Rapid Deployment Forces Crucial To Un Peacekeeping

Regional Rapid Deployment Forces Crucial To Un Peacekeeping - Annan

With regional military forces being strengthened for rapid deployment, the United Nations can now deploy multinational peacekeeping troops as part of a series of steps reinforcing strategic partnerships, especially in Africa, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says.

The focus of cooperation with regional organizations "has been both on seeking direct support to the United Nations by deploying before, alongside, or after a United Nations operation, as well as on the long-term enhancement of the capacity for peacekeeping of regional and sub-regional organizations, particularly in Africa," he tells the General Assembly in a new report.

In Côte d'Ivoire, forces fielded by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) established the peace, reinforced by a greater number of French "Licorne" rapid reaction peacekeeping forces, until the Security Council authorized a UN operation. In Liberia, too, ECOWAS forces imposed the peace and were then "re-hatted" with the blue helmets of UN peacekeepers.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a European Union-led force deployed in Bunia and reduced ethnic fighting there, while the UN mission, MONUC, was restructured to address wider security needs.

Elsewhere, UN peacekeepers cooperate with forces from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and the Australian-led International Force in East Timor (INTERFET), the report notes.

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