DURBAN - India’s contributions to UN peacekeeping operations (UNPKOs)have been underscored by the experience and professionalism of India’s armed forces.
Speaking at the September 2015 Leaders’ Summit in New York on UN Peacekeeping, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said: “The foundations of the United Nations were laid by the brave soldiers on the battlefields of the Second World War. By 1945, they included 2.5million men of the Indian Army, the largest volunteer force in history.”
India, today, is the largest contributor of troops to UNPKOs. More than 200000 troops have served in 49 of the 71 operations deployed so far.
As an “original” founder-member of the UN, India has not hesitated to respond to calls to contribute troops for maintaining international peace and security. In 1950, the 60 Parachute Field Ambulance of the Indian Army was sent to provide medical cover to US/ROK (Republic of Korea) and UN forces engaged in the Korean War. The unit served in Korea for three-and-a-half years - the longest single tenure by any military unit under the UN flag.
From 1956 to 1967, 11 infantry battalions from India served by rotation in the UN Emergency Force to ensure the withdrawal of France, UK and Israel from Egyptian territory and to sustain the peace between Israel and her Arab neighbours.
In 1960, the Congo requested the deployment of UN peacekeepers to counter secession and re-integrate the country after Belgian rule.Between July 1960 and June 1964, two Indian brigades participated in the UN Operation in the Congo UNPKO.
India’s participation in the initial UNPKOs resulted in a growing pool of Indian military officers seconded to the UN whose professionalism and experience have contributed to UN peacekeeping doctrine. The contribution of Major-General IJ Rikhye, appointed as the first military adviser to the UN Secretary General between 1960 and 1967, was seminal in this context.
The three core principles of effective UN peacekeeping were identified based on the experience of UNPKOs on the ground. These are deployment with the consent of the parties, impartiality in operations, and non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate.
Subsequent contributions to UN peacekeeping doctrine by Indian military officers have built on this, both at UN headquarters (where two Indian generals have served as military advisers in recent years) and in the field (where 15 Indian generals have acted as force commanders with distinction).
The end of the Cold War resulted in a mushrooming of crises. More than 20 new UNPKOs were deployed between 1989 and 1994. India’s contributions to these operations rose significantly. Three areas have emerged where India’s contributions have made a difference.
The first is in making use of UN peacekeeping across the world to ensure a political transition to peace. The second area is in augmenting peace-building activities by encouraging and mentoring the strengthening of national governance institutions.
India became the first country to demonstrate the effectiveness of women as UN peacekeepers with the deployment of the first all-female formed police unit to the UNPKO in Liberia (Unmil) in 2007.
The third area is in leading the ground-level response to new challenges, while the UN Security Council remains ineffective in implementing its decisions.
One of the challenges facing countries that contribute troops, like India, is the denial by the permanent members of the Security Council to have a say in decisions regarding the deployment of said troops.
Thousands of troops from UN member states have given their lives defending the UN Charter and the highest number of those are from India.
Mukerji is the former permanent representative of India to the UN.
- THE MERCURY