NEW YORK: Pakistan has called for strengthening the role and capacity of UN peacekeeping in hotspots around the world, saying the missions must be part of the effort to address and resolve the underlying causes of conflict that the Blue Helmets monitor.
“A peacekeeping mission must be part of an overall ‘political strategy’ that seeks to address and resolve the underlying causes of conflict and violence,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the U.N. Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, which held its first 2024 session on Tuesday. The Pakistani envoy said that peacekeeping — U.N.’s flagship activity — was a “success story.” Pakistan, he said, has over the years contributed more than 200,000 personnel to 47 peacekeeping missions in “often challenging theatres” of conflict around the world, in addition to hosting one of the first such operations — the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in disputed Jammu and Kashmir.
Ambassador Akram called for accountability of the growing attacks against UN peacekeepers, noting the increasingly difficult challenges – from terrorists’ criminal groups, and tribal rivalries, with unprecedented levels of threats to the peacekeepers’ safety and security. –Agencies
