The United Nations’ Secretary-General – António Guterres – recently said:
“A peacekeeping operation is not an army, or a counter-terrorist force, or a humanitarian agency. It is a tool to create space for a nationally-owned political solution”.
This is a very straightforward concept of what the blue helmets do in their field missions. Peacekeepers do not win wars, neither do they stop them. They deploy to the “theater of operations” with an invitation from the local representatives, in order to monitor the fulfillment of the agreements until the belligerents reach a stable peaceful solution.
Blue helmets are tailored to endure the risks and restrictions of the conflict, and tolerate these punitive environments. The verb “To Tolerate”, in its original Latin form – “Tolerari” – means “to suffer in silence”. That is just what Peacekeepers do; suffering in silence their own casualties and trying to get some sense into the Former Warring Factions, to stop the killing.
It may not be a perfect system; it may require a serious revision in many areas of activities; but still, I am so damn proud of having served in the United Nations’ Peacekeeping Operations.
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