U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN

For Immediate Release August 24, 2000

STATEMENT BY RICHARD BOUCHER, SPOKESMAN
THE BRAHIMI REPORT ON UN PEACKEEPING REFORM

The Brahimi Report on UN Peacekeeping Reform is a major new study on UN Peace and Peacekeeping Operations. The United States commends the panel's work to strengthen the United Nations' ability to conduct peacekeeping operations, and will carefully review its recommendations.

On March 7, 2000, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed an independent blue-ribbon panel of ten experts on UN peace operations led by Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria. Annan called upon the "Brahimi Panel" to make frank, specific and realistic recommendations for change in UN peace operations.

The panel released its findings August 23. The roughly 70-page document with approximately sixty specific recommendations calls for improvements across the board, including doctrine, strategy, planning, decision-making, headquarters organization and staffing levels, logistics, rapid deployment, and public information.

The United States has been one of the earliest and most insistent voices calling for improvement in planning, the pace of deployment, and overall effectiveness in peacekeeping. We and other UN members have been very concerned about the mismatch between the UN's burgeoning peacekeeping roles - in Kosovo, East Timor, Lebanon, Congo, Sierra Leone, and soon Ethiopia/Eritrea -and its limited ability to plan for and manage those operations. The UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) needs more staff, strengthened planning capacity, streamlined logistical structure, more flexible financing and the ability to move resources into the field in real time.

Our initial perception is the report accurately reflects our main concerns about UN peacekeeping operations. We intend to work closely with the UN Secretariat and other Member States in the coming months to review the report's recommendations and develop specific plans for implementation. We expect the report to be given serious and expeditious consideration by the Secretariat, Security Council, and General Membership.