VZCZCXRO7438
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0467/01 1900825
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090825Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0913
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RHHMUNA/USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC 0172
RUCGEVC/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2394

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 000467 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL MASS MOPS CB
SUBJECT:  Enhancing Regional Cooperation to Support UNPKO 
 
REF: PHNOM PENH 275 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Peacekeeping experts representing Asia Regional 
Forum participating countries recently gathered together to discuss 
enhancing regional capacity to participate in UN peacekeeping 
operations.  Cambodia's co-hosting of the event highlights its 
expanding role in international peacekeeping operations, as Cambodia 
prepares to deploy troops to support the new United Nations 
peacekeeping missions in Chad and the Central African Republic.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) co-hosted with Japan 
the third annual Asia Regional Forum (ARF) Peacekeeping Experts' 
Meeting in Siem Reap June 24-26.  Participants included 
representatives from most of the ARF member countries, who were 
eager to share experiences and best practices, and discussed how 
improved regional cooperation could better support the UN 
peacekeeping operations (PKO) missions and mandates. 
 
Current Challenges 
------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) Participants acknowledged the current challenges facing 
UNPKO missions, particularly given the growing demand for PKO 
missions with increasingly complex and multidimensional mandates, 
which are complicated by limited human and financial resources. 
Keynote speaker Ms. Sunaina Lowe, Coordination Officer for the 
Policy, Evaluation, and Training Division, UN Department of 
Peacekeeping Operations' (UNDPKO), described an "overstretch" 
situation resulting in part from eight new and expanded missions in 
the last five years, an ad hoc system with rigid and inflexible 
rules, and varied sources of resources (personnel and equipment) 
which create challenges to interoperability and sustainability. 
Questions raised by participants concerning the relationship between 
PKO, peace building, and special political missions -- and in 
particular their distinctions -- illustrate the broader scope and 
increasingly complex range of tasks that PKOs are asked to 
undertake. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Achieving rapid deployment of forces was of particular 
concern to the peacekeeping experts, who noted that fast and 
effective deployment and a strategic reserve is fundamental to the 
credibility of UN PKO missions.  Ms Lowe dismissed the suggestion 
for the creation of specific UN peacekeeping forces as "not 
politically feasible."  She explained that the UN Standby 
Arrangement System (UNSAS) was intended to facilitate a rapid 
response to crisis, but conceded that in practice this is not 
possible.  She noted that it is difficult for contributing countries 
to commit to a mission without knowing where their troops will be 
deployed, and some countries have not lived up to their commitments 
or have requested payment for their standby forces which are kept in 
reserve. 
 
Regional Cooperation is Part of Solution 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Participants agreed that greater regional cooperation is 
one method to help address the current challenges of increasingly 
complex and varied mandates for peacekeeping missions.  Several 
experts shared their country's PKO experiences and their best 
practices for successful deployments.  Many of the countries 
represented have their own peacekeeping training centers.  Indonesia 
in particular shared their plans to transform their national 
peacekeeping center into a regional center and highlighted their 
hosting of the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) Capstone 
Garuda Shield exercise this year.  [Note:  Cambodia will host the 
GPOI Capstone Exercise (Angkor Sentinel) in July 2010.  End Note.] 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) Robert Sweeney, USPACOM GPOI Program Manager, provided an 
overview of GPOI and its objective to build the capacity of 
contributing countries to provide training and GPOI support for the 
annual Capstone exercises, the largest multilateral peacekeeping 
exercise in the region.  He emphasized the role that ARF can play by 
linking national peacekeeping programs within the region to create 
better interoperability and increase the speed of deployments (he 
noted that it generally takes six months to transform a military 
unit into a peacekeeping unit). 
 
¶7. (SBU) The International Association of Peacekeeping Training 
Centers (IAPTC) was highlighted as another mechanism which could 
help to foster improved regional cooperation.  Group Captain Keith 
Brackenbury, Director of the Australian Peacekeeping Center, 
explained that the IAPTC serves as a forum for exchanging 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000467  002 OF 002 
 
 
experience, developing training standards and requirements, 
networking, and promoting better understanding of peacekeeping, its 
goals, objectives, and methods for training.  There are currently 
region chapters for Europe, Africa, and Americas, but he noted that 
an Asia-Pacific grouping is still lacking.  He encouraged the 
continued strong involvement by Asia-Pacific countries and urged 
participants to attend the next annual conference which will be held 
in Sydney later in 2009. 
 
Cambodia's Expanding PKO 
------------------------ 
 
¶8. (U) Cambodia's co-hosting the conference highlights the Royal 
Government of Cambodia's (RGC) contributions to UNPKO.  Since 2006, 
approximately 400 Cambodian deminers have served as part of the 
United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan.  At the ARF PKO 
conference, Prak Sakhonn, President of the National Coordination 
Committee for Sending Troops to UNPKO, announced that the Cambodian 
contingent to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Chad and 
the Central African Republic (MINURCAT) would now be a Movement 
Control Platoon only, and is scheduled to deploy in January 2010. 
(Note:  Originally, the RGC planned to deploy two units in support 
of MINURCAT:  a 125-person Military Police Company and a 40-person 
Movement Control Platoon for two six-month rotations.  End Note.) 
 
¶9. (SBU) Discussions with UNDPKO at the conference noted a lack of 
French speakers within the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.  Since 
MINURCAT is a Francophone mission, RGC can only field a Movement 
Control Platoon with the number of French speakers assigned to their 
PKO Center.  The new deployment date, pushed back from the original 
July timeframe, now allows GPOI to form a pre-deployment training 
team to more adequately prepare the unit for this role.  (Comment: 
The RGC likely has a sufficient number of French speakers throughout 
the armed forces to fulfill the key leader billets for both a 
Military Police Company and a Movement Control Platoon, though this 
would require a level of cooperation and coordination between 
various elements of the armed forces that currently does not exist. 
End comment.) 
 
RODLEY