'World still needs UN peacekeepers': Jean-Pierre Lacroix
Africa is home to most UN peacekeeping missions, but many people across the continent view such deployments skeptically. UN member states held their fifth peacekeeping ministerial meeting in Ghana’s capital, Accra, to discuss reforms and securing political support for UN peacekeeping operations. The UN undersecretary-general for peace operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, spoke with DW exclusively.
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00:00 We have a more divided world.
00:02 We have conflicts that are multiplying.
00:05 And we have more threats and a deteriorated security
00:10 environment in most of our peacekeeping operations.
00:12 How can we deal with that?
00:14 How can we deal with misinformation
00:16 and disinformation?
00:17 How can we deal with the negative impact
00:20 of new technologies, armed groups, terrorism,
00:25 the illegal exploitation of natural resources,
00:29 and all these factors of conflict?
00:33 We've done a lot of trying to address all these challenges,
00:40 all these initiatives on safety and security,
00:42 or misinformation, disinformation,
00:43 and many other-- more women in peacekeeping.
00:46 We call that action for peacekeeping.
00:49 We need to continue, but we need to go further.
00:52 And this meeting in Accra is an opportunity
00:55 to look at what we've done and what more needs to be done.
00:59 In Africa, there have been some successes.
01:01 We are talking about South Sudan and also
01:04 Central Africa Republic.
01:05 But in Mali and DR Congo, the success hasn't been there.
01:09 How do you feel about the mixed successes
01:11 you've chalked in Africa?
01:13 In Mali, the mission has been faced
01:16 with the phenomenon for which there
01:19 needs to be another response.
01:21 I mean, I'm not saying, again, that MINUSMA
01:23 did a lot in Mali in terms of protecting civilians
01:26 and helping the state capacities to be strengthened.
01:31 But the regional terrorism that is affecting Mali
01:36 requires another type of response.
01:38 That's why also the UN supports a strengthening
01:43 of peace enforcement operation, particularly
01:45 African peace enforcement operation.
01:49 In the DR Congo, we are also faced
01:51 with a number of challenges.
01:53 Again, that doesn't mean that we don't do a lot for population.
02:00 But we have this sort of regional conflict
02:02 that doesn't speak its name in the Great Lakes.
02:05 However, I think it's important to highlight
02:08 from my personal experience that when
02:12 you go to the places where our peacekeepers are deployed
02:17 and you meet the population that they are protecting,
02:19 that they are interacting with, the feedback
02:22 is always positive.
02:24 They never tell us, go away.
02:26 Neither in Mali, nor in the DRC, certainly not
02:29 the Central African Republic, South Sudan.
02:32 That doesn't mean that they may not criticize us.
02:35 They may ask us, OK, do more.
02:37 We need this.
02:37 We need that.
02:38 Now, talking about reforms that have been called for UN
02:41 peacekeeping mission mandates to be reformed so that your troops
02:45 can have more power to be proactive instead of being
02:47 reactionary, what will you say to that?
02:50 It's not peace enforcement.
02:52 We're not waging war.
02:54 But we have mandates that enable us to do a lot.
02:56 And actually, our peacekeepers are
02:58 doing a lot in countering the threats like these armed groups
03:04 and other forms of threats.
03:08 And the mandates allow that.
03:11 But there needs to be more effort, certainly,
03:14 to make sure that we make the full use.
03:16 And at the same time, when peacekeeping reaches its limit,
03:19 when it's about peace enforcement against terrorism,
03:23 against these kind of threats, when
03:26 there is no peace to keep, then it
03:28 has to be something else than peacekeeping.
03:30 Why will you argue still for the relevance of the UN
03:33 peacekeeping mission?
03:34 First of all, we should think of what the alternative is.
03:38 Do we have better alternative?
03:39 What if tomorrow you remove all these peace corporations?
03:43 What about the ceasefires that are being protected and monitored?
03:46 What about the hundreds of thousands of civilians
03:48 that are protected?
03:49 And sometimes, the peacekeepers are
03:51 alone in protecting these hundreds of thousands
03:55 of civilians.
03:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]