Peacekeeping missions like UNMOGIP valuable: UN official

A senior UN peacekeeping official has rejected assertion that missions such as the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) are doing nothing, saying they are valuable and performing on the basis of ground realities in "frozen conflict" areas.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bintou Keita was asked during a press briefing here about "frozen conflicts" where peacekeeping missions stay forever.

She was asked about missions such as UNMOGIP, United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golaan Heights and that these missions are "sitting there doing nothing".

Keita was asked how these frozen conflicts can be addressed and mandates reactivated to achieve results.

The question that should be asked is "if they were not there, what would happen," Keita said.

She said the "rhetoric that because there is no peace process moving then they are doing nothing, I would say that we would need to reframe this because all the reduction of violence, which can escalate actually, they are dealt with by the peacekeepers, by the mission."
Keita said all these UN peacekeeping missions have their value and they are "rendering and performing on the basis of what is going on there."
She stressed that the missions are frozen because of the dynamics that are going on at the local, regional, sub-regional (levels), which have to do with politics and the mission is a tool at one point to support the political process."