Top UN peacekeeping official warns of ‘overstretch’

[tocqueville]

Top UN peacekeeping official warns of ‘overstretch’ as mission staff numbers surge

Jean-Marie Guéhenno
4 October 2006 – An “unprecedented” surge is taking place in the number and size of United Nations peacekeeping missions, with as many as 140,000 staff members likely to be in the field next year, a senior UN official said today, warning of the dangers of political overstretch when there are so many operations competing for attention.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told reporters at a briefing in UN Headquarters in New York that “we have our work really cut out for us” to manage the growth in size of peacekeeping missions, especially as the planned full deployment unfolds in Lebanon, Sudan’s Darfur region and Timor-Leste.

He said there are more than 93,000 people currently working in the field at the UN’s 16 peacekeeping missions and two political-peacebuilding missions that are directed and supported by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).

Once the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) complete their full deployment, and if the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) expands its operations in Darfur as authorized, then there will be over 140,000 blue helmets, police officers and civilian staff in place.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20138&Cr=peacekeep&Cr1=