Keeping peace in Zusa

In Zusa, three warring factions have just settled for peace after years of war. On the request of the factions, the United Nations Security Council has authorised deployment of a peacekeeping force comprising troops from India, the United States and several other nations.

What are the challenges facing the peacekeepers? How severe is the threat of life to the soldiers? Will the increasing collaboration between non-state players and their access to weapons of mass destruction be visible in Zusa?

The answers will unfold over the next week or so as soldiers, observers, policemen and others involved in peacekeeping in Zusa sit down in front of their wired computers, playing the stimulated scenario in the fictitious country.

"It is a major event; a great pride for India," said Lieutenant General Satish Nambiar, Director of the triservice think-tank United Services Institute of India, where the USI Centre for UN Peacekeeping is located. He was speaking after the inauguration of a multinational peacekeeping exercise, Shantipath, in which participants are from the US, India and 14 other nations.

India is one of the UN's biggest contributors of troops in real life peacekeeping operations.

Gen Nambiar told rediff.com that the exercise, a joint effort by India and the US, also reflects the 'increased military-to-military cooperation' between the two sides.

Addressing the gathering, US Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill said, "Peacekeeping will continue to be an important mission for many militaries in the foreseeable future. Multilateral training will assist all in understanding the problems that arise when national armed forces with different histories, professional cultures and procedures operate together."

And the skills of Indian Army 'in multilateral teamwork' makes it the 'perfect co-host for this effort', he said.

Blackwill added, "Few countries have a more varied familiarity with peacekeeping than India, and its record of international service has provided the Indian military with crucial know-how that should help make this exercise a resounding success."

Secretary of the USI's peacekeeping centre, Colonel M K Mehta, said the exercise is a 'training initiative between the Indian Army and the US Army Pacific Command'.

The peacekeeping centre, the only such centre in this part of the world, is a joint venture between the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Defence, the service headquarters and the United Service Institution of India.

Shantipath was among the proposals considered during the third Indo-US Joint Working Group Meeting on Peacekeeping held in New Delhi in April 2002, Col Mehta said.

This is the first time the Pacific Command is co-hosting the Command Peacekeeping Exercise outside their headquarters in Hawaii.