We received a number of questions which were not directly related to the missions or backgrounds of the respondents.
A first set of questions, based on the Teaching Unit on Cambodia, was answered by Fred Schottler, an ex-member of the peacekeeping mission in Cambodia (now ended). The second set of general questions was answered by Daljeet Bagga, UNIFIL, Lebanon.



Questions answered by Fred Schottler.

Q

I am a student at the International Studies program located at Freehold Township High School in the United States. My friends and I read an article concerning Cambodia and the role of the United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTAC).

a. How was the UN certain that the fighting would not continue at the time of the repatriation?
b. How was Cambodia affected by the repatriation?

A

The answer to your first question can apply to all UN peacekeeping operations: the UN was NOT certain that the fighting would not continue. There is never any guarantee. UN peacekeeping relies on the cooperation of the parties to respect the ceasefire and to carry out the agreements they have made. In the case of Cambodia, all four factions had signed a peace agreement. The UN therefore expected that they would keep their word. There were nevertheless some incidents of fighting throughout the UN's stay in Cambodia. Eventually, one of the parties, Democratic Kampuchea (also called the Khmer Rouge) completely withdrew its cooperation and did not participate in the elections. Tensions were very high, but the elections and the peace process went forward without the Khmer Rouge. However, all parties cooperated with the UN in the repatriation exercise.

The repatriation exercise began at the end of the first month of the UN operation in Cambodia. It ended one year later, after more than 365,000 Cambodian refugees and displaced persons had voluntarily returned. They all decided for themselves the area they wanted to return to. Some refugees even chose to return to areas controlled by the Khmer Rouge. All the refugees were assisted by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. They were given rations and a kit of household supplies. They were also able to choose either a grant of agricultural land, a housing plot or cash. UNHCR also set up work programmes which helped communities reabsorb the refugees, like bridge building or other construction projects, mine clearance or well digging.

I cannot speak to the long-term effects of the repatriation.
At the time, however, the return of the refugees and the displaced persons was a monumental event for the people involved. Most of them had spent years outside their country, some of them had been born in the refugee camps. For them and for all Cambodians, the return was a sign that the peace process was working and that their country was returning to normalcy. For the same reason, it was an important sign to the international community, including the neighbouring countries which had taken in so many Cambodians. A special effort was made to be sure that the refugees had the opportunity to register to vote.

Some of the people who returned were well educated and had skills that Cambodia could use. On the other hand, an influx of refugees and displaced persons into communities with few resources created a difficult situation for the communities that had to absorb them. That was why the work programmes set up by UNHCR were so important.


Questions answered by Daljeet Bagga, UNIFIL, Lebanon

Q

Hola:
Somos alumnos del CENTRO EDUCATIVO INTEGRAL (Quito-Ecuador). Somos ciudadanos pacifistas pasivos, y lo que queremos es encontrar una via para poder ser pacifistas activos, es por esto que requerimos de su informacion.
Estas son nuestras preguntas:
A. De que manera podriamos ser pacifistas activos?
B. Somos adolescentes: Como podríamos aportar, teniendo en cuenta que no tenemos ninguna profesión todavía?
C. Si llegamos a ser miembros de esta organizacion, como esto      afectara y modificara nuestra vida normal?

A

A. Todas las personas en el mundo entero pueden convertirse en "pacificadoras" si todos aprendemos a tomar el camino de la paz.  Desafortunadamente no es lo que ocurre hoy en día.  Muchas naciones del mundo estan practicamente destrozadas debido a sectarismo, causas religiosas, intolerancia o otras diferencias fundamentales.  Ustedes, la nuñez y juventud del mundo estan llamados a sembrar la semilla de la paz ahora, a fin de que el mundo tenga paz mañ`ana.

B. No es necesario ser un profesional para contribuir a la paz.  La participación de la juventud, aunque ahora ustedes la perciban como mínima, es muy relevante.  Piensen en la paz y hallarán la paz.  Nosotros, los "soldados de la paz" trabajamos en sitios peligrosos y difíciles, sabemos que no es una tarea fácil mantener la paz especialmente cuando las dos o aún, las tres partes involucradas se bombardean entre si. Igualmente, ustedes jóvenes, los líderes del mañana, deben contribuir practicando y promoviendo el diálogo acerca de la paz y la reconciliacion en su propio entorno.
 
C. Existen 185 naciones  miembros de la Organización de Naciones Unidas.  De alguna manera, todos los ciudadanos de estos países somos miembros de la ONU.  Todos estos paises hacen lo mejor posible por la paz mundial. De no ser por la Organización de Naciones Unidas, seria extremadamente difícil lograr acuerdos y tratados de diferente índole, que afectan la vida diaria de todos y cada uno de los ciudadanos de todos los país.  Actualmente las Naciones Unidas ha logrado firmar acuerdos en muy diversas areas así como los derechos humanos hasta de medio ambiente.

 

Q

From Elizabeth Hoeffer

A. With all of the problems going on today how do you decide which problems  are dealt with and which ones are not?
B. Being a Blue Helmet must be very difficult and stressful. Have there ever been attempts on your lives? What type of measures are taken so that each of you are kept safely?

A

A. Where questions of international peace and security are concerned, the Security Council has primary responsibility for dealing with these matters.  Any State may bring problems to the Council's attention, or the Secretary-General can raise matters with the Council.  It's important to remember that it's really up to the Governments represented in the United Nations to decide on what action to take--or not to take.  The Secretary-General and his staff can present information, analyses, or options that the Member States might want to take into account when deciding how to handle a particular situation, but the final decision is up to Governments when they vote on resolutions in the Security Council--and in other UN bodies.

As you know, the Security Council has 15 Members; five of them are permanent members of the Council, in accordance with the UN Charter: China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.  These five countries have the power of "veto" in the Council.  This means that if any of these five vote against a "substantive" or important proposal in the Council, it will not be adopted, even if the proposal has the support of all the other Council members.

B. It is quite stressful to work in a conflict  situation for a long time. There are hundreds military and civilian staff members alike who are working in dangerous situations in several UN missions all over the world. Many UN staff members have lost their lives or are still reported to be missing - either they have been kidnapped or killed by some factional group in the country they were serving. There is danger every day and there is no such thing as a "safe mission."  Under the best circumstances, peacekeepers are able to carry out their work with the cooperation of those involved in a conflict.  But where fighting flares up or continues, the danger to peacekeepers grows.  Peacekeepers may carry light weapons for self-defense, but their best defense is respect from the people they are trying to help.  Even where fighting has stopped, peacekeepers often face dangers such as unmarked landmines, or banditry and violent crime.

 

Q

From: New River Middle School of Marine Science, Ft. Lauderdale

a. Job questions - What training did you have to have to do your job?
What do you get out of doing this type of work? On a daily basis, what do you actually do with your time? Is there an age limit for peacekeepers?
b. Living conditions - Where do you live? Is your family there too? What are the local living conditions and what are your living conditions? Do you eat local food? What do you do in your free time?
c. Mission questions - How many missions have you been on? How  long do you generally stay? How do different peacekeepers from all over the world work together when you each have different languages and different cultures? What language do you speak in the mission?
d. Band-aids: What is the hardest thing you have had to do? Do you think the world is getting more peaceful as a result of all  the efforts, or are many missions like band-aids when the arteries have ruptured?

A

Job questions: The soldiers  and officers serving a UN peacekeeping operations are trained, selected and sent by their own countries.  Besides the military troops, there are often civilian police officers, engineers to build  roads, medical personnel, pilots, communications experts and many others.       Working in a mission can be a very rewarding personal and professional experience in itself. First of all, you get to know the people of the country, become acquainted to new cultures and traditions and also learn about their habits and other traits and personality.
The welcome we receive from the local civilian population is very gratifying --  just the presence of a UN mission  with a watchful eye on what is happening on the ground can  make them feel more at ease. A typical day for a peacekeeper usually begins very early in the morning. For a civilian or military officer, it begins with a daily operational and political briefing of the situation overnight. This lasts usually for about 30 minutes. Then it could either be meetings
with  local officials or representatives of different groups. If there has been a crisis overnight, meetings are scheduled between the two sides with the UN officers acting as mediators.  This often helps to present local clashes from growing out of control.
Recently, the minimum age limit for soldiers serving in UN operations has been set at 18, but preferably 21; military observers and civilian police officers must be 25 years of age or older.

Living conditions: Military peacekeepers  usually live in a camp or at the mission's headquarters. In some cases the civilians need to be also housed in a camp, depending on the security situation. Under more relaxed circumstances, civilians and even some military staff live among the local population in rental accommodations in the town or city where they work. When the peacekeeper's family is allowed to join him or her, the children can enroll in the local school.
However, some missions are expressly non-family missions, meaning that UN employees may not bring their families with them. This rule applies for hazardous or hardship missions like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, Cambodia, Angola. Living conditions, security threats, contact with the locals and, of course, food and climate vary from mission to mission. In the free time, if there is any, we meet with friends and colleagues at each other's places...for a dinner, go to the cinema, play sports, etc or just watch television or do some reading.

Mission questions: I myself have served in three UN missions. The first one was in Bosnia from 1993 to 1996. My second mission was in Angola where I served for about 18 months. Now, I am posted in Lebanon for the last 11 months. Mission life can be risky and hazardous and I think that it is best to move and go to other new places.  It all depends on how well and how long can any person adapt to this sort of a lifestyle.
I find it interesting and rewarding  to work with people from so many different countries of the world. It is a unique mix of people from all over the world sharing one common vision of peace -  therefore, we enjoy generally excellent communication, work relations and coordination in each mission. English and French are the official working languages of the United Nations.
In most missions, English is the main language for UN peacekeepers,  although French is used in missions in Western Sahara and the Central African Republic. Portuguese is important for  service with MONUA in Angola.
Band-aids: Over the past several decades, the United Nations has successfully helped to end numerous conflicts, but there have been setbacks as well, which are hard to digest. The most painful fact the international community, acting through the UN, had to learn was that peace can not be imposed if the hostile groups are unwilling to be reconciled -- this is the reason why the civil war in Somalia became increasingly impossible to control and dangerous for the peacekeepers themselves. The last resort was withdrawal. On the other hand, the parties' commitment to peace after a long civil war was what made ONUMOZ - the UN mission in Mozambique - so successful. You may think of some missions as "band aids" in that  they  need to be in place for a long time to separate enemies and just prevent full-scale war - such as UNIFIL in Lebanon or UNFICYP in Cyprus.  It's worth bearing in mind that "band aids" and other temporary measures often help a patient heal and prevent a wound from getting worse.

Unfortunately, I doubt that the world is getting more peaceful as a whole.  But I am convinced that in many places UN peacekeepers have prevented situations from getting worse and have sometimes given people in conflict  the "breathing room" they needed to achieve peace.

 

Q


I am a student who would like to study conflict resolution. What opportunities exist for me to work as a UN Peacekeeper? What are the different jobs, and each of their duties?
Thank-you,
Bobby Evers

A

The United Nations action in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is an example of successful "preventive deployment" - the fielding of peacekeepers to forestall a probable conflict. Judging by your question, I think that you would be more suitable to work in the field of political or civil affairs. There are opportunities for you to work in other fields as well. If you are looking for a job as a Political Affairs or Civil Affairs officer, you have to hold at least a master's degree in international relations or political science. I wish you good luck in your studies and endeavours.