ONUC: The United Nations' Efforts in the Congo

Significance

The research which will be produced within this project is significant to the study of the United Nations as a whole as it highlights and brings a greater understanding to the policies the United Nations has implemented in the past, as well as continues to utilize today and why they are so significant to the operation of the United Nations and the countries which were affected during the ONUC mission.

Methodology

Fig. 4. Unknown, Activities in the Province of Katanga . Black and White Photographic Print, 1963. Available from: The United Nations, http://http://www.unmultimedia.org/s/photo/detail/167/0167829.html.

Fig. 1. Unknown, Second ONUC Air Mission to Congo's Equateur Province. Black and White Photographic Print, 1962. Available from: The United Nations, http://www.unmultimedia.org/s/photo/detail/623/0062344.html.

A Historical Method of research will be utilized in order to fulfill the needs of this research concept. Along with a thorough review of the historiography of the topic, primary resources such as documented correspondence will be retrieved in order to obtain a complete understanding of the work already completed on the subject as well as substantiate the assertions and findings presented in the resulting comprehensive book. By utilizing both resources, the research will be well-rounded and succinct bringing forth fact as well as analysis from various individuals that possess extensive knowledge in this field of study.

ONUC: The United Nations' Efforts in the Congo

Objectives

Literature Review

I. ONUC Forces in the Congo

• To discuss timeline and events of the ONUC mission
• To highlight the positive as well as negative outcomes of the mission as a whole
• To consider the legacy of the mission on the region and the United Nations as they move forward to accomplish future peacekeeping efforts across the globe
• The research is being proposed as a book concept in which the topics will be discussed in detail.

Terms

Jane Boulden's work entitled, The United Nations Experience in Congo, Somalia, and Bosnia highlights three United Nations missions in which an effort for peace has walked the fine line between peaceful operation and coercive enforcement. As conflict arose during the mere hours after the sovereign independence to the Congo in June 1960, the United Nations was called upon to utilize its forces in order to ensure the peaceful transition of the territory from the Belgian government into the hands of the most educated government on the African continent; that of the Congolese.2 Over the proceeding four years, the ONUC strove to achieve success within their peacekeeping mandate by transitioning from a peacekeeping force to a military force; subsequently, only achieving success as they returned to "the very basic objective of restoring security and freedom of movement rather  than by focusing on the broader civil war and mercenary objectives."3

Fig. 2. Unknown, Map of the Congo. Colored map, 1999. Available from: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, http://web.mit.edu/cascon/cases/case_con.html.

The proposed research endeavor is a study of the United Nations' experience in the Congo between 1960 and 1964 and the ways in which the United Nations changed their normative attitudes as a response to the outcome of the mission.

• Conciliation: the action of mediating between two disputing people or groups.
• Historical Method of research: the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence, including the evidence of archaeology, to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past.
• Mercenary: (of a person or their behavior) primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics.
• Normative Attitude: reflecting the assumption of such a norm or favoring its establishment
• ONUC: Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo, or, The United Nations Organization in the Congo
• Peacekeeping Mission: the act of keeping the peace by military forces (particularily when international military forces enforce a truce between hostile groups or nations)

II. Ralph Bunche's Role in the ONUC Mission

Ralph Bunche, inaugural administrator and instrumental player in the formation of the UN, had a tremendous impact on peacekeeping across the globe after the Second World War; through which, his many efforts earned him lifelong recognition as the first colored individual to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In an article published in The Journal of Negro Education, Princeton N. Lyman discusses the impact of Mr. Bunche on the United Nations missions in the the Middle East, the Congo, as well as the United Nations as a whole and how over the decades passed, his legacy became filled with disappointment rather than praised based on the discussed missions.4

Proposed Thesis Statement

Limitations of Research

Background of the Topic

The findings and subsequent literature presented as a result of this research project will be limited because the research will only be focusing on the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Congo from 1960 to 1964 and the ways in which the mission impacted future peacekeeping attempts by the United Nations; rather than highlighting the ways in which the United Nations has conducted peacekeeping missions since its creation. This will limit the research as it will not attempt to discuss the ways in which peacekeeping has changed prior to this time frame.

Only a few days after gaining its independence on June 30, 1960, the Congo found itself thrust into a series of conflicts and chaos as a result of the Belgian government's unauthorized disbursement of troops throughout the region in order to assure the safety of Belgian nationals as the Congo made its transition from colony to sovereign nation. As a result, within twelve days the Congolese Government had asked the United Nations for intervention aid to prevent foreign aggression within its boundaries. After releasing a request of withdrawal to the Belgian government, the United Nations mobilized a peacekeeping force called Opération des Nations Unies au Congo, otherwise known as ONUC and arrived in the Congo in less than two days.1

III. Normative Change of the United Nations in Response to the ONUC Mission

Fig. 3. Irish Defense Force, 34th Battalion ONUC, July 1960. Source: Irish Defense Force. Digital Image. Available from: Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dfmagazine/4824526251.

Although it has been stated that the United Nations' ONUC forces were able to achieve peacekeeping success after four years of active deployment in the Congo, the mission was not conducted in a way of which the United Nations saw to be constructive for future peacekeeping missions; therefore, as a result, many changes were brought forth to the become the normative attitude of the United Nations for decades to come.

Whitney Welsh Gibbs (4461060)

MILH421: History of Peacekeeping 1945-1987

Professor Jodie Cummings

September 20th, 2015

The normative attitudes of the United Nations have, since its formation, transformed considerably due to the outcomes and varying environments of peacekeeping missions mandated by the United Nations across the globe. Dr. Esref Aksu discussed in his book United Nations, Intra-State Peacekeeping and Normative Change, the ways in which the United Nations' normative attitude was affected by the ONUC mission through which changes were brought forth in order to ensure what the United Nations called “national conciliation"; highlighting the importance of continued consent from both parties within future United Nations peacekeeping missions.5

Bibliography

References

1. Jane Boulden, Peace Enforcement : The United Nations Experience in Congo, Somalia, and Bosnia, (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001), 21-22.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid, 42-43.

4. Princeton N. Lyman, "Ralph Bunche's International Legacy: The Middle East, Congo, and United Nations Peacekeeping." The Journal of Negro Education 73, no. 2 (Spring, 2004): 159-170.

5. 1.Esref Aksu, United Nations, Intra-State Peacekeeping and Normative Change, (Manchester, GBR: Manchester University Press, 2003), 122.

Aksu, Esref. United Nations, Intra-State Peacekeeping and Normative Change. Manchester, GBR: Manchester University Press, 2003.

Boulden, Jane. Peace Enforcement : The United Nations Experience in Congo, Somalia, and Bosnia. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.

Gibbs, David N. “Dag Hammarskjold, the United Nations, and the Congo Crisis of 1960-1: A Reinterpretation.” The Journal of Modern African Studies (1993): 163-174.

Harrington, Alexandra R. “A Tale of Three Nations? The Role of United Nations Peacekeepers and Missions on the Concept of Nation-State, Nationalism, and Ownership of the State in Lebanon, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Kosovo.” Connecticut Journal of International Law (2006): 213.

Horn, Major General Carl von. Soldiering for Peace .  London, GBR: Cassel, 1966.

Legum, Colin. Congo Disaster. London, GBR: Penguin, 1961.

Lyman, Princeton N. "Ralph Bunche's International Legacy: The Middle East, Congo, and United Nations Peacekeeping." The Journal of Negro Education 73, no. 2 (Spring, 2004): 159-170.

UN Documents. S/4940/Add. 1– 19, Report of the Officer in Charge of the United Nations Operation in the Congo to the Secretary General relating to the implementation of part A, operative paragraph 2, of Security  Council Resolution S/4741 of 21 February 1961, 14 September 1961, 6 October 1961.

Urquhart, Brian. Hammarskjöld. New York, NY: Norton, 1994.