VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

“Investing in Peace: Improving The Safety and Performance of UN Peacekeepers" has become Indonesia's theme in its presidency in UN Security Council this May. This theme was introduced in account of UN peacekeeping operation that was still one of the most effective and legitimated instruments in maintaining international peace and security.

During the first open debate session in UNSC, Indonesian Foreign Minister stated that UN peacekeepers were a concrete example of a global partnership, collective leadership, and shared responsibility to keep the world's peace. “The Blue Helmets Corps has protected hundred-millions of people in the world. They are the face of UN Security Council and one of the best manifestations of multilateral cooperation," she explained.

Indonesia proposed four important points related to the attempt to ensure the UN's effective Peacekeeping Operation, they are mission-specific approach, ability to interact with local communities (community engagement), enhanced role of women, and training reinforcement through global partnerships.

The enhancement of women's role in the peacekeeping operation has become more and more important given their crucial role in conflict prevention, conflict management, and post-conflict peace construction.

Peace as a Collective Responsibility

In terms of dispatching peacekeeping troops, Indonesia has contributed to the operation since 1957. Currently, Indonesia is ranked eighth among the 124 peaceekeping contributing countries with a total of 3,080 peace personels (106 of which are female) having been deployed on eight peacekeeping missions.

In many countries where the peacekeeping operations were deployed, an alarming number of gender-based violence (GBV) and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) occurred.

Either as civilians or combatants, women and children have constituted the highest number of the victims in a conflict. For instance, women that were considered supposed as a member of a combatant family often suffered violence and abuse by their communities. This situation eventually affected their ability to move freely and meet their family needs.

In the regions where civilians affected by conflict received humanitarian aids, women and children were forced to provide sexual services in exchange for and as a bribery to get such aids.

Therefore, the role of female peacekeepers is increasingly crucial to overcome issues related to GBV and CRSV at the regions of conflicts. Indonesia believes that women's existence as peacekeepers will largely contribute to a successful mission, due to their remarkable role in social construction, in addition to their psycho-social aspects that make them “special" within the boundary of humanitarian missions.

Women are considered more sensitive to local environments and cultures, enabling them to garner more acceptance by the society. Their existence can also offer security and convenience for other women and children that become the victims of sexual violence in a conflict. Women also play the role as the early peace-builders and role models for local women in attempt to encourage the provision of peace training activities including those relating to the security aspect, such as ceasefire, demobilization, reintegration, and negotiation.

Lieutenant Colonel Ratih Pusporini is one of the first Indonesian woman that was dispatched for a peacekeeping mission in a region of conflict in 2008. Her role as the Military Observer of Garuda Contingent in Congo confirmed the crucial role of women on a peacekeeping mission.

“We (female peacekeepers) managed to come to villages and garnered information about sexual abuse. The previous team failed to collect the necessary information due to the unavailability of female peacekeepers, while we all knew that the victims were women," Pusporini said.

Interacting with the women and children in the regions of conflict was not an easy task. On this account, community engagement becomes one of the strategies employed by Indonesia in peacekeeping operation. Community engagement is usally carried through a civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) in the forms of humanitarian aids (teaching, healthcare provision) and ceasefire mediation as part of the peace process.

Indonesia has a number of CIMIC-based programs in various peacekeeping operations, includng healthcare facilitation for local community, bookmobiles (mobile libraries) for local schools, and cultural sharing with local society.

Recently, Indonesian Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) have successfully facilitated the processe of disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, reintegration, and resettlement (DDRRR), especially the handover of weapons from one of the warring parties. The weapon handover to Indonesian troops proved the local society's trust to the capacity of our troops in ensuring regional peace and security.

“I was touched when a Congo kid came to me and said, 'Ma'am, I wanna be like you! Because of you, we can go to school…'," Puspitorini recalled her success in her mission in Congo to secure the road access for children to go to school.

Despite women's crucial position as peacekeepers, their involvement in peacekeeping operation is still very limited. According to UN Women, in 1,187 peace agreements made from 1990 to 2017, women only constituted 2% portion of female mediators, 5% of female negotiators, 5% of female spectators and signers. Until 31 March 2019, there were a total of 3,472 female military personnels and 1,423 female police personnels among 89,681 peacekeepers (5.46%). This number could increase, and Indonesia has strongly committed to making it happen. The dispatch of all women contingent, like the one previously done by India for the peacekeeping mission in Liberia in 2007, became one of Indonesia's future goals. (kemenlu)