UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The head of the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast for the last two years, former Swedish Ambassador Pierre Schori, has detailed some of the problems encountered in the West Africa mission he headed up and pulls no punches.
The former head of the U.N. Organization Mission in Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym UNOCI, gave his personal impressions to reporters at U.N. World Headquarters in New York Friday after reporting on it to the Security Council.
Schori said he had worked with the United Nations from the outside his whole professional life and his assignment as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to the one-time French colony was his first job on the "inside" of the system.
He called it a "shocking" experience that also proved "the most rewarding professional experience I have ever had."
Schori said he told Annan's replacement, Ban Ki-moon, a lot of things should change.
First the special representative said he had been really surprised by the lack of gender awareness, despite a 2000 Security Council resolution on "Women and peace and security" that stipulated women were not only victims of war, but also actors for peace.
He suggested a "gender-enforcer" who focused on missions and troops about to be deployed on a mission.
The gap between doctrine and resolutions, on the one hand, and the situation in the field, on the other, was enormous and the gap was detrimental to the quality of peacekeeping missions, the special representative said.
Schori said it was not easy to become a special representative in a mission with established structures and to implement reforms.
Upon arrival, he had found a lack of urgency and of crisis awareness. It was a mission authorized under the U.N. Charter's Chapter VII, which meant force could be used by peacekeepers and that one could work also on a Saturday morning.
He called the work "noble," but said that had not been appreciated by many staff.
The envoy, who had served as his nation's ambassador to the United Nations, and represented it when Stockholm was elected to the Security Council, said he had spent about 40 percent of his time on mission internal matters.
There was no "handover note" from his predecessor when he arrived and Schori said there were people in the mission without a real assignment whom he had had to get rid of, but that took up to two years. When he questioned tardy employees, they replied "This is Africa" to which he reminded them: "Yes, but this is also the United Nations."
The lack of gender awareness had been shocking and the mentality that "the boss was king" was not a constructive attitude.
The envoy suggested a special position for gender mainstreaming to explain to troops from countries with cultures where women were not on an equal footing with men that women should be involved in peacekeeping from the beginning and at all levels.
Schori said the position should be held by a man to address the mostly male members of the various military units. He had noticed everybody in the U.N. system dealing with gender was a woman, while gender affected both sexes.
The envoy said he would remain chairman of the Olaf Palme Memorial Fund, in memory of the assassinated Swedish prime minister.
Schori had worked with Olaf Palme until he was slain in 1986 and said the fund had been established to, among other things, fight xenophobia, promote peace and understanding, common security and disarmament.
This year's prize, to be awarded in May, will be shared by Annan and Mahmoud Moussad Ali, a human rights activist in Darfur.
Summing up, Schori said, there was a need for accountability in U.N. missions, discipline and a sense of urgency.
But, he says he left the post, "very happy and rewarded."
Since he spent so many sleepless nights on the job, Schori said he was going home to enjoy some sleep.
