ANP The last Dutch operational unit has returned from Mali.
Dutch international missions and development cooperation have had little result in the period from 2015 to 2022. This is the conclusion of an independent research department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Promoting stability, security and the rule of law is one of the spearheads of Dutch foreign policy. The researchers say that the Netherlands contributed to some positive developments at a local level in Afghanistan, Mali and South Sudan, but the vicious circles of violence and instability have not been broken in those countries.
Politics in The Hague earmarked 2.7 billion euros for the missions in the period under review. But the researchers conclude that there is a gap between the ambition and the influence of the ministry. For example, the three countries were hardly prepared to implement structural reforms.
You can dig wells and build schools, but if you don’t get the terrorists under control, you won’t break the vicious circle of instability.
Oud-Buza-minister Uri Rosenthal
Politicians also often viewed UN missions abroad through ‘Hague glasses’, says researcher Rens Willems on behalf of the IOB, the evaluation service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that conducted the research. “One of the things that we indeed see is that the local context is not taken into account enough.”
The researchers looked at missions in three countries:
The Netherlands supported in Mali a UN mission to ensure security and stability. The mission came to an abrupt end this summer.
The Netherlands participated in a UN mission with military and police officers for almost eight years Southern Sudan. The mission was supposed to protect civilians and ensure lasting peace, but the mission failed.
From 2002, Dutch military personnel contributed to security for almost 20 years Afghanistan. They mainly worked in Uruzgan province and later in Kunduz. That mission also failed: the Taliban is stronger than ever in the country.
Former politician Uri Rosenthal agrees with the report’s conclusions. He was foreign minister from 2010 to 2012. “The reality in such a conflict area is unruly. We often have a species overall picture from: that’s how we’re going to do it. But one mission is not the other.”
According to Rosenthal, Dutch soldiers sometimes did not know exactly what they would find in a specific area. “The distance between how we think about those conflict areas and what is actually going on in those areas is often very large. You can’t get rid of that with a working visit of a few days,” he says to News hour. “You can drill wells and build schools, but if you don’t get the terrorists under control, you won’t break the vicious circle of instability.”
‘Effect difficult to measure’
Tom Middendorp partly recognizes himself in the criticism in the report stands. As commander of the armed forces, he led the Dutch contributions to more than twenty small and larger missions such as in Afghanistan, Mali, Sudan, Iraq and Somalia. But he emphasizes that it is difficult to measure the precise effects of missions. That certainly applies to the smaller missions: “You contribute a drop in a very large bucket.”
Expectations in the Netherlands were often too high, he says. According to Middendorp, the Netherlands should communicate more clearly about the usefulness and necessity of the missions.
The government must also evaluate missions better, even if they are still in progress. “Adjust it if necessary,” says Middendorp in the studio of News hour. “There’s nothing wrong with that. A mission is very dynamic.”
Too positive
The researchers say that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs often spoke too positively about the missions, while they were not very successful. “People wanted to start from the positive story,” says Rens Willems of the IOB. While it cannot be ruled out that the Dutch presence in Mali, South Sudan and Afghanistan may have been more negative than positive. “It certainly could.”
“Painful,” says Rosenthal. But also understandable. “You send people from your country to a risky area. You hope that they come back safe and sound. And then you assume that it is not in vain.”
Middendorp confirms that politicians and civil servants do not always admit that missions go badly. “In The Hague, people are very happy when the decision-making is over. The good parts of the mission are then mainly seen.”
Keep participating
Should the Netherlands refuse to participate in UN peacekeeping missions from now on? No, says Uri Rosenthal, that would not be good for our position on the world stage. “If allies ask for it, you have to be very strong in your shoes to say: we will not do that. Maybe then you are also weak in your shoes.”
Tom Middendorp also says that the Netherlands should continue to participate in missions. He believes that the government should use the report to do better work in the future. “We must recognize that the world is becoming more unstable.”
2023-08-29 19:10:49
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