Mr. Chairman,

At the outset my delegation wishes to congratulate Ambassador Chief Arthur Mbanefo on his election and extends him a warm welcome to the Special Committee. Through the courtesy of your intermediary, we would like to express our appreciation to your distinguished predecessor, H.E. Prof. Ibrahim Gambari. I should also like to congratulate other members of the bureau on their reelection and to express our full confidence in the bureau's collective abilities to bring the current session to a successful conclusion.

My delegation commends the Secretary-General for his comprehensive report concerning the implementation of the Special Committee's recommendations of last year, as contained in document A/54/670, and the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Bernard Miyet, for his informative statement at the opening of our session.

My delegation fully associates itself with the NAM statement delivered by the distinguished Representative of Jordan. My intervention seeks to reinforce a fundamental point touched upon in that statement, namely, on the scope of peacekeeping operations. Indeed, the Secretary-General in his report underlined the need to develop new conceptual and practical frameworks to cover recent experiences.

Mr. Chairman,

This Committee has listened to in-depth debates on the role and scope of peacekeeping operation for quite some time now. We have heard contentions that PKO has become "multi-faceted", "multi-dimensional", and "multi-disciplinary", while others, including my delegation, have taken the position that PKO should remain loyal to its basic and success-proven values. However, as we have stressed before, there are merits in both the positions, and therefore warrant careful scrutiny if the Special Committee is to contribute to the effectiveness of United Nations' role in the maintenance of international peace and security.

The debates were prompted by two fundamental developments as a response to the changing perception of threats to the peace. The first is the increasing composition of civilians in Security Council-mandated UN presence. The second is the increasing use of military force not as an instrument of "pacific settlement of disputes" but of "peace enforcement".

On the increase of civilian personnel, we agree with the Secretary-General's observation, that a number of recent UN missions were discharging complex mandates, which demand a broader range of expertise to plan operations, provide them with guidance and ensure system-wide coordination. They make exacting demands especially in terms of planning, administration and management because of the relatively high representation of civilian personnel.

In fact, international civilian staff have always been part of peacekeeping operations even during their initial stage. UNTSO, for example, the longest serving peacekeeping operation, currently deploys 97 international civilian staff together with its 142 military personnel. The difference now is the quantity and quality of the civilian personnel. UNMIBH (Bosnia and Herzegovina), for example, deploys 358 international civilian personnel, while UNMIK (Kosovo) and UNTAET (East Timor) deploys 696 and 232, respectively. Their mandates cover a wide range of issues, such as humanitarian, elections, law enforcement and rule of law, interim administration, rehabilitation, economic assistance, agriculture and others. The Secretary-General's report implies that they fall under the rubric of peacekeeping operations.

And yet, UNAMET (East Timor), which had approximately 50 military, 261 civilian police and 425 international civilian personnel is generally not considered, in various Secretariat documents, as a peacekeeping operation. It would be recalled that UNAMET was a mission managed by the Department of Political Affairs and mandated to carry out a basically electoral task, yet it was authorized by the Security Council and had much logistical and other support from DPKO. In this context, we wonder how missions with mandates other than "keeping the peace" could be reviewed comprehensively by this Committee, thereby enabling the General Assembly to draw lessons from them.

The second issue relates to cases where military and civilian police forces are deployed within a UN mission "to take all necessary measures" to achieve its mandate. The increasing use of this practice should cause concern for a number of reasons. It is becoming increasingly blurred as to the situations that would necessitate the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII. Furthermore, while enforcement measures are intended to uphold universal values, there is a widely shared perception that they are not being applied uniformly. From the Special Committee's perspective, if it can discuss numerous aspects relating to military and civilian police forces operating under Chapter VII, for example in UNMIK and UNTAET, could it not also discuss multinational forces, such as KFOR and INTERFET.

Mr. Chairman,

Peacekeeping operations, in our view, have become more complex in the sense that they need to cooperate and coordinate with various elements within the framework of a UN mission. They have also been carrying out non-traditional tasks, such as demining and the collection and cantonment of arms. On the other hand, it is also a truism that in addressing complex situations, the Security Council mandates have correspondingly become increasingly complex, leading to multi-faceted UN presence.

As a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly, the Special Committee would do well if it addresses these developments and updates the Assembly on the evolution of various activities on the ground. However, its current mandate is limited. To say that those developments are covered under the Special Committee's mandate - "to review comprehensively the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects" - is far-fetched and does not cover all the relevant issues.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, the Indonesian delegation is looking forward to working closely with you and other members of the bureau, as well as with other delegations and the Secretariat to make this session a successful one, thereby contributing to the United Nations efforts for the maintenance of international peace and security. It is also a way of paying tribute to the men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of peace.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.