Ban announces appointment of new UN police chief

Yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed an experienced female Swedish police officer as the top United Nations police official.

“The UN’s top cop is a woman,” Mr. Ban told reporters in New York, noting that today’s announcement of Ann-Marie Orler as UN Police Adviser coincides with International Women’s Day.

Ms. Orler, who first came to the UN to serve as Deputy Police Adviser in 2008, has been Acting Police Adviser since last year.

In her native Sweden, she served as the Secretary General of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Amnesty International and was also the Police Commissioner in the town of Västmanland.

On the international stage, she has worked as the Programme Manager for Police and Human Rights with the Council of Europe, where she took part in fact-finding missions and trained police officers in Turkey and several Balkan nations, among others.

The Secretary-General today hailed her work in leading “the global effort to recruit more female police officers for UN peace operations.”

At present, there are nearly 13,000 UN Police (UNPOL) – more than 6 per cent of whom are women – from some 100 countries who working in 17 different field missions.

One of her top priorities in her new role as the UN’s top police official will be to enhance the participation of female police officers so that the comprise 20 per cent of all UNPOL in peacekeeping by 2014, Ms. Orler said at a press conference today at UN Headquarters.

She pointed to the role played by the all-female Formed Police Units (FPUs) – comprising police officers trained in dealing with high-risk operations – in Liberia who have helped to “improve the status” of Liberian women police officers.

“As the world has become a global village, there is no doubt that the concept of policing must reflect the same universal values and principles,” Ms. Orler underscored.

Most of the conflicts around the world are a result of challenges to the fundamental social, economic and political rights of all people, she said, stressing that upholding these rights is a top priority.

To adapt to the shifting nature of conflict, “our engagement has also gone through a major evolution,” Ms. Orler noted. “From a passive monitoring role in the early days, we have proactively undertaken executive policing, supported national police in their law and order functions, and help reform, rebuild and restructure the host national police services.”

Each mission has its own unique challenges, said the new Police Adviser, who recently visited Haiti and saw first-hand the efforts of UNPOL to help the impoverished Caribbean nation recover after being struck by a devastating earthquake in January.

The challenges facing the country, she said, are three-fold: dealing with the immediate aftermath of the earthquake; helping the Haitian National Police (HNP) back on its feet to resume providing security; and to boost the country’s justice system.

Ms. Orler also detailed the efforts of UNPOL in other areas, such as the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Timor-Leste.

She said that she looks forward to taking on the role of Police Adviser in a time of numerous challenges, “but also a time of action, opportunities and change,” highlighting the importance in partnerships to use resources most effectively and improve justice systems.

UN News Centre

Peacekeepers to Withdraw From Parts of Congo

UN Photo/Marie Frechon


New York Times
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and JOSH KRON

NAIROBI, Kenya — The United Nations will begin withdrawing peacekeeping troops from Congo by June to hand control of the country’s security back to the Congolese, officials with the United Nations mission to Congo said Thursday.

The officials said they would still keep thousands of troops in Congo’s troubled east, where a toxic mix of armed groups continue to brutalize the population. But the peacekeepers will soon pull out of the more stable areas in the central part of the country.

Pressure has been building for months for the United Nations to find an exit strategy, with President Joseph Kabila eager to solidify his control before elections next year.

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The Peace Operations Monitor (POM) has been updated and revamped

The POM has a new look and updated information on all three missions (Haiti, Sudan, Afghanistan).   The Peace Operations Monitor is a source of information about the mandates, multifaceted composition, structures, performance and challenges of UN and other peace operations.

Go to the site

New Research Paper: Whatever Happened to Peacekeeping? The Future of a Tradition

This ground-breaking report by the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs (CDFAI) Institute urges Canada to reconsider and rejoin UN peace operations. The authors Jocelyn Coulon and Michel Liégeois, PhD argue that peace operations in the twenty-first century are different from those in the period between 1950 and 2000 and that with clearly understood terms of reference, Canada should return its Forces to UN operations when such missions are judged to be in our national interests.

Backgrounder  Full Article

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Haiti Earthquake: UN expects a new deployment of 380 troops to be on the ground by mid-March

The Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Major General Floriano Peixoto Vieira Neto, updated reporters yesterday (18 February) on the security situation in the earthquake-devastated country.

Update Report on Haiti

 UN Photo/Marco Dormino

On Friday, 19 February the UN Security Council is expecting a public briefing from Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes and the head of the Peacekeeping Department, Alain Le Roy, on the humanitarian situation in Haiti and the work of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The meeting is expected to be followed by informal consultations. While no immediate changes to MINUSTAH's mandate are expected to result, it is possible that members of the Council will agree on a press statement.

Read the Update Report on Haiti published by Security Council Report

Darfur peacekeepers get helicopters after long wait

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - International peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region received their first five military helicopters on Tuesday, ending a more than two-year wait for air support in a strife-torn territory the size of Spain.

Military commanders and activists have repeatedly called on Western powers to provide tactical helicopters for the joint U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force since it arrived in Sudan's rebellious West in January 2008.

Senior U.N. officials said they struggled to find any of the vital aircraft because so many helicopters had already gone to other conflict zones, including Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, Sudan's neighbour Ethiopia became the first country to respond to the call by sending five tactical helicopters to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, said UNAMID.
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Extra UN troops and police pledged for Haiti

By EDITH M. LEDERER (AP), UN Photo/Marco Dormino

UNITED NATIONS — Sixteen countries have offered to provide the 3,500 extra troops and police officers that the United Nations requested to beef up security in Haiti and ensure aid is delivered to earthquake victims, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Thursday.

A week after the Jan. 12 quake devastated the Haitian capital and surrounding area, the U.N. Security Council authorized 2,000 additional troops to help the 7,000 military peacekeepers already in the country and 1,500 extra police for the 2,100-strong international police force.

"The international answer to our request has been tremendous," Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Alain Le Roy told reporters Thursday. "The answer has been remarkably rapid. ... We have now all the pledges we needed for both the 2,000 military and for the 1,500 policemen."

Le Roy said he expects the 2,000 extra troops to be on the ground in Haiti within three weeks to help escort humanitarian convoys and ensure security while aid is being distributed.

He said 900 Brazilian soldiers would be arriving on Thursday and Friday.

The advance party of a 190-member Japanese military engineering company has already arrived, and the advance party of a 240-member South Korean engineering company will be in Haiti by Saturday, he said. Some 150 troops from the neighboring Dominican Republic are in the process of deploying along the border, and troops from Argentina, Peru and Uruguay will be arriving soon, he said.

Le Roy said about 500 police from Spain, the Netherlands, France, Bangladesh and Italy will be there in within two weeks. U.N. officials said a 100-strong French police unit that came in after the quake will become part of the U.N. contingent.

The remaining 1,000 police — from Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Pakistan and Rwanda — will arrive in April or May, Le Roy said.

Canada, Netherlands supply vehicles for Darfur peacekeeping

The governments of Canada and the Netherlands have handed over equipment valued at more than 12 million U.S. dollars to the Uganda Police Force towards peacekeeping efforts in Darfur.

A statement from the Canadian Embassy in Nairobi said on Wednesday the in-kind contribution consists of armored and non- armored vehicles, tents, and engineering, logistical, medical, dental and protective equipment.

"We are pleased to support vital peacekeeping efforts in Darfur, in a partnership with African peacekeeping nations like Uganda. Together, we can make a difference in advancing our common goal of stability, security and a just and lasting peace in Sudan," said Canadian High Commissioner to Uganda Ross Hynes.

"Uganda's important contribution to peacekeeping efforts in Sudan is very much appreciated," Hynes said in the statement.

The equipment is for use by the Uganda contingent in the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) Formed Police Units which will be the first large-scale peacekeeping deployment for the Uganda Police Force.

In addition, a six-month supply of critical spare parts along with equipment-related operator and basic equipment training has been provided.

"We are also pleased that six new armored personnel carriers have arrived in Kampala as part of our important contribution to the police units provided to UNAMID by African countries," Hynes said.

"Along with these vehicles, we are also providing equipment and basic operator and maintenance training as part of a 40 million dollar package to three African Countries including Uganda."

Currently, Uganda has 135 personnel deployed in Darfur with UNAMID and 17 with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

In the spring of 2010, for a period of six months, a 150-person Formed Police Unit (FPU) will be deployed to Darfur after which the Ugandan government will have the choice of using the vehicles and equipment received yesterday to extend the deployment or take part in other peacekeeping missions around the world.

Canada is part of a concerted international effort to support a just and lasting peace in all of Sudan.

Canadian contributions focus primarily on resolving the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Darfur, and supporting the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the southern civil war in January 2005.

Source: Xinhua

Event Alert: Will Canada Be a UN Peacekeeper Again?

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Fallen Mountie died 'in the service of peace'

Great piece in the Ottawa Citizen on RCMP Chief Supt. Doug Coates' contributions to peacekeeping and to MINUSTAH, the United Nations’ stabilization mission in Haiti.

Read the article

Haitian survivors fight for food

EVENT ALERT: Eyes in the Sky: Airborne and Satellite Reconnaissance for UN Peacekeeping

Presented by
Dr. Walter Dorn
Associate Professor of Defence Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada and the Canadian Forces College

UN peacekeeping missions must monitor belligerent forces, verify ceasefires, spot human rights abuses, catch sanctions busters, and hold violators accountable in conflict zones. To help with these difficult tasks, air- and spacebased observation is playing a growing role and the United Nations is poised to give new emphasis to aerospace technologies. The technical benefits and political limitations of a "watchkeeper in the sky" will be explored in this illustrated presentation, drawing from the speaker's recent visits to UN field missions.

Wednesday January 27th, 2010
3:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Gamble Hall,
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing,
615 Booth St, Ottawa

Brazil looks to double Haiti peacekeepers to 2,600

Source: FOCUS Information Agency

Brazil is looking to send hundreds more soldiers to its UN peacekeeping deployment in Haiti, potentially doubling the unit to 2,600 men, the defense ministry said in a statement, AFP reported.


If Congress approves the ministry's request, Brazil could immediately send 900 personnel -- 750 soldiers and 150 police -- to boost the 1,260 Brazilian peacekeepers already in the country, as urged by the United Nations.

A reserve of another 400 troops could then be kept on standby in case the situation warrants also sending them to the quake-ravaged Caribbean country.

"The priority is to send soldiers who have already served in Haiti and who, therefore, have the necessary experience for the mission," the statement said.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday voted to send 3,500 more security personnel to Haiti to maintain order and protect aid convoys.

Brazil has military command of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, which is currently 9,000-strong and has been in the Caribbean nation since 2004.

The force currently counts 7,000 soldiers from various nations and 2,000 police.

Eighteen Brazilian peacekeepers died in the quake.

UN Security Council has voted to boost its peacekeeping forces

The UN approved a recommendation by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to boost UN troop numbers in Haiti by 2,000 for six months, and UN police numbers by 1,500.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon says Canada is constantly re-evaluating its role and stands ready to commit more police and security forces to Haiti as soon as UN authorities "signal that conditions allow this."

Photo: David Boily, La Presse

UN set to send more peacekeepers to Haiti

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has asked the Security Council to approve 3,500 more peacekeepers for Haiti -- a nearly 40% increase -- to help cope with the chaos that followed last week's earthquake. Diplomats said they expected a vote in the 15-nation council tomorrow to authorize the temporary boost for the UN mission.

The secretary-general briefed the Security Council in a closed-door session Monday morning, less than 12 hours after he returned from the Haitian capital. His plane back to New York carried the body of Hedi Annabi, the U.N.'s chief representative in Haiti, who perished when U.N. headquarters crumbled in the earthquake. Mr. Ban told reporters the extra U.N. police and troops were needed to protect aid convoys and distribution points in the devastated city. A Western diplomat who was inside the council chamber for the closed Security Council session said the U.S. had already circulated a draft resolution authorizing the increase of blue helmets, and that the Security Council would vote on it at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Questions about coordination and command continue to fester. The governments of France, Italy, and Brazil, as well as aid agencies such as Doctors Without Borders, have reportedly complained that the U.S. military is giving priority to security over aid as it determines what flights are allowed to arrive at the tiny, one-runway airport in Port-au-Prince. Mr. Ban said both were needed. He reiterated that the U.N., and not the U.S., was in charge of the relief effort. American military officials at the airport said that it had 100 slots for incoming planes, roughly triple the number landing there before the quake but far fewer than the number of planes trying to reach Haiti with relief supplies and personnel.

"The international community supports the United Nations to take the leading role as coordinator, there is no doubt about that," he said. In Haiti on Sunday Mr. Ban said that U.N. troops would be working in tandem with U.S. troops, about 12,000 of which are expected eventually in the country. Mr. Ban evaded the hardest question of command and control, which is whether U.N. troops would come under U.S. command. On Sunday, Brazil, which has the largest contingent of U.N. troops, said it would not relinquish command of its forces to the U.S.

The U.N. has 7,000 troops in Haiti, with 3,000 deployed in Port-au-Prince, and American troops continued to arrive in Haiti Monday. More than 1,000 soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division are on the ground in Haiti, with an additional 300 slated to arrive Monday and the unit's remaining 2,300 soldiers arriving by Tuesday. The amphibious ship U.S.S. Bataan, carrying 2,200 Marines, is scheduled reach Haiti later Monday. Capt. John Kirby, the lead military spokesman in Haiti, said that some of the U.S. soldiers were flying aboard Marine helicopters to drop supplies through Port-au-Prince. He said that other soldiers from the 82nd were providing security at one of the Haitian government's four official distribution points for relief supplies. 

Source: The Wall Street Journal

[Media Advisory] UN Peacekeeping Mission Needs Support to Maintain Security in Haiti

For Immediate Release
Media Advisory
January 15, 2010

More than ever before MINUSTAH, the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, needs the support of countries like Canada to ensure security in the aftermath of this week’s earthquake.

“Long term security and political stability in the country must be ensured by a legitimate, credible and multilateral force approved by the UN Security Council,” according to Fergus Watt, Chair of the Canadian Peace Operations Working Group, a network of Canadian civil society organizations. “The UN mission must take the lead role in coordinating the security efforts in the country. Canada, and all UN member states, should make clear that its deployment in Haiti is fully coordinated with MINUSTAH.”

At a press briefing yesterday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated that, “All the international aid and assistance should be coordinated with MINUSTAH, the United Nations.”

As Canada boosts its efforts to bring much needed relief to the ravaged country, it needs to do so in such a way as to reinforce the UN stabilization mission. Already, police across Canada have reportedly volunteered to go to Haiti to bolster Canadian police officers stationed with MINUSTAH.

Prior to the earthquake, Canada already had a significant presence within MINUSTAH, contributing close to 90 troops and police officers out of a total UN force of 9000. The UN has requested more assets from countries to deal with the current situation.

According to Dominic Leger, Coordinator of the Peace Operations Working Group, “We welcome efforts made by the Government of Canada to send Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team and other troop commitments. In the medium to long term we hope that this will lead to lasting commitments on the part of Canada to boost MINUSTAH.”

Hedi Annabi: What He Died for in Haiti

by James Traub

Hedi Annabi, the U.N. special representative killed in the earthquake, may not have been known to the public, but his mission stabilized a lawless Haiti—and his peacekeepers are leading the effort to save Haitians trapped in the rubble today.


It appears, as of this writing, that Hedi Annabi, the United Nations’ special representative in Haiti, was one of the thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands, killed in Tuesday’s earthquake. A veteran of U.N. peacekeeping, Annabi was no more known to the public than any other U.N. lifer, and could scarcely have borne less resemblance to Sergio Vieira de Mello, the dashing and impossibly handsome U.N. envoy who was killed in a truck bombing in Baghdad in 2003. George Clooney would have played de Mello in the movie; Annabi, an extra-dry and sometimes cryptic Tunisian, was more the Peter Sellers of Being There.

When I knew him, in 2004 and 2005, he served as deputy chief of the peacekeeping department in New York. An important part of his job was cajoling and browbeating reluctant countries into contributing troops to desperate missions often rather casually mandated by the U.N. Security Council. He once told me that in May 2000, after the council had decided to send thousands of troops to keep a band of psychotic killers known as the RUF from toppling the government of Sierra Leone, a delegation of 25 officials from the Clinton administration descended on his office. “And one of them just looked at me and said, ‘What are you going to do about this mess?’” Annabi said. “And I said, ‘Are you coming to tell me how I’m going to fix it with the troops you’re not giving me, or are you coming to help me figure out how to fix it? Because if it’s the first, this is going to be a short meeting.’”

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16 UN personnel killed, 150 missing in Haiti

By JOHN HEILPRIN
The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. chief said 16 U.N. personnel were confirmed dead late Wednesday in the earthquake that decimated Haiti's capital, with 100 to 150 U.N. workers still unaccounted for, including the mission chief and his deputy.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that 11 Brazilian peacekeepers and five international police officers — three from Jordan and one each from Chad and Argentina — were killed in the "horrendous" quake.

U.N. officials said 56 others were injured. Seven who were seriously hurt were evacuated from the country, they said.

"Many continue to be trapped inside U.N. headquarters and other buildings," said Ban, noting that includes the U.N.'s mission chief, Hedi Annabi, and his chief deputy, Luis Carlos da Costa. "Other peacekeepers and civilian staff from many member states remain unaccounted for."

U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said at least 10 people were pulled alive on Wednesday from the lower floors of the five-story headquarters building for the U.N. peacekeeping mission, which collapsed in Tuesday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake quake.

Annabi, a Tunisian diplomat who has worked for the U.N. for 28 years, and da Costa, a Brazilian whose U.N. career spans four decades, were missing. Also unaccounted for was an eight-member police delegation from China that Annabi was meeting in an office on the headquarters' top floor when it collapsed, U.N. officials said.

"It is our estimate that around hundreds of people were still working inside the building," Ban said. "Therefore it will be in the range of 100 to 150 that I'm quite concerned about."

Ban said he was immediately dispatching Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet, who was Annabi's predecessor in Haiti, to Port-au-Prince to take over as acting chief of the U.N. mission and coordinate the international emergency aid effort.

"A larger peacekeeping force is required in Somalia" Gordon Brown, Barack Obama

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office said Britain and the U.S. had agreed to intensify their joint work to tackle "the emerging terrorist threat" from both Yemen and Somalia in the wake of the failed Detroit attack on Christmas day.

On Somalia, Brown's office said he and Obama "believe that a larger peacekeeping force is required and will support this at the United Nations (UN) Security Council."

The Somali government and the African Union (AU) have pleaded with the UN to send a robust peacekeeping force that could take over from the 5,200 AU troops from Uganda and Burundi who have said they are incapable of stabilising Somalia.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's western-backed government is battling Islamist insurgents in Somalia, including the hardline al Shabaab group, which Washington accuses of being al-Qaeda's proxy.

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