NIKKI HALEY IS WRONG TO BOAST ABOUT PEACEKEEPER BUDGET
CUTS: A VIEW FROM THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Haley’s ill-advised and alarming
boast and promise to cut more funds is a serious risk to UN peacekeeping
operations. This is especially so in the Central African Republic (CAR), where
we have worked in and with NGOs, and with the UN mission (MINUSCA), advancing
civilian protection, humanitarian aid, education, and investigations into war
crimes and human rights violations. In the CAR, security reinforcements, not
funding cuts, are needed—particularly in a context where peacekeepers have also
become a target of attacks.
The country’s security situation
is deteriorating rapidly, and the prospect of new mass atrocities, ethnic
killings, and forced displacement that had been looming for the past few
months, is becoming a reality, particularly in the central and eastern
provinces.
Around the towns of Bria,
Kaga-Bandoro, and Bambari, tensions have been on the rise since mid-2016.
Recently, the Fulani people have been forcibly displaced from the
sub-prefecture of Bakouma. Muslim internally displaced people in the city of
Bangassou are being prevented by the rest of the population from returning to
their neighborhoods, and an armed group made up of former Seleka members
calling itself the, L’Union pour la Paix en Centrafrique (UPC), is targeting
anti-Balaka militias as well as the communities around the towns of Alindao and
Kembe. In the town of Zemio, 19,000 people have been displaced amid outbreaks
of violence between armed groups in the past weeks, with some fleeing into the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. As we drafted this piece, the grandmother of
one of the co-authors was burned alive during an attack on her house in Zemio,
and his eight-year old son is missing.
UN peacekeeping is in need of
critical reform, but Haley is boasting about cutting a peacekeeping budget that
funds an essential mission, MINUSCA, that we have seen save lives. Peacekeepers
in the CAR have reduced armed conflict, protected entire villages and homes
from destruction, supported civil society and aid workers, helped civilians to
access necessary health and education services, rebuilt local administration,
including court and prison services, and furthered political, disarmament, and
demobilization processes.
The UN peacekeeping mission in
the CAR has been instrumental in protecting civilians in the country,
particularly through supporting the peace process—key to addressing root causes
of the violence and mitigating the threat of mass atrocities. The peacekeeping
mission was brought in after violence broke out in early December 2013, when
armed groups toppled the government of Michel Djotodia, who had himself
violently seized power less than nine months earlier. Between December 2013 and
August 2014, at least 3,003 civilians were killed, and hundreds of thousands
displaced. As of June 30, 2017, over half a million people remain displaced
within the CAR, and 480,000 have sought refuge outside the country.
In the capital city, Bangui, some
of the worst violence took place in or near an area commonly called “PK5,” in
which the vast majority of residents are Muslim, and where one of the
co-authors of this piece lives and works. Between 2014 and 2016 there were
dozens of attacks between armed factions, with civilians caught in the middle.
MINUSCA worked with local authorities, and both Christian and Muslim
communities to protect and rescue civilians. Peacekeepers patrolled PK5 during
periods of heightened insecurity, protecting households, and helped to secure
key sites where displaced civilians were living, including the central mosque.
Additionally, MINUSCA played a
crucial role in building a protective environment for populations, through
supporting transitional authorities to organize popular consultations in the
run up to the Bangui Forum in early 2015, negotiate a disarmament agreement with
armed groups, and subsequently support peaceful, free, and fair elections. The electoral processes to decide upon a new
President, legislature, and constitution were marred by repeated delays, due to
ongoing violence and insecurity. However, the peacekeeping mission partnered
with the government, civil society, and the international community to support
credible and peaceful elections.
This is not to understate the
significant problems with peacekeeping in the CAR and elsewhere. There have
been multiple and repeated allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by
peacekeepers in the CAR, and violations of international humanitarian law,
including extra-judicial killings. Additionally, the mission has struggled in
many instances to protect civilians and respond to emergencies when they arise,
maintain perceptions of impartiality, and ensure that alleged perpetrators of
mass atrocities are held to account. This is partly a result of the varied
performance of its police and military components, sometimes lacking the
capacity, resources, training, or overall readiness and intent to deter
violence and proactively protect populations under threat.
However, there have been steps
taken by the mission to support efforts to counter impunity, both by
peacekeepers and by perpetrators of the conflict. MINUSCA, for example, has
taken measures to prevent further misconduct by its personnel, and worked with
the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to produce a report
mapping the main human rights violations in the CAR over the period 2003-2015.
Additionally, the mission has supported the development of forensic expertise
in the country, as well as the formation of a Special Criminal Court, to try
those responsible for crimes since 2003. A Special Prosecutor was appointed in
February this year, and senior members of the court sworn in this month.
On June 30, 2017, the UN General
Assembly agreed to slash $600 million from the current peacekeeping budget,
bringing the total budget for the 13 missions and one support office around the
world down to $7.3 billion. Under the agreement, American contributions to
peacekeeping were reduced by 7.5-percent. While some cuts were expected, as the
progressive drawdown continues of UN peacekeeping missions in Ivory Coast, Haiti,
and Darfur, budget cuts imposed on some of the other missions are concerning.
In the CAR, history has taught that withdrawing a peace operation too hastily
can prevent the creation of an environment needed to sustainably restore a
stable state authority. A four-percent cut for 2017-2018 and additional cuts on
peacekeeping budgets overall may further jeopardize the situation of hundreds
of thousands of Central Africans.
Nikki Haley and the U.S.
administration are wrong to believe that peacekeeping will be fixed through
major funding cuts. Instead, missions should be supported, police and military
components selected and equipped so as to ensure operational readiness and
performance, and individuals held accountable in cases where they commit
abuses. We witness how peacekeepers protect civilians and promote democracy in
the most dangerous, remote, and inaccessible areas of the world. Major funding
cuts risk reducing the effectiveness of peacekeeping missions, resulting in
further destabilization, violence, and conflict—in CAR and elsewhere.
