SOMALIA HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION 1992-1993 by G. P. ...

Somalia - Humanitarian intervention 1992-1993 651
specific proceedings which aim at paving the way towards the use of those means
as contemplated in the chapter in question. Besides, it has been claimed that their
legal basis can be traced in the Charter's Chapter VII and, in particular, in its article
40. Nevertheless, the dispositions stated under the said article, such as a cease-fire
or cease of hostilities, the declaration of truce or armistice, disarmament
observance and the like, are the Security Council's instructions imparted to the
Parties to the conflict which, as such, must be adopted by the said Parties. Instead,
the Peacekeeping Forces consist of certain proceedings and policies which must be
adopted, not by the parties but by the United Nations Agencies and are based on
the parties' consent and cooperation.
In the light of the preceding exposition, we could say that the legal basis on
which the Peacekeeping Forces lie arises - if we stick to a praeter legem
interpretation of the Charter - from inherent powers of the organization, necessary
for the pursuance of its aims. (vii)
In 1985, the United Nations' Information Agency defined them as those
operations which involve military staff, though without being entitled to war
powers, required by the United Nations in order to help maintain International
Peace and Security.
The First Peacekeeping Force was UNEP I and its task or concrete example
was followed by subsequent ones, at least up to some time before the Persian Gulf
War.
Some of the characteristic features of the classic type UNEF I Peacekeeping
Forces which are worth mentioning are: cooperation, the consent of the parties to
the conflict, no use of force (except for legitimate defense), impartiality and the
international community's approval.
Thus, we come to our first question. Are the forces deployed in Somalia part
of a classic Peacekeeping Force operation?
On several occasions, the United Nations Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali qualified the Organization's strategy deployed on Somalian land as:
"A new notion in the field of operations for the Maintenance of Peace".
Just for the sake of exemplification and to list out a few of the differences
that can be found out between the behaviour of the Peacekeeping Forces deployed
in Somalia with respect to that of previous Operations, we can highlight the
following: