The United Nations University is an organ of the United Nations estab- lished by the General Assembly in 1972 to be an international community of scholars engaged in research, advancedtraining,andthedissemination of knowledge related to the pressing global problems of human survival, development, and welfare. Its activities focus mainly on the areas of peace and governance, environment and sustainable development, and science and technology in relation to human welfare. The University operates through a worldwide network of research and postgraduate training centres, with its planning and coordinating headquarters in Tokyo. The United Nations University Press, the publishing division of the UNU, publishes scholarly and policy-oriented books and periodicals in areas related to the University’s research. Regional peacekeepers Regional peacekeepers: The paradox of Russian peacekeeping Edited by John Mackinlay and Peter Cross United Nations a University Press TOKYO u NEW YORK u PARIS ( The United Nations University, 2003 The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations University. United Nations University Press The United Nations University, 53-70, Jingumae 5-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-8925, Japan Tel: þ81-3-3499-2811 Fax: þ81-3-3406-7345 E-mail: [email protected] (general enquiries): [email protected] www.unu.edu United Nations University Office in North America 2 United Nations Plaza, Room DC2-2062, New York, NY 10017, USA Tel: þ1-212-963-6387 Fax: þ1-212-371-9454 E-mail: [email protected] United Nations University Press is the publishing division of the United Nations University. Cover design by Joyce C. Weston Printed in the United States of America UNUP-1079 ISBN 92-808-1079-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Regional peacekeepers : the paradox of Russian peacekeeping / edited by John Mackinlay and Peter Cross. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 92-808-1079-0 1. Peacekeeping forces–Russia (Federation) 2. Peacekeeping forces—Former Soviet republics. 3. Russia (Federation)—Military relations—Former Soviet republics. 4. Former Soviet republics—Military relations—Russia (Federation) I. Mackinlay, John. II. Cross, Peter. U270 .R44 2003 355.3057—dc21 2002155779 Contents Listofacronyms....................................................... vii Introduction. ........................................................ 1 John Mackinlay 1 Russianpeacekeepingpolicies..................................... 13 Domitilla Sagramoso 2 The Russian Separate Airborne Brigade – Peacekeeping in Bosnia-Herzegovina ................................................ 34 Jacob W. Kipp and Tarn Warren 3 RussianpeacekeepingoperationsinGeorgia..................... 63 John Mackinlay and Evgenii Sharov 4 TheRussianarmedforcesinChechnya,1994..................... 111 Timothy Thomas 5 Russian peacekeeping in Moldova: Source of stability or neo-imperialistthreat?.............................................. 132 Trevor Waters 6 CISpeacekeepinginTajikistan.................................... 156 Andres Smith Serrano v vi CONTENTS 7 The evolution of Russian peacekeeping under President Putin................................................................. 183 Dmitry Polikanov 8 Conclusion:TheparadoxofRussianpeacekeeping............... 202 John Mackinlay Appendices ............................................................ 213 Contributors........................................................... 216 Index................................................................... 219 List of acronyms AFSOUTH Allied Forces Southern Europe AFV armoured fighting vehicle APC armoured personnel carrier ARRC Allied Rapid Reaction Corps ASEAN Association of South-East Asian Nations BMP armoured personnel carrier BTR armoured personnel carrier BTRD airborne combat vehicle CFL cease-fire line CinC Commander in Chief CIS Commonwealth of Independent States CISPKF Commonwealth of Independent States peacekeeping force CP checkpoint CPSU Tajik Communist Party CSCE Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe DMR Dnestr Moldovan Republic ECOMOG Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (Liberia and Sierra Leone) ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States EU European Union FRAGOS fragmentary orders FSS former Soviet space FSU former Soviet Union FWF former warring factions GMO Group of Military Observers (Georgia) vii viii ACRONYMS HWSS heavy weapons storage site ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross IDP internally displaced person IFOR Implementation Force IOM International Organization for Migration JCC Joint Control Commission (Georgia and Moldova) JMC Joint Military Command (Moldova) JPKF Joint Peacekeeping Force (Georgia) KFOR Kosovo Stabilization Force KGB former Soviet Bureau for State Security KNB Tajik KGB – succeeded the KGB LNO liaison officer MASSR Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic MFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia) MFO Multinational Force and Observers (Sinai) MIA Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russia/Georgia) MINURSO UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara MND(N) Multi-National Division (North) MoD Ministry of Defence (Russia) MRD Motor Rifle Division MSSR Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NCO non-commissioned officer NGO non-governmental organization NIS newly independent states NMD national missile defence NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia OGRF Operational Group of Russian Forces ONUMOZ UN Operation in Mozambique OOTW operations other than war OPCON operational control OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe PfP Partnership for Peace PKF peacekeeping force PSA production-sharing agreement RPG rocket-propelled grenade RSAB Russian Separate Airborne Brigade RSFSR Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic RWZ restricted weapons zone SACEUR Supreme Allied Commander – Europe SAM surface to air missile SCR Security Council Resolution SFOR Stabilization Force SG Secretary-General SHAPE Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe SSR Soviet Socialist Republic ACRONYMS ix SZ secure zone TACON tactical control UN United Nations UNDP UN Development Programme UNHCR Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNIDIR UN Institute for Disarmament Research UNIKOM UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission UNMOT UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan UNOMIG United Nations Mission in Georgia UNPROFOR UN Protection Force UNTAC UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia UNTSO UN Truce Supervision Organization US United States USSR Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics UTO United Tajik Opposition WEU Western European Union WTO World Trade Organization ZGRV Trans-Caucasian Group of Russian Troops Introduction John Mackinlay Defining peacekeeping When peacekeeping became part of our language as a result of the UN’s initiatives in the Eastern Mediterranean, it described a monolithic activ- ity. A peacekeeping initiative implied that a number of conditions ex- isted1 at strategic and local levels which would become the prerequisites for the deployment of a UN force. In the former Arab–Israeli war zones such as Gaza, Suez, the Sinai peninsula, and the Golan, the UN forces deployed for this purpose would very often be the only international or- ganization at the interface of the opposing armies. The site of their inter- positional responsibilities, sometimes known as a separation zone, would have been in the very recent past the scene of an intense battle. After the sound of gunfire had died away and the dust of passing armoured col- umns had finally settled, the inheritors of the battlefield were the UN peacekeepers. The opposed armies would have moved apart, beyond gun range and mutual vision, leaving a vacuum, a bare strip of land contain- ing only abandoned equipment, minefields, wrecked vehicles, and the corpses of the soldiers involved in the recent fighting. In some cases the last act of the battle, now enclosed within the boundaries of the separa- tion zone, remained frozen in time for several decades. Tanks would be left poised at their positions, abandoned ammunition limbers with shells lying fused ready for action beside their guns, while far away in Geneva 1 2 MACKINLAY and New York the opposed parties argued over the settlement. During the decades which followed, long after the urge for battle had grown cold and the armies involved had withdrawn to a safe distance, the UN’s ob- servers and peacekeepers continued to be, in a symbolic sense, the guar- antors of the peace process and in a real sense the custodians of the inter- face. Peacekeeping, and more importantly the verity that underpins the word in our language, is derived from this experience. Its military conti- nuity is underwritten by the relays of international peacekeepers who, contingent after contingent, undertook these tasks in the Golan, Sinai, and in Cyprus. The experience became processed into the institutional memory of these forces through their training and in the conceptualiza- tion of their operations from the 1950s to the present day. During the Cold War it was therefore this buffer zone experience that epitomized peacekeeping and not the isolated intervention operations such as the Congo or supervising the transfer of power in the case of Irian Jaya, which were relatively short in their comparative duration and erased from the institutional memory of the United Nations except as case studies.2 By the 1980s the effects of perestroika brought the United Nations into contact with a much