§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proposals he has to improve the response times in the establishment and deployment of UN peacekeeping forces.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggWe support the United Nations Secretary-General's standby force planning initiative, and have provided details of British resources which could be made available to the UN on a case by case basis. We believe it is important that member states should maintain a dialogue with the UN's standby force planning team, and a British delegation will be visiting New York in the next few weeks to take this forward.
In addition, we believe that some member states could deploy more swiftly on peacekeeping operations if they had the requisite logistic support, and support the Secretary-General's proposals in his Supplement to an Agenda for Peace for close co-operation between member states in this area.
§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proposals he has for improving the logistical support of UN peacekeeping forces in their initial stages.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggWe have made a series of proposals to the United Nations with a view to improving the logistic support for peacekeeping operations. In particular, it is essential that the operational and administrative staffs at the UN Secretariat coordinate fully, that requirements for the provision of logistic support are factored in to the planning at an early stage, and that arrangements for letting contracts are taken forward as soon as a decision has been taken by the Security Council to launch or expand a mission. In addition, it is essential that there should be an appropriate combination of military and commercial logistic back-up, and that decisions on expenditure should be delegated to field level whenever possible.
§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what lessons he has learnt from the establishing of UN peacekeeping operations in Somalia, Bosnia and Rwanda; and what steps he is taking to remedy any inadequacies or errors.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggThe UN operations in Somalia, Bosnia and Rwanda have been undertaken in widely differing political circumstances, and with varying degrees of security in theatre.
Nevertheless, all these operations have demonstrated the importance of ensuring that the mandates for such missions are clear and precise; that peacekeeping operations must remain impartial and operate with the consent of the parties; that it is essential to maintain unity of command; and that the success of operations depends 606W on member states making available the necessary resources in terms of both personnel and funding.