UNITED NATIONS -- Nikki Haley, in her first week as U.S. ambassador, made an overhaul of the United Nations' far-flung peacekeeping operations a top priority, diplomats said.
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.arkansas…">U.S. halts ban on travel, says it will appealhttp://www.arkansas…">Sanctions just in, Iranians in drills shoot off missileshttp://www.arkansas…">Firm in dossier on Trump sues BuzzFeed http://www.arkansas…">If Rio Grande fence quirky, wall trickyhttp://www.arkansas…">Kentucky 'massacre' claim elicits chuckles http://www.arkansas…">Pence: Gorsuch will join courthttp://www.arkansas…">Mattis' remarks on isles rile China http://www.arkansas…">Files: Trump still tied to businesshttp://www.arkansas…">Trump's nominee for Army secretary drops out, citing business concerns http://www.arkansas…">ACLU popularity grows http://www.arkansas…">U.S. utilities delve deeper into solar power
The missions cost nearly $8 billion a year and Haley said in her Senate confirmation hearing last month that she wants to look at all 16 to see which are succeeding in maintaining peace and which aren't.
"Do we need to shift and do things differently, or do we need to pull out?" she asked.
Haley singled out the mission in war-ravaged South Sudan, the world's newest nation, calling it "terrible." She said the government isn't cooperating with the U.N. force, which has nearly 13,000 troops and police and a current budget of more than $1 billion.
[PRESIDENT TRUMP: Timeline, appointments, executive orders + guide to actions in first 100 days]
Two diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the conversations were private, said that in discussions last week Haley put a mission-by-mission review of peacekeeping operations as a top priority.
One diplomat said Haiti, where nearly 5,000 U.N. troops and peacekeepers are deployed at an annual cost of about $346 million, is a mission Haley talked about winding up.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Friday that U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous is leading "a strategic assessment mission" to Haiti this week at the Security Council's request, which will identify "critical needs" in the country and make recommendations on a future U.N. presence.
A U.N. peacekeeping official said late Friday that the department is implementing changes recommended by a high-level panel on peace operations, and is constantly reviewing and adjusting its operations "to stay relevant and cost-efficient." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
According to the U.N. Peacekeeping Department, more than 100,000 troops and police are currently deployed in the 16 missions, including nine in Africa.
While some missions have been very successful -- Haley singled out Sierra Leone -- others, including in the Central African Republic and Congo, have been criticized for sexual-abuse violations and corruption, and the joint U.N.-African Union mission in Sudan's Darfur region has been criticized for inefficiency.
Haley stressed that countries contributing troops must hold them accountable for corruption and sexual exploitation, which she said isn't happening.
In some cases, she said, the U.N. needs to look at whether countries are sending their forces "just to make money" -- because the United Nations pays for peacekeepers.
"The last thing we want is for U.N. peacekeepers to go into a country and for people to be scared and for people to be vulnerable," Haley told the Senate committee.
She also said the U.N. needs to start showing how peacekeeping money is being spent.
The current budget for the year ending June 30 for peacekeeping operations is $7.87 billion, a $400 million decrease from the previous year, and less than a half of one percent of the world's military expenditures, which were estimated at more than $1.7 trillion in 2013, according to the peacekeeping department.
The United States currently pays 28.57 percent of the peacekeeping budget, nearly triple the second-largest contributor, China.
Haley said that under U.S. legislation, the United States should be paying only 25 percent of the peacekeeping budget.
"We have to start encouraging other countries to have skin in the game," she said.
The United States is likely to get a sympathetic response from the new U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who made U.N. overhauls a major plank in his campaign for the job and who has already met with Haley twice.
He has complained that the U.N. too often deploys troops to countries where there is no peace to keep -- a point Haley echoed at her confirmation.
The peacekeepers "are not meant to fight, they're not meant to get involved or take sides or anything. They're there to keep the peace. And so our goal should be go in, keep the peace, get it settled and get out," Haley said.
A Section on 02/05/2017