The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Canada will boost its support for UN peacekeeping missions by mobilizing a rapid response force of 200 soldiers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday.
As an initial step, Canada will send a Hercules aircraft to the UN regional support center in Entebbe, Uganda, which backs UN operations throughout Africa.
Other specific missions will be announced in six to nine months, officials said, adding that the actual number of soldiers and police deployed may be ramped up, as needed.
Details of the plan — part of a long-awaited announcement by the government in Ottawa — however still need to be sorted out with the United Nations, and the troop numbers fall far short of the 600 pledged one year ago.
“The conflicts we face today are intractable, dangerous, more complex,” Trudeau told a UN peacekeeping conference in Vancouver.
“Modern peace operations take place in a context that transcends borders and includes a challenging range of actors — fragile and failing states, militia groups, nonstate actors, organized criminals, and now of course, terrorists as well,” he said.
“Given that reality, we need to try new things.”
Trudeau’s initial pledge of up to 600 troops for UN peacekeeping operations was welcomed as a recommitment to multilateralism, after his predecessor Stephen Harper sought distance from the United Nations during his decade in office.
His government, however, delayed the deployment of troops while officials considered how to not just keep the peace, but rather how to bring an end to specific conflicts.
The Canadian “quick reaction force” will include 200 troops backed by tactical helicopters and Hercules transport aircraft, for up to 12 months.
Some 150 police officers will also be available for deployment — 65 are already deployed in Colombia, Haiti, Ukraine and the West Bank.
– Need for French speakers –
Canada is currently the ninth largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations around the world, but has only 25 soldiers tasked to UN missions in Cyprus (1), the Democratic Republic of Congo (9), South Sudan (10) and the Golan Heights (5).
Ottawa was pressured to commit troops to Mali, where there is a desperate need for French-speaking peacekeepers.
“This is still a possibility,” an official told a briefing.
In addition, the Canadian military will take on an “advise and assist” role, helping to train foreign armies to keep the peace in their own lands, go on patrols with them, and provide them with needed equipment.
Trudeau pledged Can$15 million (US$12 million) to create a UN fund to double the number of women in peacekeeping roles by 2020.
Women currently account for only 3.7 percent of military peacekeepers and 9.5 percent of police peacekeepers.
The UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial Meeting in Vancouver was attended by 500 delegates from 80 countries and five international organizations.
