UPDATE CPN MAOIST ADVERSELY AFFECTS NORMAL LIFE Kathmandu, 14 Sept : A bandhj enforced by CPN Maoist has adversely affected normal life in the country. The forced closure ends in another three hours. nnnn NO. OF NEPALI PEACEKEEPERS WTH UN CALLING Kathmandu, 14 Sept.: On a chartered flight from Kathmandu to Beirut, Maj Krishna Phuyal is happier than he has been in a long time. Accompanied by around 300 Nepal Army soldiers, he is headed for southern Lebanon, Phanindra Dahal writes in The Kathmandu Post.. In his 22 years of service in the Army, this will be the officer’s first UN mission. Nepali peacekeepers patrol Lebanon’s tense border with Israel. They also help locals harvest olives and construct playgrounds and drinking water plants. With the arrival of the new batch of peacekeepers, the old group of over 700 soldiers stationed at Mais al-Jabal are getting ready to catch flights home. Some have bought plasma television sets and cameras, while others lay out plans to invest in real estates, big and small, back home. The new ones look happy to be on a lucrative and prestigious mission and the returnees glad to have completed one. Notwithstanding the high risks involved in working in conflict zones, UN peacekeeping missions remain cherished dreams for thousands of Nepali soldiers and police personnel. By Nepali standards, the pay is handsome and opportunities to visit and work in foreign lands with foreign troops are added incentives. However, all has not gone well with Nepali peacekeeping, which started in 1958 with the deployment of five officers in Lebanon. The participation of Nepali peacekeepers have gone down in recent times, particularly in the last two years and opinions are divided on the reasons for the decline. To many, it could be because Nepali peacekeepers have been enmeshed in multiple controversies. In 2010, the number of Nepali peacekeepers reached a record high of 5,318. In October 2010, Nepali peacekeepers in Haiti were blamed for a devastating cholera outbreak, which killed nearly 7,000 people. The outbreak later became an agenda in the presidential elections for politicians to rake in votes by cashing in local outrage against the UN peacekeepers. Although the UN dismissed the allegations, a battalion of 715 Nepali soldiers was sent home last year. By January 2012, Nepal fell to the ninth position in the list of Troop Contributing Countries (TCC) with 3,601 peacekeepers, down from fourth in 2007 and sixth in 2010. To others, the strength of UN missions in a particular conflict zone is a confluence of a number of factors. Opening of new missions, closure of old missions and rightsizing of troops in view of changing security situations are responsible for the fluctuation in the number of peacekeepers, according to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).“Fluctuating numbers/ratios do not mean that a particular troop contributing country is good or bad,” says Andre-Michael Essoungu, Public Information Officer at the DPKO in the UN headquarters in New York. Whatever the reasons behind the decline, the fall in numbers is frustrating for the Nepal Army as a whole, for a soldier only gets a shot at a UN mission every nine years. From a six-month deployment with the UN, s/he makes a minimum of Rs 450,000. Soldiers appointed to yearly staff duties and as military observers at the various UN missions make even more—up to $40,000 (Rs.35.67 lakh) a year. Last fiscal year alone, the Nepal Army made over Rs 6.7 billion from its peacekeepers in forms of allowance for peacekeepers and reimbursement for equipment and weaponry of the contingents. Besides, the NA has been able to set up a welfare fund from the peacekeepers’ allowance for the past 38 years, which has an accumulation of Rs 21 billion. On Monday, the new Army chief Gen Gaurav SJB Rana said increasing participation in UN peacekeeping operations would be one of his six priorities. This year, the NA deployed two new missions to its 11 operations, most of which are stationed in Africa. This brings the number of Nepali peacekeepers to 3,982 and moving Nepal up to eighth among the TCCs. On the Golden Jubilee Year of Nepal’s contribution to the UN in 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed Nepal’s contribution as a ‘shining example’ in peacekeeping. A year later, the UN deported Major Niranjan Basnet from Chad, who was wanted by the Kavre district court for the murder of teenager Maina Sunuwar during the 10-year conflict. NA says Basnet received a clean chit from the Army’s court of inquiry before he was deployed to Chad, while rights groups continue to portray the case as an example of impunity in the country. Deputy Superintendent of Nepal Police, Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, was repatriated from Liberia in September 2011 after the UN discovered a pending human rights abuse case against him in Nepal. The multi-million dollar Sudan scam further tarnished the Nepal Police’s image where substandard armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were purchased for peacekeepers. Nepal received another jolt when Sudan this year refused to issue visas for Nepali police personnel, citing proficiency in the Arab language as a requisite for the peacekeepers. Darfur currently has 190 Nepal police and 65 Armed Police Force personnel but there is a huge question mark over new deployment. Yet, the DPKO in New York claims that Nepali peacekeepers are “above the UN peacekeeping average and contingents everywhere are well-received and are performing professionally.” It is not clear whether that is a standard UN response to most TCCs or Nepal-specific comments. Some officials claim that the NA’s impression at the UN HQ ‘eroded to some extent’ after the Army actively lobbied against the extension of the United Nations Mission in Nepal term in 2010. With 118 other countries contributing troops to the UN, the role of Nepal’s Permanent Representative (PR) in New York is crucial in creating new opportunities in a crowded field. The DPKO forwards request for peacekeepers through the PR. “Often times, our officials at the PR’s office are too busy exploring employment opportunities upon retirement for themselves, rather than focussing on national priorities,” said an official who has closely followed peacekeeping deployments. “Nepal’s PR Gyan Chandra Acharya has recently been appointed the Under-Secretary General at the UN, who was actively pitching himself for the post,” said the official. “I doubt if he pitched in for Nepali peacekeeping missions, if at all.” Like Acharya now, former Nepali PR in New York Madhu Raman Acharya and his predecessor Murari Raj Sharma both held UN jobs after their retirement from government service in 2010 and 2004 respectively. Officials say Nepal’s diplomacy at the UN has been poor at best and unless Nepal adopts a more assertive role in enhancing its peacekeeping role, the decline will only get worse. “The new chief (Rana) says, he will champion for the case. We will see,” a former general said. “The government must invest its resources, such as logistics support, to help these missions,” said former Lt Gen C B Gurung, “just as the other TCCs like Bangladesh do.” That will be welcome news for many others who eagerly await their turn to don the trademark blue helmets of the UN peacekeepers, like Maj Phuyal who has now returned home from Lebanon. nnnn