AP interview: Divisions among the world’s powerful nations are undermining UN efforts to end crises

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Deep divisions especially among the world’s most powerful nations have significantly undermined what the United Nations can do to help nations move from conflict to peace, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix told The Associated Press in an interview that these divisions – most notably between the U.S. and the West on one side and Russia and often China on the other — don’t only affect peacekeeping but everything the United Nations does in trying to promote peace and security.

The result is that in some cases the rivalry can lead to the presence of U.N. peacekeepers being questioned by the parties to the conflict — or even asked to leave, as happened in Mali and is happening in Congo, he said.

Twenty years ago, Lacroix said, a united international community pushed in the same direction as the United Nations to restore peace to East Timor, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cambodia.

“But we don’t have that anymore,” he said ahead of the International Day of U.N. Peacekeepers on Wednesday.

“Yes, we still have a U.N. presence in many different crisis situations, but we don’t have the same united, committed push of the membership to advance those political agreements between the parties,” he said. “And sometimes, those agreements just unravel or they stagnate and create frustration.”

Four years ago, the United Nations had approximately 110,000 peacekeepers deployed in 13 missions around the world. Today, there are about 80,000 military and civilians in 11 peacekeeping operations.

At the same time, as Switzerland’s U.N. ambassador told the Security Council last week, there are over 120 armed conflicts around the world and millions of people are suffering.

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