Editor,

Re: 150 Police peacekeepers off to CAR in mission rotation (The New Times October 9)

The number and size of UN and allied peacekeeping deployments have increased dramatically since the end of the Cold War, as have the budgets that support them. This is due to the fact that some countries like Rwanda have contributed both troops and finances to the peacekeeping cause.

Research suggests that international peace support operations indeed have the potential to improve the chances for preventing further conflict. In the first global, quantitative analysis on the effect of peacekeeping operations (PKOs) found a significant and substantial effect of peacekeepers on peace building two years post conflict.

Modern peacekeepers operate in much more complex terrain like the Central African Republic to help bring peace to a land brutally affected by conflicts. The job our Rwandan peacekeepers do is not that easy since non-state actors, such as organised criminal groups, present additional challenges to peace.

I totally agree with the IGP, for a mission to be well executed, the force must be driven by commitments otherwise, the changing nature of armed conflicts demands being on alert at all times.

Increasingly, our peacekeepers operate in high-risk environment -- a terrain where the French people are -- and where the quest for peace and stability by the locals is elusive.

Rwandan peacekeepers have maintained a high level of discipline which has won them trust where they are deployed and globally and this justifies why our president recently pledged an all-women contingent of peacekeepers.

Jackson Gasana