UN'S PEACEKEEPING BUDGET BLUES
(Times Live) - By Sapa-AFP
The United Nations hopes to cut $1-billion (R7.6-billion) off its peacekeeping budget this year as it seeks to close or shrink many missions, a top UN official said.
With major powers pressing for spending cuts, the East Timor peacekeeping mission is expected to close by the end of 2012 and Haiti, Liberia - and possibly Darfur - could face reductions, said Herve Ladsous, the head of UN peacekeeping.
He said he hoped to cut the department's budget from $8-billion (R60.7-billion) last year to about $7 billion (R53.1-billion) this year.
"There are a number of missions that have gone through the critical stage and probably we will be able to start looking at downsizing," he said.
There are currently about 120,000 troops from 114 countries serving in 16 UN missions around the world. Numbers in the Haiti mission are already being cut and Ladsous said those in Liberia came down after last year's elections.
A review of the UN mission in Darfur, Sudan, started this week and Ladsous said similar studies in other operations would be carried out. Ladsous also said the UN may ban a whole country contingent from a mission if a soldier from that country is found guilty of sexual abuse. He is seeking a new crackdown on abuse after new cases were uncovered in Haiti, he said.
"It is a matter of concluding that in a case of a particular peacekeeping operation, one contingent may not be up to the standards we would expect of a peacekeeping contributing state," Ladsous said.
He said no decision had been made yet and no country would be completely banned from UN missions, as other officials have indicated.
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