UN peacekeepers asked to use force to 'save lives'

May 12, 2016 03:10

Rwanda and the Netherlands, two countries embroiled in the UN's worst peacekeeping failures, have launched a push at the United Nations for blue helmets to more readily use force to defend civilians in conflicts.

The initiative seeks to persuade countries that contribute troops to UN peacekeeping to agree to more robust action and more readily intervene instead of staying behind the high walls of their UN compounds.

"The blue flag needs to stand for protection and it doesn't always," Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders told the gathering at UN headquarters in New York yesterday.

The failure of Dutch peacekeepers to defend Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995 has been a source of shame for the Netherlands, which has recently returned to UN peacekeeping by sending troops to Mali.

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