Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | C | Canada and the World Backgrounder

The blue berets: sometimes the United Nations peacekeeping efforts prevent or resolve grisly conflicts; sometimes they don't.

Article Excerpt
There's no question that the United Nations has been hugely successful in solving some of the world's worst conflicts.

Success was achieved in El Salvador, where the United Nations brought about a peaceful agreement between the government and a rebel group in 1991. This ended a civil war that ravaged the country through the 1980s. The UN continued to provide humanitarian aid for the natural disasters that struck the country from 1998 to 2001.

In Cambodia, the UN arrived in 1991 with a force of more than 20,000 troops, police, and civilians. The multibillion dollar budget made the Cambodian mission one of the biggest peacekeeping operations in its history. UNTAC's (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) job was enormous: it set out to keep order after the end of two decades of hostilities that killed one sixth of the Cambodian people. In addition, the UN had to clear landmines, and prepare for national elections, which took place in 1993. The Cambodian peace agreement gave UNTAC the power to create an interim coalition government, oversee key government ministries, remove Cambodian officials from office, manage the economy, and install its own media.

As UNTAC commander General John Sanderson explained: "Peacekeeping missions in the past just monitored ceasefires. In Cambodia we have a political objective--to create a democratic government through free and fair elections."

Another successful mission took place in Mozambique, where a UN-brokered peace ended 15 years of civil war and ushered in free elections in 1994. Mozambique became a...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!