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Welcome
REMARKS
FOR THE OPENING CEREMONY
Monday,
August 8, 2003
LTG Hwang Kyu-Sik
President, Korean National Defense University
Director Bradford and all the representatives!
I would like to thank Director Bradford and the COE for this
wonderful occasion.
The seminar is under way with a special focus on "Transition
Issues in Complex Emergencies" and "Military in Peacekeeping
and Peacebuilding." I participated in the afternoon panel
today. And let me emphasize that I was impressed. The representatives
in the panel articulated specific issues and problems in conflict-
or disaster-ridden areas and proposed the prospective plans
for improvement. Seminar attendees also enthusiastically participated
in the discussion. I would like to express my utmost admiration
to all the participants.
Let me add that I would encourage all of you to participate
in the ensuing panels from tomorrow on and present your opinions
or proposals. In doing so, we are indeed fulfilling the very
purpose of this seminar.
Distinguished representatives!
ROK-MND prepared several programs to introduce you to various
aspects of Korea. To begin with, a tour in Insa-dong, known
for its antique stores is scheduled for tomorrow. A guide
will assist you through selective stores. I strongly recommend
that all of you join and savor the Korean culture.
Once again, I thank the COE Director and hope that all of
you could have a great time. Thank you.
Mr.
Gerard Bradford III
Director
of the Center of Excellence in Disaster Management
and Humanitarian Assistance
Lieutenant General Hwang, distinguished participants and valued
colleagues, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is
Pete Bradford and I am the director of the Center of Excellence
in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance in Hawaii.
It has been COE's privilege these last three years to execute
the Asia Pacific Peace Operations Capacity Building Program
as part of a highly productive partnership between the United
Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United States
Pacific Command, and co-sponsoring Host Nations in the Asia
Pacific Region. The enlightened leadership of our partnering
host nations has been key in making this program successful.
I would like to thank the Government of the Republic of Korea
and particularly the Ministry of National Defense and the
Korean National Defense University for hosting this event.
Lieutenant General Hwang, without your efforts and those of
your staff and their counterparts at the MND, this program
could not achieve its important objectives. We are very grateful
for your leadership and support. I would also like to thank
our participant Nations for supporting all of you to attend
this seminar. I hope that you will find it rewarding and challenging.
As many of you know, peace support operations continue to
evolve rapidly in their political complexity, their levels
of violence and their magnitude of humanitarian need. The
United Nations Brahimi report was certainly one catalyst for
change in understanding peace operations, but more important
has been the effective participation and experience of the
region's nations in the East Timor crisis and other operations
around the world. Many of you come from countries that have
developed an extraordinary cache of individual command, staff
and unit experience from these missions. You are now veterans
who can interpret and formulate change for the future, particularly
as we face new and difficult challenges within and outside
the Asia Pacific region.
Among lessons learned in recent years has been growing certainty
that multi-phased, simultaneous missions have become the norm.
We continue to confront a sequence of UN missions with different
mandates and needs over time in the same location. In East
Timor, for example, a UN observer and police mission was deployed
to support a national referendum, a multi-national force operating
under a chapter VII mandate re-established peace, a follow
on UN-led force was mandated to provide a secure climate for
restoration of a government and now, an essentially political
and humanitarian mission is finalizing the international communities'
efforts to support a final transition to stability. The East
Timor experience makes clear that as the situation in an afflicted
area changes, so do the scope and nature of its operation
and its participants.
Because of this dynamism, we must continue to evaluate how
we can improve missions and better manage long-term outcomes.
These increasing complexities of peace operations must be
captured and incorporated into our plans and processes. Even
our television screens provide a window to the hard lessons
being learned in Afghanistan, Liberia, Iraq and elsewhere.
We need to draw conclusions from what we see. It is no exaggeration
to say that the products of your discussion in coming days
on transition issues and the role of the military in peace
making and peace building can be of critical help to the success
of future operations.
Our challenges in successful peace transition have been made
painfully clear this past week with the death of a great humanitarian
and UN leader, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, killed in a bomb
blast in Baghdad with at least 20 others six days ago. Sergio
De Mello risked and lost his life because he felt it was important
to reassure the Iraqi people that the UN came in peace, with
altruistic intentions to assist them in moving toward a sustainable
civil society. I believe he judged that implementation of
elaborate security measures to protect UN personnel would
send a wrong message; specifically that the world community,
embodied by UN personnel, was not confident in or properly
respectful of the people of Iraq. This seemingly correct judgment
cost him and his colleagues their lives.
Sergio's tragic loss is emblematic of thousands of other deaths
where citizens and military alike have sought to promote stability
and mitigate the power of spoilers, spoilers who seek to destroy
peace and divert the resources and process of rebuilding to
their own self-serving and always destructive ends. Mr. De
Mello's death and those of his colleagues exhort us to deliberate
the issues before us with gravity and focus, so that we may
provide solutions that will stand the best chance to avoid
and overcome such tragedies in the future. It may not seem
to be our decision to make today, but tomorrow it could well
be our problem and decision.
Moving forward in Iraq, and in the other complex contingencies
taking place today, is going to take the coordinated efforts
of all concerned, at the strategic, political and diplomatic
level. It will also require the sustained efforts of those
in the affected society who work to secure clean water, food,
shelter and livelihood in safety. Ultimately, we must remember
that ordinary citizens of these affected societies will be
the final arbiters of their future stability.
Over the past three years, our seminar methodology has remained
consistent. Success requires that you participate in and contribute
to the discussion by addressing the issues in a direct way.
This will help us to see if we can reach some consensus on
approaches that will assist countries represented here as
well as others in executing future peace operations missions.
To assist with these deliberations the Center has brought
to the table a number of experts from around the world who
have acquired valuable and diverse experience from other quarters
in their actual exercise of political, military, judicial,
and humanitarian leadership at the national and international
level. Their insights and perspective can bring your own experience
into sharper focus and can enrich your discussions for our
collective understanding of the military's role in peace making
and peace building. They are here to facilitate and support
your discussions. I sincerely hope you will challenge them
with your views and questions. They are your resource and
collaborators: please make use of them.
As many of you may know, there is no correct solution to the
problems we pose to you. We depend upon you to take the issues
in whatever direction you believe important. My staff consistently
shares with me how impressed they continue to be with the
quality of individuals who attend these seminar games. This
group is no exception. It is your fresh and ever more experienced
approach that can lead us to creative solutions. I look forward
to hearing your observations and conclusions. Respected colleagues,
I wish you a productive and enjoyable week. Thank you.
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