Unhappy for not being consulted on the ways in which peacekeeping operations are being carried out in some of the dangerous conflict zones, India has sought more say in the United Nations peacekeeping operations. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, during a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon on Monday, pushed for a greater role for troop contributing countries like India in UN peacekeeping mandates.
Being contributor of one of the biggest contingents of peacekeeping force to the United Nations (UNPKF), India feels the present mechanisms are “fairly frail” in terms of contributions to mandate of UN peacekeeping by troop contributing country. India has lost about 157 soldiers in peacekeeping operations since 1950. last couple of years has seen some brutal attacks on Indian peacekeepers. In fact, India has been unhappy about not being consulted adequately during operations in South Sudan and Congo where India lost several peacekeepers. In South Sudan seven personnel were killed in 2013 in ethnic violence while India lost 39 soldiers in Congo.
Over the last couple of years, India has been very vocal in taking up the issue of ‘changing mandates’ and ‘lack of consultation’ by the Security Council before appointing the missions. India wants more say in planning of operations arguing that after all it is their troops that are protecting peace, and laying down lives in service of UN. “India has been traditionally largest contributor to peacekeeping — more than 8,000 personnel deployed in 10 of 16 UN peace keeping operations. Therefore, there was a fairly detail discussion about evolving doctrine of UN on peacekeeping,” said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs.
“India feels doctrine of peacekeeping needs to be evolved and explored if it should be limited to peacekeeping or go beyond,” Akbaruddin said.
Ban acknowledged that he has received several complaints from India and other countries on this. He told Swaraj about a panel set by him which is headed by Jose Ramos-Horta, former President of East Timor and has India’s lt. General Abhijit Guha. The panel is expected to submit report by September 2015.
However, India would have been happier had the panel been set up by the UN Security Council (UNSC) since it is the one that appoints the UNPKF missions.
While pushing for reforms in UNSC, Swaraj mentioned that the 70th anniversary of UN this year would be an opportunity for members states to renew an organization which increasingly is being perceived as not being able to act in terms of peace and security because of anachronistic nature of Security Council and, therefore, its action lacks credibility and acceptance in various countries. Swaraj argued that this also adds up to the budgetary cost of UN because if operations are not conducted in a manner that they are acceptable to all then the operations do not come to successful conclusion and costs mount. India is aiming for a permanent seat at the reformed UNSC.
The issue of redeployment of Indian helicopters was also discussed in providing logistical support to UN Peacekeeping force in Congo. India had withdrawn this owing to domestic needs.