Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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The Truth About Fiji Peacekeepers in the United Nations
Just a little reminder to the green goons.
Wealthy Nations Pay Poor Ones To Man Missions
By Alix M. Freedman
2 October 2003
The Asian Wall Street Journal
English
In the United Nations peacekeeping business, rich nations pay poor nations to do the dirty work in ugly places. Both sides benefit from the arrangement.
Rich countries foot the bill. They avoid having to send their own troops to dangerous corners of the world -- places where they have few strategic interests but feel obliged to take action. Last year, the U.S. paid about 28% of the $2.4 billion contributed for U.N. peacekeeping activities.
For developing countries, providing peacekeeping personnel to the U.N. helps to train troops and employ inflated militaries. To some governments, it also provides a sense of political standing. "This gives prestige and a good image for our country," says Ahmed Chowdhury, Bangladesh's ambassador to the U.N.
Above all, U.N. peacekeeping offers cash. The U.N. pays about $1,100 per soldier per month to governments that supply troops -- a pittance for rich nations but significant for developing countries. It also gives unarmed military observers and civilian police subsistence allowances that, in Congo, go up to $179 a day.
"In the lower Third World, peacekeeping is a big money maker," says Michael Sheehan, until recently a U.N. assistant secretary general for peacekeeping. "The cash flow has a huge impact on budgets, so there is enormous incentive to be involved."
Diplomats from developing nations play down the financial angle. Bangladesh collected $102 million for 2002, as the second-biggest contributor of troops. Mr. Chowdhury says that wasn't enough to form a "major reason" for the country's involvement. Bangladesh's most recent budget ran about $7.7 billion.
Elias Bluth, Uruguay's undersecretary of defense, says contributing peacekeeping troops entails "so many hidden costs" that it doesn't produce a net gain. For instance, he says, it costs Uruguay $500 per soldier to inoculate the troops. And he says most of the monthly stipend the U.N. pays Uruguay for each soldier appears in the men's paychecks.
The U.N. typically reimburses countries for the equipment their troops arrive with and costs of sustaining them in the field. It pays fixed rates for everything from tanks to trucks, whether state of the art or hand-me-downs.
The U.N. is trying to run a tighter ship. It now conducts field inspections when troops are deployed to make sure contingents actually bring the gear for which they ask to be compensated. At the same time, the U.N. is trying to speed its reimbursement process.
Still, the developing world is growing a bit restive as its citizens become informed of the risks involved in peacekeeping operations. "These people are starting to have public opinion of their own," says Michel Kassa, a U.N. humanitarian official. "Just like people in America and Europe, the public don't want to see their children come back in body bags."
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