Karen_A._Mingst,_Ivan_M._Arregu_n-Toft]_Essentia

(Amelia) #1
Intergovernmental Organ izations 223

police slaughtering minority Tutsis, resulting in 750,000 Tutsi deaths in a ten- week
period. UNAMIR was not equipped to handle the crisis, and despite its commander’s call
for more troops, the UN Security Council failed to respond until it was too late.
Although UNAMIR did establish a humanitarian protection zone and provided secu-
rity for relief- supply depots and escorts for aid convoys, peacekeeping failed disastrously.
The UN’s response to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, has also proven problematic. When
in 2003 thousands of people fled their villages to escape attacks from the government-
based Arab militias (the Janjaweed), the UN system and NGOs responded with humani-
tarian aid, setting up refugee camps and providing emergency food and health care. The
Security Council, however, issued only weak warnings to Sudan since both China and
Rus sia opposed coercive mea sures, despite evidence that Darfur was witnessing a geno-
cide. Between 2003 and 2008, estimates report that more than 300,000 were killed, 2.5
million were displaced within the country, and another 250,000 fled to neighboring
Chad. Eventually, Sudan did accept a small African Union (AU) monitoring force, and
in 2007, a stronger UN-AU peacekeeping force, just as the crisis has become more com-
plex, with the number of factions increasing. By 2012, the worst of the mass killings had
eased: the situation in Darfur more stabilized; the Sudan- Chad border relatively secure;
and 100,000 refugees returned to an increasingly urbanized Darfur. But the Sudanese
government continues to be hostile to the UN-AU peacekeeping forces, limiting their
theater of operation and their ability to protect civilians. Thus, since 2014, more reports
have surfaced about Sudanese troops engaged in more systematic killings and rape.
Despite the in de pen dence of the Republic of South Sudan in 2011, permanent cessation
of vio lence has come to neither the Darfur region nor the South Sudan, where a civil war
between the Dinka and Nuer has led to another major UN operation.
Most problematic has been the UN’s complex peacekeeping operation in the
Demo cratic Republic of Congo. Since 1998, “Africa’s first world war” has led to an
estimated 5.4 million deaths and 1.4 million people displaced between 1998 and 2009,
making it the deadliest conflict since World War II. The crisis is multidimensional:
internationalized civil war with multiple belligerents; long- standing local conflicts
over land, lootable resources, and po liti cal power; continuing vio lence; and humani-
tarian crises are all occurring within a weak and failing state. Despite being one of the
largest UN forces ever mounted, the organ ization has been unable to craft an overall
strategy, since the strategic interests of key member states and organ izations diverge.
And the logistical and operational difficulties are enormous due to the size of the
country, the lack of transportation infrastructure, the inability to protect the civilian
population, the lack of preparedness of UN troops, and the difficulty in managing the
be hav ior of the UN troops who, themselves, have been accused of sex crimes and cor-
ruption. This operation has clearly tarnished the UN’s reputation, leading many to
won der whether it is better to undertake a weak operation or perhaps to refrain from
any operation lacking the will and resources for a more robust operation.

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