Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 13:48:28 +0200
The highs and lows of peacekeeping in South Sudan
08 Oct 2014
Oxfam's head of humanitarian policy and campaigns, Maya Mailer
(_at_MayaMailer), just back from South Sudan, reflects on some major progress
in UN peacekeeping, with mountains still to climb.
'Even if an attack was happening right outside our base and we could see it,
we would close the doors. Our job isn't protecting civilians but monitoring
the peace agreement'.
This is what a UN peacekeeper told me in South Sudan back in autumn 2009. I
will never forget the resignation with which he uttered those words. We
were in Yambio, close to the border with DR Congo, where the brutal
<http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/freedom-from-fear-protecting-people-from-one-of-
the-worlds-most-brutal-rebel-groups/> Lord's Resistance Army had been on the
rampage. Earlier that day, I had spoken to a group of boys who had
described the atrocities they'd witnessed. Now armed, mainly with bows and
arrows, known as the 'Arrow Boys', they were patrolling the bush to protect
their communities from further attacks. They were angry and baffled that the
nearby peacekeepers had done nothing to help them (see my
<http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/rescuing-pe
ace-southern-sudan_4.pdf> report on this more).
On the one hand, I was outraged at the injustice. How could it be that boys
had dropped out of school to protect their families while peacekeepers
hunkered down in their bases? But on the other hand, I felt sorry for that
peacekeeper. He was thousands of miles from his home. He hadn't received
clear instructions or training from the UN as to what protecting civilians
really meant. And while the UN mission had a mandate from the UN Security
Council to protect civilians, that came way down a long list of other
priorities. In any case, like many peacekeepers, he was almost certainly
receiving instructions from his own government not to get in harm's way.
Fast forward five years and I am walking around a UN peacekeeping base in
Juba, the capital of South Sudan, which is now home to thousands of
displaced civilians. Their community leader is telling me that they owe
their lives 'to the <http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unmiss/>
UNMISS'. Today, South Sudan's peacekeepers are sheltering around 100,000
men, women and children. When <http://www.hrw.org/node/126088> violence
gripped Juba last December, and spread to other parts of the country, the UN
peacekeepers opened their doors, and in doing so, saved hundreds if not
thousands of lives.
What caused this radical change in the UN mission's approach? Cynics would
say it was the sheer force of circumstance. As one tired aid worker put it
to me, 'it would have been a PR disaster' if the UN had turned away the
crowds that descended on its bases.
Perhaps. But I believe UNMISS deserves more credit. It had contingency
plans to host civilians (even if, like the rest of us, it did not anticipate
anywhere near the numbers of people that would seek safety). It showed
leadership and resolve in letting people in. I also like to think that the
painstaking advocacy that NGOs, including Oxfam, have done over the years on
civilian protection played a part. At a more abstract level, could this be
the influence-by-osmosis of the 'Responsibility to Protect' concept that my
colleague Ed Cairns wrote about
<http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/tag/responsibility-to-protect/> here, or the
impact of the UN's ' <http://www.un.org/sg/rightsupfront/> Rights Up Front
Initiative' that emerged following the
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20308610> human rights failures during
Sri Lanka's civil war? Whatever the reason, in my mind UNMISS actions in
South Sudan amount to a major UN protection achievement.
But that does not mean, ten months later, that UNMISS is doing enough. A
fraction of South Sudan's conflict-affected people are in formal 'Protection
of Civilian' (PoC) sites. UNMISS should patrol much more robustly and
actively outside of these camps so that, for example, women can go to market
without being attacked. Peacekeepers should get out of their vehicles,
patrol by foot,
<http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/engaging-with-communities-
the-next-challenge-for-peacekeeping-118088> talk to communities. Women in
Malakal recently said that where Rwandan peacekeepers are taking this more
proactive approach, they feel safer.
Even in the PoC sites themselves, people face a range of threats - some of
which, ironically, are a result of living in the very camp to which they
fled for protection. There is next to no privacy; people (especially the
young) are bored, frustrated, penned in; and women and girls are
experiencing high levels of sexual violence. While improving, conditions in
the camps range from tough to abominable. In the site in Bentiu, it has been
so swampy that families sleep standing up knee deep in mud (see MSF
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHid96p9d68> video). That people choose to
stay in such conditions is a measure of how frightened and traumatised they
are about what will happen if they leave.
A similar story can be told about South Sudan's hunger crisis. The
collective effort of aid agencies together with the incredible resilience of
the South Sudanese has pulled communities back from the brink of starvation.
But the risk of famine early next year remains real and there can be no let
up in our efforts, as Oxfam and 35 agencies describe in a new
<http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/from-crisis-to-catastrophe
-south-sudans-man-made-crisis-and-how-the-world-must-331971> report, From
Crisis to Catastrophe: South Sudan's man-made crisis - and how the world
must act now to prevent catastrophe in 2015.
But no amount of peacekeeping, however robust, and no amount of aid, however
effective, can end wars. Only the leaders of South Sudan can end this
conflict - a conflict which has exacted a most devastating toll on men,
women and children who were so hopeful that, after decades of violence and
poverty, an independent South Sudan would mean a brighter future.
And that brings me to the toughest question of all: what can be done to
change the calculations of the warring leaders to make peace rather than
wage war? I don't have the answer. I'm not sure if anybody does. But
surely part of it must be about exposing the fundamental inequality of this
conflict: that those most responsible for unleashing violence are most
immune from its consequences. As a South Sudanese friend, a young mother of
two, said on my recent trip: 'Those two men are safe. Their wives and
children are outside of the country, going shopping and to school. They are
safe. But here our children are dying.' She concluded with the proverb:
'When two elephants fight, it's the grass that is flattened.'
<http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/South-Sudan_Shelterin
g.jpg> Women and children shelter in the Malakal IDP camp (Simon
Rawles/Oxfam)
Women and children shelter in the Malakal IDP camp (Simon Rawles/Oxfam)
<http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/South-Sudan_Malakal-I
DP-Camp.jpg> Malakal IDP camp, where recent rains are making life
intolerable for civilians. (Simon Rawles/Oxfam)
Malakal IDP camp, where recent rains are making life intolerable for
civilians. (Simon Rawles/Oxfam)
Maya Mailer (_at_MayaMailer), just back from South Sudan, reflects on some
major progress in UN
<http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/maya-mailer-100.jpg>
maya-mailer-100peacekeeping, with mountains still to climb.
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