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India has asked the UN Security Council to make mandatory provisions for prosecuting and neutralising armed groups that threaten to harm UN peacekeeping operations.
The second largest contributor to the UN peace missions in 2014, India also expressed concern over the UNSC's mandate formulation without consulting the troops contributing nations as well as over changes midway during the operations.
The UN Charter authorises the Security Council to mandate peacekeeping operations.
"We would like to urge the UN and specially the UNSC to ensure a mandatory inclusion in all UN peacekeeping operation mandates of legally binding provisions for prosecuting, penalising and neutralising any non-governmental armed groups and armed militias causing, or threatening to cause, harm to UNPKOs," said Abhishek Singh, first secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations.
"The dangers of using the UN peacekeepers to tackle what are essentially internal political conflicts need not be overemphasised," he said at a UN General Assembly session on Wednesday.
Singh added that under Article 44 of the UN charter, the UNSC should invite member states not represented in the Council to participate in its decisions concerning employment of contingents of that member's armed forces in peacekeeping operations.
He expressed concern that "in actual practice" the UNSC does not hold consultations with contributing nations on peacekeeping operations.
"It is not only the formulation of the mandates but also the change of the mandates mid-stream which is a source of concern for us."
We have witnessed the proclivity of the SC to mix the traditional original mandate given to the UNPKOs subsequently with a new interventionist mandate for a small portion of the troops in the same peacekeeping operation, he said in his statement on 'Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in all their Aspects' at the Assembly's Fourth Committee.
India experienced this tendency of the 15-nation Council with regard to the March 2013 mandate of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"India currently contributes more than 4000 troops to MONUSCO and has concerns on this important issue," Singh said.
India has so far sent more than 1,70,000 troops to 44 of the 69 UNPKOs mandated.
Singh said that while the multi-dimensional peacekeeping is a reality, India still firmly believes that the core values of UN peacekeeping including the principles of consent, impartiality, and non-use of force except in self-defence and in defence of the mandate must be reiterated.
He termed as a challenge the need to ensure synergy between peacekeeping and peacebuilding.
On the issue of logistics, he said India believes that investment in equipments and training go a long way in making the peacekeeping operations more viable and sustainable.
"With the emergence of multidimensional mandates, we have a situation of new mandates of UNPKOs without providing for matching financial resources," he said.
The General Assembly decided a new rate of 1322 dollars per person per month for the peacekeeping years starting from July 2014, as against the 1762.55 dollars suggested by the troop costs survey recommended by the Senior Advisory Group.
He said there is an urgent need to offset the mismatch between the requirement of the resources and the actual allocated resources.
India also emphasised the importance of having adequate representation of troop and police contributing countries in headquarter departments including leadership positions inboth field and at the UN headquarters.
"We would also like to stress the importance of capacity building in the field of peacekeeping. India stands ready to share its expertise in this field," he said.