Shearer to meet UN on Sudan crisis
David Shearer will address the United Nations Security Council tomorrow about the crisis in South Sudan, where he oversees thousands of soldiers and civilians.
The former Labour Party leader was back in New Zealand last week but will return to the wartorn African nation after meeting the Security Council in New York.
Saving lives and reaching a settlement to deliver peace were the main issues for the Security Council, he said.
Shearer, head of the UN mission in South Sudan, said he would like to see more Kiwis join peacekeeping efforts.
He said New Zealanders were ‘‘good at getting on with people’’ and a lot of his work was about trying to get conflicting factions to meet.
‘‘Up to now, it hasn’t been possible to bring everybody together.’’
South Sudan gained independence in 2011, enjoyed a brief peace, but now was ‘‘fracturing along ethnic lines’’.
There were about 12,000 peacekeepers in South Sudan.
They were lightly armed but had armoured personnel carriers and might get helicopter gunships.
‘‘There’s always a tension between what is expected of our peacekeepers, in terms of getting involved, and what they can actually deliver. They’re there basically to protect civilians.’’
Some 220,000 civilians were living inside or next to 17 UN bases.
If the UN was not there, probably hundreds of thousands of people ‘‘would not be alive today’’, Shearer said.
‘‘It’s hard, it’s tough but you’re also working with an incredibly diverse range of people. That has its challenges but it’s also kind of a privilege.’’
Ultimately he hoped to avert catastrophe, so peacekeeping elements could ‘‘phase down’’ and the UN could have more of a technical presence.
He said two NZ Army majors were working as military liaison officers, and Lieutenant Colonel Esther Harrop was headquartered in the capital, Juba.
A Defence Force spokesman said the Cabinet last week approved the deployment of another officer to South Sudan to serve as military assistant to Shearer from July 1, for up to three years.
Shearer said it could be tough finding work and getting experi- ence with humanitarian agencies but Kiwis contemplating such work should ‘‘go to somewhere like Nairobi and knock on doors’’.
Shearer previously worked for the UN in Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.
Although ready to return to Africa, he said flying back and seeing ‘‘the blue, blue water, and technicolour, iridescent green’’ countryside made him grateful to be a Kiwi.
‘‘My God, we do live in a beautiful country.’’