Editor's Pick

Keeping peace, making friends

9 March 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
Harun ur Rashid
AS International Women's Day marked its 100th anniversary on March 8, the 21st century presents women with an array of challenges, from gaining skills to waging peace. Women are steadily making inroads into a once male preserve, and one of the best examples is the women peacekeeping contingent of the UN. Peacekeeping presumes cooperation between parties involved in a conflict and is aimed to keep peace in a conflict-zone. It is not a mission of peace building or peace-making. Peacekeeping is a delicate task and needs a soft approach. Liberia, a West African country, had witnessed 14 years of civil war that left 200,000 people dead, and survivors are haunted by torture and exploitation by boy soldiers. Its former warlord and President Charles Taylor has been on trial by an ad-hoc criminal tribunal in The Hague since 2006. Liberia elected a Harvard educated woman, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as president, in 2005. In 2004, a UN report criticised UN peacekeepers in Liberia for assault and abuse of young women by using food and money. The UN then decided to put women peacekeepers in Liberia, who brought peace in the country. Liberia is something of a modern experiment with women peacekeepers. The head of the UN mission of peacekeeping is a woman from Denmark, Margrethe Loj, and the peacekeepers are women from Nigeria and India. President Sirleaf stated that women peacekeepers were more caring and sensitive to people's needs. She was quoted by media as saying: "I think that these are the characteristics that come from being a mother, taking care of the family, being concerned with children and managing a home." The Nigerian women, who number 59, largely hold jobs such as supply clerks, nurses police officers, teachers and refugee workers. They live in narrow barracks tacked with photos of smiling little boys and girls left behind at home. For the women, it had been a tough decision to leave their family and they often receive calls from their children on domestic issues, such as "mummy, elder sister is not listening to me." Since 2007, Indian women have stood guard outside the president's office. It is a highly symbolic position for them. The Indian women contingent stands at 103. Some of them are monitoring local police officers. Many of them also patrol the suburbs on foot, and this has led to a drastic fall in home invasions. The women contingent has persuaded many Liberian women to become police officers. With the deployment of women peacekeepers, local women are feeling less intimidated. During the civil war it was the men who inflicted harm, and most of the time the sufferers were women and children. On the street, the women peacekeepers are perceived as sober and helpful. They have been able to gain the trust of the public. Carole Ducet, the senior gender adviser to the UN mission in Liberia reportedly said: "We need to go deeper to study the impact that this is having and what aspect is really a good practice. We need to be careful about saying it is fantastic. We need to know why." Some of the disadvantages for women peacekeepers are separation from their children, homesickness and depression. The UN is to study the effects on the psychology of female peacekeepers and whether any other approach is needed to alleviate the psychological effects on them. It is reported that the Indian contingent is likely to be replaced by Bangladeshi women peacekeepers. As female participation grows, the issue will be critical for the UN, which is considering shorter and more flexible rotations. In 1988, Bangladesh first joined the UN peacekeeping mission, whose members were known as "Blue Helmets" (after the blue colour of the UN flag), with only 15 military observers. So far, about 70,000 soldiers have participated in 35 peacekeeping missions in 26 countries, which includes Cambodia, Bosnia, Georgia, Mozambique, Namibia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. A Bangladeshi army general led the peacekeeping mission in Mozambique in 1994 and another general in Georgia in 2002. Currently, a Bangladeshi general has been leading the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia since October 2008. Bangladesh is the largest contributing country to provide peacekeeping troops to the UN, whose number stands at 10,574 (soldiers and police personnel). They are deployed in peacekeeping missions in 12 countries. The peacekeeping missions are often risky in tribal-torn conflicts in Africa, and there were casualties of Bangladeshi peacekeeping troops (nine soldiers) in the Democratic Republic of Congo on February 25, 2005. As of May 2009, a total of 91 valiant Bangladeshi peacekeepers died for the cause of world peace. Bangladesh, every year on May 29, observes the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. It has set up an Institute of Peace Support Operation Training for the armed forces at Rajendrapur, near Dhaka. Bangladesh can hold its head high in the global arena because the Bangladeshi soldiers have earned the gratitude of millions in lands far from Bangladesh. They have helped restore tranquillity and peace in many war-torn parts of the globe and have ushered in an era of hope in countries, which had only known despair and war.
Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.

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