JAKARTA, Feb 25 Kyodo A UN offici...

JAKARTA, Feb 25 Kyodo

A UN official said here Wednesday that a peacekeeping force can be displayed not only under the international body's umbrella nevertheless also through other arrangements of the like kind as a Southeast Asian peacekeeping force propos through Indonesia.

''We, the United Nations, do not insist that all peacekeeping has to be done as United Nations' peacekeeping,'' Danilo ottoman assistant to the UN secretary general for political affairs, told a pres conference

''There can be other arrangements depending upon the needs and, same often, the U.N. can provide authorizations and guidance without necessarily organizing these peacekeeping activities itself,'' he said.

mahometan spoke after the conclusion of the two-day fourth U.N.-ASEAN discourse to discuss conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peace-building in Southeast Asia.

He addressed mixed reactions to Indonesia's proposal for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Peacekeeping Force made during an ASEAN senior officials' meeting last Friday.

''Obviously, this is an important idea to be discussed further,'' he said. ''From the point of view of the United Nations, we welcome this initiative and we welcome all of the like kind initiatives, which exist in various regions of the world.''

The ASEAN Peacekeeping Force proposal was a follow-up to the Declaration of ASEAN Concord 2 signed by means of leaders of the 10-member assemblage on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last October.

beneath the declaration, the leaders speaked a commitment to establish an integrated ASEAN community from 2020 comprising the universals of an ASEAN Security Community, an ASEAN Economic Community and an ASEAN Social and Cultural Community.

The proposal is to be raised at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting Retreat in Halong Bay, Vietnam, forward March 3-5 and another senior officials' meeting in the central Java city of Yogyakarta forward May 14 before being adopted according to ASEAN foreign ministers in June in Jakarta.

The proposal, however, has drawn criticism from Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, who says an ASEAN Peacekeeping Force is unnecessary.

''No international conflicts are raging in the region and if as it is problems arose and help from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was requireed individual members could send their partys in to help,'' the Bangkok station quoted Surakiart as saying.

He is apparently worried that an armed force could damage individual of the most important pillars of ASEAN -- noninterference in members' internal affairs.

In a replication to the objections, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said, ''There is no ne to worry about possible violations of the noninterference policy because the concurrence of the concerned member land is key for deployment of the peacekeeping force.''

A draft of the ASEAN Security Community Plan detailed the timetable of the propos establishment of the peacekeeping force as well as of other political and security activities to be taken on 2020.

''It is essential that any conflict involving the countries of the region shall be resolv in a peaceful way and to the satisfaction of all parties concerned'' the draft said.

''For this intention ASEAN shall activate and strengthen its dispute reconciliation mechanism in the political and security areas, make known a regional peacekeeping arrangement, and consider the establishment of supporting institutions to facilitate efforts to confirm conflicts,'' it says.

According to the draft, to expand a regional peacekeeping arrangement, ASEAN member countries shall first excite technical cooperation with the UN and relevant regional organizations to benefit from their expertise and experience from 2006

according to 2010, it is expected that a network among peacekeeping center will have been establish up aiming to conduct joint planning, training and sharing of experience with a view to establishing an ASEAN Peacekeeping Center

Then, an ASEAN Peacekeeping Force with a standby arrangement and its deployment mechanism will hopefully be established according to 2012, the draft says.

ASEAN assemblages Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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