8 Feb 2012

UN / LADSOUS

Summarizing the outlook for UN peacekeeping over the next year, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous said 2012 would be a year of “stabilization and possibly some reduction” and predicted that the overall peacekeeping budget would fall from (USD) $8 billion in 2011 to roughly (USD)$7 billion. UNTV

Posted at: February 8, 2012 5:23 pm

Duration: 02:32

Available in: SD

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STORY: UN / LADSOUS 
SOURCE: UNTV
TRT: 2:32
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
 
DATELINE: 8 FEBRUARY 2012, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE
 
SHOTLIST:
 
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
 
1. Wide shot, exterior UN building
 
8 FEBRUARY 2012, NEW YORK CITY
 
2. Wide shot, Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, arrives takes his seat at press conference 
3. Cutaway, journalist
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
"I think it's fairly safe to say that this year 2012 will be year of stabilization and possibly some reduction. I think to give very round figures we were last year around $8 billion for the overall peacekeeping budget. I think this year we will be more in the region of $7 thousand - $7 billion. Why? Because there are number of missions you know who have gone through a critical stage and probably we will be able to start looking at their downsizing somewhat." 
5. Cutaway, journalist
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations: 
"I would say the most pressing issue right now is the relationship between North and South, the relationship between what has become two countries who decided to divorce last year, actually went through a divorce, but have left aside so far the so-called 'practicalities' that have to do with the fact that they have to live together. You can't change geography, you can't realities. And there are a number of issues which have to be sorted out." 
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
"Somalia, where, as you know, we have a window of opportunity given to us by the fact that the Shababs have been pushed out from essentially all of Mogadishu where the intervention of regional countries in the south and in the west is creating an entirely new strategic situation and I think we have to seize that opportunity." 
9. Cutaway, journalist 
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations: 
"If something goes wrong, it proves that the messages have not been spread around, that the vigilance of the hierarchy has not been effective."  
10. Cutaway, journalist
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations: 
"I think we did the job in Jonglei because had we not insisted on convincing the government of South Sudan that this was not a local skirmish that this was a large scale issue of a national scale that they concluded eventually it was in indeed the case, Had we not done that I think the victims could have been in thousands if not many more."
Cutaway, journalists
12. Wide shot, Ladsous standing up at end of press conference.  
 
STORYLINE:

Summarizing the outlook for UN peacekeeping over the next year, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous said 2012 would be a year of "stabilization and possibly some reduction" and predicted that the overall peacekeeping budget would fall from (USD) $8 billion in 2011 to roughly (USD)$7 billion. 
 
Ladsous pointed out that a number of missions had recently gone through a "critical stage" and it would soon be time "to start looking at their downsizing somewhat." 
 
In Sudan and South Sudan, where the UN has three peacekeeping operations, he highlighted the relationship between the North and the South as "the most pressing issue right now" rather than Darfur. 
 
He said that while those two countries went through a "divorce" last, they "left aside so far the so-called 'practicalities' that have to do with the fact that they have to live together."  But "you can't change geography, you can't realities," and the remaining issues would have to be sorted out.
 
Among critical peacekeeping issues, he called attention to the current "window of opportunity" in Somalia since the Shabab was pushed out of Mogadishu and regional intervention in the south and the west that resulted in an "entirely new strategic situation." 
 
He said that the recent incidents of sexual exploitation by UN peacekeeping forces were unacceptable, particularly in light of the Organization's zero-tolerance policy. Cases of abuse proved, he acknowledged, that "the messages have not been spread around, that the vigilance of the hierarchy has not been effective."  
 
Pressed to assess the peacekeeping record given recent deadly ethnic violence in the South Sudanese state of Jonglei, he suggested that if the UN had insisted on convincing the government that it was a "large-scale issue," the number of victims could have been in the thousands, "if not many more."
 
Ladsous took over from former Under-Secretary-General Alain Le Roy on 3 October 2011.