ARTICLE - NEW UN PEACKEKEEPING CHIEF

FRENCH DIPLOMAT IS NEW UN PEACEKEEPING CHIEF
(AP) - By Anita Snow

UNITED NATIONS — Veteran French diplomat Herve Ladsous was appointed the new U.N. peacekeeping chief on Friday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ladsous, chief of staff at the French Foreign Ministry, previously served as ambassador to China, Indonesia, East Timor and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and as deputy ambassador to the United Nations in New York.

Ladsous will oversee U.N. peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Western Sahara, Lebanon, Sudan, Kosovo and elsewhere.

Ban said Friday that Ladsous brings to his new job "an acute political judgment, strong crisis management capacities, especially in the area of peacekeeping (and) a profound understanding of the challenges facing the United Nations. His capacity to build consensus is recognized by his peers all over the world."

By tradition, each of the five veto-wielding permanent members on the Security Council gets a top post in the U.N. Secretariat. In recent years, the French have held peacekeeping, just as the British have held humanitarian affairs and the Americans have held political affairs.

Ban praised the outgoing undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, who also is French, for his "able leadership ... during a very challenging period." Le Roy was preceded by fellow French diplomat Jean-Marie Guehenno, and before him by another Frenchman, Bernard Miyet.

Ladsous' appointment comes as U.N. peacekeeping operations continue to grow in size and importance.

Nearly 120,000 people work at the 15 U.N. peacekeeping operations on four continents, including about 98,000 uniformed personnel. That's a fourfold increase in personnel since 1991.

Approved overall peacekeeping costs for the current fiscal year top $7 billion.

The United Nations does not have its own military force but depends on member states to donate military and police personnel for peacekeeping. The peacekeepers have helped disarm more than 400,000 ex-combatants in the past decade alone.