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The magnitude and nature of interference differs from one mission to another however, as will be discussed and demonstrated in subsequent chapters, the meddling in internal politics of host countries has reached in some cases, proportions where the elimination of local leaders is sanctioned by UN peacekeepers as happened in Congo (Adebajo and Landsberg 2007). In Somalia, the elimination of the most powerful warlord General Farah Aideed was pursued overtly by US forces under the umbrella of UN mandates (Peterson 1992). In Rwanda, the assassination of the Rwandan President and his Burundian counterpart took place after UN peacekeepers had closed one of the runways of the airport thus channelling approaching aircraft to one lane (Black 2014). This decision was made without consulting Rwandan authorities in violation of host state sovereignty. The Bruguire Report (2006) highlights the degree of UN peacekeepers’ complicity in the preparation for the downfall of the Rwandan government. This will be addressed in detail in chapter five of this thesis.
The concept of state sovereignty has been viewed as a fundamental pillar of the international states system: “the basic norm” upon which the society of states is anchored, the “cardinal principle” of international law, the “cornerstone” of the UN Charter, and “the global covenant”
that must be abided with by all peace loving states (Ayoob 2002). It is therefore disheartening that the new multidimensional tasks being authorized by UN Security Council indeed violate state sovereignty as they seek to promote neo-liberal and neo-colonial agendas of the big powers in the name of protecting civilian populations yet in practice the outcomes of these missions are not primarily in the interests of the host population. The case studies in subsequent chapters will demonstrate the magnitude of UN peacekeepers’ violation of host state sovereignty as each mission is examined in greater detail.
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Peacekeeping was invented as an improvisation of proxy military operations by the UN following the failure of collective security arrangements as enshrined in the Charter (Diehl 1994:28-29). Through evolution, the objectives of peacekeeping intervention have generally transformed from managing inter-state conflicts to ostensibly getting embroiled in internal conflicts where peacekeeping activities are now much more widely utilized as a form of global governance. UN peacekeeping and peace-building interventions in the countries under study have evolved into intrusive mechanisms for regulating post-colonial affairs, and they often reflect in their design and implementation, a wider political agenda set outside the continent.
The functions performed by peacekeepers have evolved from the traditional and limited military tasks such as patrolling border areas to such complicated assignments such as facilitating ‘national reconciliation’ or setting up a ‘temporary authority’, functions that require not only complex networking along the military–civilian and technical–political spectra as detailed in comprehensive peace accords, but also a higher degree of UN involvement in
‘domestic affairs’ of host nations, as exemplified by direct UN responsibility in ‘conducting’
elections (Aksu 2003:92).
This chapter has also demonstrated that UN peacekeeping operations have evolved from being facilitators in the institutionalization and transmission of various visions of liberal modernity on the periphery of the world system, the buffering of nation-states, to the policing of the international political economy and lately participation in sensitive and intrusive intricate restructuring of state-society relations to suit the neo-liberal market oriented agenda that guarantee the supply of raw materials to developed economies as designed by former colonial masters. Viewed from a critical theory perspective, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian missions illustrate the disempowering effects of statist sovereignty through globalization. Rich and powerful states and their institutions are the sources of key decisions about policing and riot control in the periphery where the root causes of conflict would have been aggravated by global capitalism since conflicts in the developing world are a manifestation of stresses in the international system for which corporations, states, and the international financial institutions are largely responsible. These global trends have seen the erosion of the requirement of host state consent especially in those cases where ‘humanitarian interventions’ accompanied peacekeeping missions.
Based on the discussion above, it has been argued that the evolution of peacekeeping operations has served to reinforce the structure of the world system as preferred by developed Western powerful nations particularly the US. The merger of peacekeeping operations with
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humanitarianism has provided an ethical platform and justification for “riot control” like operations in “rogue” countries and “failed states” whilst promoting the globalization of a particular ideology of “good governance” and the “liberal peace” without necessarily addressing the root causes of conflict in countries on the periphery.
The case studies that follow attempt to establish the extent to which UN peacekeepers meddled in the political power dynamics of host countries in order to influence the final outcomes of the conflict in favour of the chief sponsors of UN peacekeeping missions. The next chapter examines and highlights the unethical conduct of UN peacekeepers in Congo during the early 1960s and how that mission condemned that country to perpetual dependency on foreign troops to address its internal political problems.
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CHAPTER THREE
Ethical Challenges to United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the Republic of Congo with reference to the period (1960-1964)