Environmental Demands Grow for U.N. Peacekeeping Troops

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http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/08/11/11greenwire-environmental-demands-grow-for-un-peacekeeping-40327.html

August 11, 2009

Environmental Demands Grow for U.N. Peacekeeping Troops

By NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD, STAFF REPORTER of Greenwire

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's visit today to Goma, a city in the heart of the war ravaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is meant to draw attention to renewed U.S. support for U.N. peacekeeping and to press thinly stretched troops deployed there to do more to protect innocent civilians.

But how much more can overburdened peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere be expected to do? Increasingly -- and controversially -- they find themselves busy doing environmental cleanups, climate change mitigation projects and providing relief from natural disasters on top of their security duties.

For example, troops with MONUC -- the French acronym assigned to the U.N. Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- have spent time planting trees in their area of operation, a scene repeated at other peacekeeping operations in Africa, East Timor, Lebanon and elsewhere.

"MONUC was one of the biggest missions involved in planting the trees, but we have this 1 billion tree campaign, and most of the missions were involved in this reforestation effort," explained Edmond Mulet, assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations at U.N. headquarters. "On the issue of environment, we are also very much involved in that."

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