India lashes out against 'powerless' UN Security Council

United Nations, Oct 13: Calling the Security Council ineffective and powerless, India has lashed out against its lack of accountability and transparency in mandating peacekeeping operations and blamed it for the rising casualties among peacekeepers. "We are dismayed at the opaque manner in which the Security Council continues to mandate peace operations, without any accountability or transparency," India's Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji said Monday at a General Assembly session on peacekeeping operations. "The human costs of this failing are evident in both the rising number of casualties among UN peacekeepers, as well as an alarming growth in the number of civilians, now reaching 60 million according to the Secretary General, whose lives are being disrupted by the conflicts that an ineffective Security Council is powerless to resolve," Mukerji added. As of the end of September, 85 peacekeepers have died this year. Mukerji appealed to Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft to "take the lead to prioritise agreement on an early reform of the Security Council during this 70th Session."