But in countries such as Lebanon or Côte d'Ivoire, they are at best holding the line between parties still in conflict.One reason for the surge in UN peacekeeping is that Africa, the region most in need of peacekeepers, is least able to provide for itself.
"NSW Labor welcomes the decision of the Palestinian Authority to commit to a demilitarised Palestine with the presence of international peacekeepers, including US forces," the amendment said.
The 90-minute TV movie, Faith, follows in the footsteps of BBC1 dramas including Warriors, about British army peacekeepers in Bosnia; The Project, which dealt with the rise of New Labour; and most recently Holy Cross, a dramatisation of the 2001 sectarian confrontation in Belfast.
It thus captured the recent Palestinian concession that there should be western peacekeepers within the territory of their putative state.
In Slaviansk, protesters – who woke on Monday anticipating an "anti-terrorist" operation involving the Ukrainian army that has not yet come – called on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to help them while Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, asked for the deployment of UN peacekeepers.
These would include a "third party presence"; that is, western peacekeepers.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has made a dramatic intervention in the scandal of French peacekeepers allegedly abusing children in Africa by announcing an independent external review of how his organisation handled the affair.
According to the presidential website, Turchynov suggested to in a telephone call to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, that an "anti-terrorist operation" could be conducted jointly by Ukrainian security forces and UN peacekeepers.
At times the peacekeepers seem to be acting as armed referees.
In a terse statement, the office of Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general, declared the claims "not receivable" because of the organisation's privileges and immunities.Most scientists who have studied the matter have concluded that UN peacekeepers unwittingly brought cholera to Haiti in 2010.
Two dozen Dinka officials were massacred by White Army men, along with two Indian UN peacekeepers, on December 19th in Akobo, a remote outpost in Jonglei state.
