UN operations: not only expanding, but breaking new ground.

• Position: Peacekeeping forces - United Nations developments

United Nations peace-keeping activities have increased and broadened dramatically in recent years, as the Organization responds to new challenges and takes on new tasks. In the span of only five years, the UN has launched more operations than in the previous 40 years. The growth is not only in quantity, but also in nature.

Peace-keeping operations are assuming a new face, often going far beyond traditional activities. They may protect relief shipments, provide services for victims, respond to refugee needs, enforce embargoes, remove mines and seek to disarm warring parties.

In addition to their military and peace aspects, many UN operations now have a large civilian dimension: election monitoring, human rights verification, humanitarian relief, administrative management, institution-building, and the restoration of infrastructure and services.

The job of the UN today, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated recently, is not only to maintain peace, but to create an environment in which peace can be sustained. "Today's operations go far beyond peace-keeping," he said. "They have entered the area of peace-building."

From 1948 through mid-1993, more than 600,000 soldiers and civilians have served under the UN flag in 28 peace-keeping operations. Close to 1,000 peace-keepers have died while monitoring cease-fires, patrolling demilitarized areas, manning buffer zones and defusing conflicts. Now, more than 80,000 UN personnel - military, police and civilian - are deployed in 14 ongoing operations; and an anticipated expansion of several operations could require an additional 40,000 or more personnel.

Peace-keeping was pioneered and developed by the UN as a means of maintaining international peace and security. interposed between hostile States or sometimes between hostile communities within a State, international military personnel under UN command have saved countless lives and contributed to creating the conditions necessary for the peaceful settlement of disputes through negotiations.

The effectiveness of these operations derives from a combination of factors, foremost among them the presence of UN peace-keepers as a physical expression of the moral authority of the Organization and the concern of the international community.

In traditional peace-keeping operations, UN troops have carried light arms and used minimum force only in self-defence, or if armed persons tried to stop them from carrying out the orders of their commanders. UN observers normally carry no arms. When acting under peace enforcement measures, however, UN troops may be authorized to use force in carrying out their responsibilities.

An evolving technique

Peace-keeping operations have been used most commonly to supervise and help maintain cease-fires, assist in troop withdrawals and provide a buffer between opposing forces. However, such operations have become flexible instruments of policy and have been adapted to a variety of uses.

Of the established operations which were set up before 1988 - during the cold-war era - all, with the exception of that in West Irian, were what are now described as "traditional" peace-keeping operations. They were largely military in composition and in function, entrusted...