It has taken the United Nations over two decades to honour one of its most courageous and bravest peacekeepers — Captain Mbaye Diagne. The Senegalese officer who was on a peacekeeping mission to implement the Arusha Accords found himself among the few members of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) who remained behind when most peacekeepers were pulled out at the height of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. They were pulled out when they were most needed, but that did not deter Capt. Mbaye. He took his job seriously when the Genocide broke out, saved hundreds of lives despite limited resources, and died in the line of duty. That was one of the rare signs of international peacekeeping which today is a shadow of what dedication is all about. UN peacekeeping today has been turned face down, mired by scandals, absconding on their mandates and turned into a wasteful expedition that has little to show for all the resources spent. Today, as the UN honours those who lost their lives in the quest for world peace, it should go back to the drawing board and reinvent itself. It should cease to be a toy for the powerful and instead do what it was set up for. Captain Mbaye’s sacrifice should act as a template for anyone willing to serve on a peacekeeping mission in a hostile environment; peacekeeping is not about driving around in white SUVs and Armoured Personnel Carriers; it is about getting one’s hands dirty to save lives. And sometimes it is worth paying the price for, as in the case of Mbaye, the hundreds of people he saved will forever be grateful.
