Green, white and blue: Pakistan on the front-lines of UN peacekeeping

From Europe to Africa, Pakistan has always stepped up to offer troops for maintaining peace in strife-torn regions

KARACHI: In what were once the world’s major conflict zones, many locals still remember Pakistan by the distinctive image of ‘Blue Helmets’. Such has been the presence and commitment of Pakistan’s military and security personnel when it comes to United Nations peacekeeping duties.

Beginning with Congo in 1960, Pakistan has deployed peacekeepers in virtually every continent. In the 60 years that followed, the country has sent more than 200,000 troops for 46 missions in 28 different countries, consistently making it one of the top five contributors.

With any commitment comes sacrifice, and Pakistan’s Blue Helmet story is no different. As many as 157 Pakistani peacekeepers have been martyred while helping restore peace and stability to the turbulent regions, including 24 officers.

Even so, its dedication to UN peacekeeping efforts has not wavered. Even now, with more than 7,000 personnel deployed in nine of the 14 ongoing UN missions, Pakistan remains the third largest source of peacekeepers in the world.



Why focus on peacekeeping?

Speaking to The Express Tribune, some prominent defence analysts elaborated on the significance of Pakistan’s contribution to UN peacekeeping duties and why it forms a cornerstone of the country’s foreign policy.

“Participation in UN peacekeeping operations is now a tenet of Pakistan’s foreign policy. It takes its inspiration from the policy statement of the founder of the nation that Pakistan wants peace with all nations of the world,” said Prof Tughral Yamin, who teaches peacekeeping as a subject and has written a book titled ‘UN Peacekeeping Operations in Somalia 1992-1995: A Pakistani Perspective’.

He outlined the foreign policy objectives participation in these operations fulfills. “For a small nation in terms of power potential, participation in UN peacekeeping missions provides a suitable presence on the international arena,” Prof Yamin said. “Participation in a peacekeeping mission is also a soft way of portraying the country’s image as a responsible member state of the UN,” added.

According to Prof Yamin, peacekeeping missions also provided the Pakistan Army a useful way to showcase it skills in a positive manner. “Pakistan has a first rate professional army. For members of the armed forces, these missions provide great international exposure and allow them to work together with multinational forces and staffs and learn the latest skills in conflict management and post conflict stabilisation operations,” he said.

Prof Yamin also highlighted how participation in peacekeeping duties has even had a positive impact on the regional level for Pakistan. “It is interesting to note that while Pakistan and India are sworn enemies, they have amicably operated together on UN peacekeeping missions,” he pointed out.

Maj Gen (retd) Inamul Haque agreed with Prof Yamin in that UN peacekeeping missions have added value to our troops and built their image abroad. “Our prominence in such operations has earned both our country and forces immense goodwill,” he noted. “Although I never had the chance to participate myself, in Liberia, where my battalion was deployed in a peacekeeping role, they still remember Pakistanis and laud us.”

According to Gen Inam, Pakistan’s commitment to UN peacekeeping is “driven by the feeling that we have certain responsibilities under the UN Charter and we need to fulfill them.” He added that “Pakistanis, as a nation, also have a strong urge to help other people and nations in times of crisis, irrespective of religion and creed.”

“Although countries that provide peacekeepers receive some remuneration from the UN, this has never been a consideration for us. Where a lot of participating forces ask the UN to provide arms and equipment for peacekeeping missions, we have always relied on our own equipment and assets,” he pointed out.



 

Praised around the world

Elaborating on peacekeeping missions, Gen Inam explained that they entail several different kinds of operations. “These include peace enforcement, which involves some measure of fighting, as well as stability operations, policing, logistics support, medical assistance and aiding civil government in activities like holding elections,” he said.

According to him, when it came to UN missions, Pakistan’s contribution has been ‘multifarious and across the board’. “From Europe to Africa and the Middle East, we have been the trendsetters when it comes to many UN peacekeeping missions, performing all sorts of operations,” he said.

“When it comes to officers, ours have served in both staff and command positions. Many of our senior officers have even headed UN missions. Even in times of crisis, when we were fighting terrorism and rooting out insurgency on our Western border while engaged with India on the East, we have fulfilled our peacekeeping obligations,” Gen Inam stressed.

“It is not just military personnel or men that we have contributed either. We have sent police officials to support various UN peacekeeping operations and we have also provided lady officers serving in both military and police forces,” he added.

Gen Inam also pointed out how well Pakistan had acquitted itself in peacekeeping missions compared to others. “Where other countries’ peacekeeping record is marred by incidents ranging from theft and misappropriation to those as abhorrent as abuse and rape, Pakistan’s record for the most part has been spotless,” he said.

Indeed, Pakistani Blue Helmets’ performance has been widely acknowledged by both the UN leadership and world leaders.

While visiting Pakistan in 2013, then UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was ‘overwhelmed with gratitude’ for its role in aiding international peace and security. “More than 100 countries contribute troops and police for United Nations peacekeeping missions. Pakistan is number one,” he said at the time. “It is impossible to speak about the history of United Nations peacekeeping without highlighting such contributions of Pakistan. I thank you very much.”

UN diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi also praised Pakistan for its peacekeeping role in Haiti, expressing his ‘sincere admiration’ for the ‘splendid work’ of the Pakistani battalion deployed there.

Going back further in history, Indonesia’s first president Sukarno and then Chinese premier Chou En Lai also looked back on Pakistan’s peacekeeping role in the former country with utmost appreciation. “It was because of Pakistani troops that Indonesia and Pakistan came close together, they were Pakistan's best ambassadors,” Sukarno had said. “The only example in UN history, when a UN military force had gone in, performed its role honestly and came out was Pakistan's Military contingent in Indonesia,” the Chinese premier remarked.

Presently, Pakistani peacekeepers are deployed in Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Darfur, Somalia, Western Sahara, Mali, Abyei and Cyprus.



Glossed over in Black Hawk Down

When it comes to the various peacekeeping endeavours Pakistan has contributed, Somalia is simultaneously one of its most high profile ones as well as the most tragic. In what would be the bloodiest day for its history of participation in UN missions, 24 Pakistani peacekeepers were martyred on June 5, 1993.

“They were murdered in cold blood on the streets of Mogadishu while on mission to distribute food,” recalled Prof Yamin. “The accident happened because the HQ of the UN peacekeeping forces in Somalia failed to share the threat of the Somali warlord Farah Aidid’s faction that they would take the inspection of the authorised weapon sites as an act of war.”

“The day, June 5, is now marked as the day for Pakistani peacekeepers because of it,” he noted.

Prof Yamin also pointed out how Pakistan was involved in rescuing American troops in the aftermath of a botched operation launched by the latter in October that year. “This became the story of the famous movie Black Hawk Down. But the heroics of the Pakistani peacekeepers were not shown in the pop history produced by Hollywood,” he lamented.

Pakistani peacekeepers’ daring efforts to rescue the US troops was not the only episode that has seemingly been glossed over. “My unit, the elite 7 Frontier Force Regiment was the first military outfit in the world to land in the strife-torn Mogadishu in September 1992,” pointed out Prof Yamin. “They were preceded by a small group of military observers under the command of then brigadier Lt Gen (retd) Imtiaz Shaheen.”



“When this brave vanguard of Pakistani peacekeepers had stabilised the situation, 1,800 US Marines along with other western troops landed on the beaches of Mogadishu on December 9, 1992,” Prof Yamin pointed out. “This amphibious landing from US ships was a typical CNN-style show made for the home audience,” he said.

“TV crews were already placed on shore to catch the ‘historic’ event at ‘secret’ landing sites. It was a media exercise that conveniently overlooked that the Pakistanis were already in control of the sea and airport and were actively involved in the humanitarian aid to the impoverished people of Somalia.”

Prof Yamin lamented that so far even the Pakistani media has not highlighted Pakistani peacekeepers efforts around the world. “I think there is a need to focus on UN peacekeeping to project a soft image of Pakistan.  I only wish our political leaders and our mainstream media could project the work of our peacekeepers in more generous terms,” he said.

As for the Somalia mission, the deputy commander of UN forces in that country in 1993 did praise the Pakistani Blue Berets. “Many of the soldiers are alive today because of the willingness and skill of the Pakistani soldiers who worked jointly in a rescue operation. We are thankful to the people and army of Pakistan for sending such splendid soldiers to Somalia whom we feel proud to serve with,” Maj Gen Thomas M Montgomery had said at the time.