
I agree True George, though I would recommend avoiding private mercenaries if possible (which should be possible in this situation), and I think that reform is seriously needed and that participating countries should start being required to do their part and be held to higher standards.
I think that United Nation peace keepers should be some of the best trained soldiers in the world, that they should be held to higher standards, that they should be capable enough of performing their mission of keeping the peace, but it seems that since the beginning they have been intentionally crippled so that they can not perform their mission so it is time for that to change.
For some strange reason I did not get a WordPress.com notification or email alert that you had replied/commented, and I happened to see your reply/comment by accident when I was manually looking at this page.
This seems to happen sometimes on WordPress.com, fortunately it is rare, but not as rare as I like or think that it should be.