The change began in Somalia, where we discovered that we were involved in an operation where there was no peace, so there was no more a peacekeeping operation because there was no peace.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The fact that you had disruptions in the peace process was not only in Rwanda. We had the same problem in Cambodia, we had the same problem in Mozambique, we had the same problem in Salvador.
Peace enforcement is a much more difficult kind of operation than peacekeeping.
Britain does not normally these days play a huge part in peacekeeping.
Rwanda was considered a second-class operation; because it was a small country, we had been able to maintain a kind of status quo. They were negotiating, they'd accepted the new peace project, so we were under the impression that everything would be solved easily.
We got involved in the Rwanda peace process for the simple reason that there was a decision which was taken by the Security Council, because the troops were in Uganda, and we decided to have a military presence.
If peace activists really want to make changes, they have to start putting intense pressure on their elected officials. Of course, everything should be non-violent, because we are trying to create a peaceful world, and violence can't produce peace - no matter what George W. Bush and his buddies say.
I don't want to force the peacekeeping nations to feel like I'm pushing them out.
Only in South Africa could you have a change in government without civil war. If there wasn't the depth of love and caring among our people, this would not have happened.
Faced with the collapse of Iraq into something like Lebanon - or worse, Somalia - the Bush administration opted for a new counterinsurgency strategy. Violence was reduced because, for the first time since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Iraqis felt that there was a force capable of dominating the situation and ensuring basic order.
One of the enduring mysteries of America's occupation of Iraq is why a nation that so little relishes peacekeeping nonetheless refuses to turn the job over to the United Nations.