No War Criminals in UN Peacekeeping
No War Criminals in UN Peacekeeping
International United Nations Watch (IUNW) urges that countries deemed to have been involved in war crimes be banned from joining UN peacekeeping missions. IUNW commends the recent UN decision to exclude Sri Lankan troops from UN peacekeeping operations after Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, reportedly long associated with war crimes, was appointed Sri Lanka’s army chief. IUNW believes that the UN must do more to ensure the credibility of its peacekeepers and ensure that troops from countries implicated in war crimes are barred from joining peacekeeping missions.
Responding to the Silva appointment, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq stated that the UN had expressed its concern to the government of Sri Lanka about Lt.Gen. Silva given “well-documented, credible allegations of his involvement in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.” This, he explained, was why the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) was “suspending future Sri Lankan army deployments except where suspension would expose UN operations to serious operational risk.”
Although the UN took prompt action in response to the Silva appointment, it was late to react to previous reports of war criminals being sent out on peacekeeping missions. According to the Observer newspaper, a confidential report sent to DPKO last year claimed that a Sri Lankan cohort of senior officials who had been accused of war crimes against the Tamils had been deployed to peacekeeping missions in Mali, South Sudan, Lebanon, and Darfur. At the time, the UN responded by stating that it was enforcing a strict vetting process in conjunction with the Sri Lankan government. The Silva appointment seems to suggest that the screening process was less than effective.
In the circumstances, the IUNW reiterates its call on the UN to ensure that those accused of war crimes never serve in peacekeeping and that troop contingents from countries implicated in war crimes are never deployed to peacekeeping missions. With 100,000-plus peacekeepers serving in multiple UN peacekeeping missions around the world, only the highest standards of conduct and discipline are acceptable. Peacekeepers should be familiar with and respect the laws and culture of the countries they serve in. Sadly, despite the existence of a rigorous Code of Conduct, abuses and misconduct by peacekeepers occur. Cases in point include the sexual exploitation of local women in South Sudan and the failure of a peacekeeping contingent in Haiti to take adequate sanitary measures which contributed to a lethal outbreak of cholera with disastrous consequences for the local population.
