Every time Rwandan troops leave Kigali to join other UN personnel serving in some of the world’s hotspots, their commanders’ message is always similar: maintain highest levels of discipline, focus on the mission at hand – protection of civilians whose lives are at risk – and be the country’s ambassadors, while at it.
It is, therefore, no surprise that, for example, Rwanda Defence Force soldiers deployed in the United Nations Mission in Central Africa Republic, besides minding security in parts of the capital, Bangui, are the ones in charge of security at the Presidential Palace and other important national installations there.
Rwanda is among the top five UN troop and police contributing countries in international peacekeeping missions.
According to the UN, May 29 is a day to pay tribute to all men and women who have served and continue to serve in UN peacekeeping operations for their high level of professionalism, dedication, and courage and to honor the memory of those who have lost their lives in the cause of peace.
The theme for the 2018 International Day of UN Peacekeepers on Tuesday was "70 Years of Service and Sacrifice.”
The day also marked Rwanda’s 14 years of peacekeeping.
Ten years after stopping the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda deployed its first peacekeepers (155 soldiers), in August 2004, in Sudan to curtail the humanitarian catastrophe that was boiling in the western part of the Sudan – in Darfur.
While addressing delegates at a conference on peacekeeping, in Kigali, in May 2015, President Paul Kagame said: "The central purpose of peace operations is the protection of civilians. This cannot be said often enough. It is not the protection of peace agreements or UN mandates, even peacekeepers for that matter, much less the protection of politicians. The mission is to protect the ordinary people who, in most cases, are at most risk.”
During the recent national security symposium held in Musanze District, Rwanda Defence Force Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Patrick Nyamvumba, said the President’s remarks inform Rwanda’s participation in peace support operations.
The RDF maintains 5,860 personnel including troops, staff officers, military observers and liaison officers in peacekeeping missions, and the Rwanda National Police (RNP) – which started peacekeeping deployments in 2005 – has about 1,200 officers serving as peacekeepers in different countries.
Police is deployed to Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Haiti.
"Despite the challenging working conditions, which we prepare the officers to face, Police officers have professionally discharged their mandated tasks, keeping the Rwandan flag always high,” said RNP’s Commissioner for Peace Support Operations, Commissioner of Police William Kayitare.
Apart from leveraging the liberation struggle experience, Rwandan peacekeepers’ distinctive approach to peacekeeping has seen them replicate the annual ‘army week’ medical outreach programme that sees thousands of Rwandans get free medical care, in their areas of operation abroad.
New models
During the May 14-16 National Security Symposium, Nyamvumba who served as UN–AU Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Force Commander from 2009 to 2013, suggested that if they are to be more effective, peace support operations must be judged in the context of the evolving international geopolitical situation rather than seeing them on the basis of the legal texts of the UN charter.
"Having seen what we saw here [during 1994 Genocide] those of us who were in Rwanda, this kind of approach to peace support operations, if not improved upon, would lead us to nowhere.”
Nyamvumba explored strategic options available to African states as a way forward.
Since most UN peace support operations today are located in Africa, he said, African states need to be at the forefront of designing new appropriate and effective models of peace support operations while being prepared to foot the bill for implementing these models.
He proposed that African states need to take up a deliberate and active role in conceptualising a fresh and original doctrine for peace support operations and be prepared to foot the bill for its implementation.
There is a proposal to implement a 0.2 levy on all eligible imports into all AU member states with proceeds from this levy estimated at $1.2 billion, an amount almost double AU’s 2017 budget of approximately $700 million.
Another option, which Nyamvumba said is about prevention, "is to improve on our governance,” because it is the lack of governance, and bad governance that remain the root cause of all these interventions”.
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