Learnenglish Podcasts Themes Peacekeeping Support Pack

8/13/2019 Learnenglish Podcasts Themes Peacekeeping Support Pack

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Podcasts Themes Peacekeeping

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IntroductionDownload the LearnEnglish Themes podcast. Youll find more information on this page:http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-themes.htm

This support pack contains the following materials: the article that you can listen to in the podcast three optional vocabulary activities based on the article links to other activities on the LearnEnglish website on this theme (peace and peacekeeping).

Read the article

Peacekeepingby Richard Sidaway

Wherever there is conflict in the world andenemies have agreed to let a third party orneutral force come in to try and maintain thepeace, it is usually the familiar blue helmets ofthe United Nations that we see on the scene.The actual definition of peacekeeping is a bitunclear and it was never written into the originalUN Charter, but it goes something like 'usingmilitary personnel from different countries underthe command of the UN to control and resolvearmed conflict either between or within states.Peacekeeping is neither just finding out the facts

nor full-scale military intervention, but somethingin between.

Over the last ten years it has become clear thatfor peacekeeping to work certain things mustalready be in place the conflict must actuallyhave finished and there must be a genuine desirefor peace on both sides. The peacekeeping forcemust have clear international support and amandate that shows it is strictly neutral; and itneeds adequate resources to do the job.

How long has it been going on?There have been 56 UN peacekeepingoperations in total since 1948, although over 30of those have happened since 1990.

Two of these operations have in fact neverstopped since 1948: the interventions in theArab/Israeli conflict following the foundation of thestate of Israel, and in the dispute betweenPakistan and India over the Kashmir region.

Another that has been going on for over forty

years is on the divided island of Cyprus, wherepeace has been maintained between Greek andTurkish Cypriots since March 1964.

Are all UN peacekeeping missions s imilar?

There are different types of intervention, somemore discrete than others:

Observation/monitoring only, for example ofCuban troops leaving Angola or of the Iran-Iraqceasefire in 1991

Assisting a country to independence, for examplein Namibia 1978-1989

Armed intervention, for example in the SuezCanal region 1956-1967 to keep Egypt and Israelapart and supervise the withdrawal of troops fromthe UK, France and Israel

Who are the peacekeepers?They are professional soldiers, civilian police andmilitary observers from any member country ofthe UN. These countries also provide supplies,transportation, telecommunications, andadministrative help, amongst other things.

Who pays?


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These forces are paid for by all UN membercountries. The budget is currently $2.82 billion,although they have been a bit behind in their

payments recently- $2.3 billion is still owing!

What do they actually do?The typical image of a peacekeeper is a soldiersitting in a watchtower with a pair of binocularskeeping an eye on a border, but they alsoorganise the clearing of mines, superviseelections, monitor human rights and oversee thereturn of refugees to their homes.

It is a risky occupation and sometimes they haveto resort to force to defend themselves, recently

for example in Liberia. Since peacekeepingbegan there have been 1,879 fatalities, thehighest being between 1993 and 1995 when over500 UN peacekeepers were killed.

Give me some success storiesUN peacekeeping missions have intervened verysuccessfully following the end of civil wars suchas in El Salvador 1991-95, Mozambique 1992-94and Cambodia 1991-93 where they verifiedagreements on ceasefires, elections, land andelectoral reform, organised the demobilization ofsoldiers and helped create new police forces.

In East Timor in 1999 they restored order afterthe violent reaction to the vote for self-government and they were the transitionaladministration that helped Timor to create newstructures after independence in 2002.

Didnt peacekeeping get a bad name in the1990s?

Somalia was the first big failure for UNintervention in 1992. In Srebrenica in 1994, aDutch force under UN command failed to preventa massacre of the local population, and inRwanda in the same year there was full-scalegenocide of nearly a million people, despite apeacekeeping force of 5,000.

Four UN missions to Angola failed to stop civilwar breaking out again and again. It seems only ifthere is a real will to turn away from war, canpeacekeepers be effective.

The futureNow that the Cold War is over and small localisedwars break out ever more frequently, there havebeen calls for the establishment of a UN RapidResponse force, so that it doesnt take theinternational community six months to assemblea peacekeeping mission, by which time it is oftentoo late.

The attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad in2003 has also called into question the respect forbeing impartial which the organisation thought ithad.

Nevertheless, most people agree that the worldstill needs some kind of neutral body, backed byforce if necessary, for helping former enemiesmake the transition from war to peace.

Af ter reading

Practice collocations (combinations of words formed when two or more words are frequently usedtogether in a way that sounds correct).

Exercise 1Match the verbsin the first column with the nounson the right.1. restore a. an agreement

2. resort to b. a conflict

3. call into c. force

4. resolve d. order

5. maintain e. the peace

6. verify f. question


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Exercise 2Match the adjectivesin the first table with the nounsin the second table.

1. peacekeeping

2. third

3. adequate

4. military

5. international

6. electoral

a. Community b. Intervention c. Missiond. Party e. Reform f. Resources

Exercise 3Match the nounsin the first table with the nounsin the second table.

1. withdrawal

2. clearing

3. return

the 4. demobilization of

5. end

6. massacre

7. establishment

a. civil wars b. the local population c. minesd. refugees e. soldiers f. troopsg. a UN rapid response force

More activities on this topicYoull find links to all the following activities connected to the theme of peace and peacekeeping at:http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-themes-peace.htm Article: Peace symbols ."The concept of peace is a very important one in cultures all over the

world. Think about how we greet people. In some languages, the phrases for greetings contain the

word for peace." Word game:Peace symbols. Match pictures of peace symbols with their names. Story:The Robe of Peace. Johnny Bellchambers was the flashiest dresser in all of New York.

Then, suddenly, he disappeared into thin air. In this amusing story by O. Henry you find out whathappened to him.

Trivia:Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about peace and peacekeeping. There is also a peacekeeping-related cartoon and some carefully selected external links.Answers :Exercise 1: 1d; 2c; 3f; 4b; 5e; 6a (These are the collocations from the text. Other possible collocationsinclude: maintain order; restore the peace)Exercise 2: 1c; 2d; 3f; 4b; 5a; 6e (These are the collocations from the text. Other possible collocationsinclude: military resources; international intervention; international mission)

Exercise 3: 1f; 2c; 3d; 4e; 5a; 6f; 7g (These are the collocations from the text. Other possible collocationsinclude: the withdrawal of soldiers; the demobilization of troops; the massacre of refugees)

Documents

Learnenglish Podcasts Themes Peacekeeping Support Pack