The effectiveness of the United Nations peacekeepers is yet again under question after a miserable episode in South Sudan. The people of the world’s newest country are struggling to survive as the leadership indulges in yet another bout of murderous violence as the Dinka supporters of President Salva Kiir continue to fight the Nuer followers of his former deputy president Riek Machar, which has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people and mass starvation. This miserable situation was foreseen, which is why the United Nations deployed a peacekeeping force of 12,000 soldiers in 2011 at independence, but they have spectacularly failed in their duties. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has just sacked their commander, following a damning report that accused the UN troops of failing to protect civilians during an outbreak of violence this July, going so far as to describe the lack of leadership in the UN mission as “chaotic and ineffective”.
It is a disaster that the peacekeepers abandoned their posts and failed to respond to pleas for help from aid workers when they were under attack in the Terrain Hotel in Juba. The UN secretary-general has asked for the immediate replacement of the force commander and the next step is for the UN to identify those responsible for the security failings. It will be up to the national authorities of the contributing countries (China, India, Ethiopia and Nepal) to discipline their troops stationed in the country for not fulfilling their duties.
The tragedy in South Sudan is reminiscent of another major UN failure — in the former Yugoslavia in July 1995 when a small contingent of lightly-armed Dutch troops serving as UN troops were powerless to intervene as they were outgunned and outnumbered by Serbian forces who slaughtered 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in Bosnia. A significant part of that failure was lack of air power and the Dutch commander repeatedly called in vain for air force intervention to stop the Serb troops bearing down on the enclave.
There is no doubt that UN peacekeepers go into very dangerous situations and it is important that they are given an effective mandate with enough firepower to enforce the mandate. What is unclear is what happened in Juba, but any future trust of the UN in many suffering regions will be under question if it has failed yet again.
