VOA标准英语2008年-UN Marks 60 Years of International Peacekeeping

By Margaret Besheer
United Nations
29 May 2008

A wreath was layed at U.N. headquarters Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of its peacekeeping operations. The world body has more than 100,000 troops from more than 120 countries working to keep the peace in 20 conflict zones. From United Nation's headquarters in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.

U.N. peacekeeping operations began in 1948 with the deployment¹ of unarmed U.N. military observers in the Middle East to monitor the truce² between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Since that first mission, peacekeepers wearing the distinctive³ blue helmet of the United Nations have conducted 63 other missions.

In 1988, U.N. peacekeepers won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the U.N. chief of peacekeeping operations, says today his department is at its highest-ever levels of deployment.

"With 20 missions, 130,000 personnel authorized⁴; 110,000 already deployed⁵. That's enormous," he said.

The importance of U.N. peacekeeping can be seen in its budget, which has risen to more than $6.5 billion this year for missions in countries such as Sudan, Chad, Georgia, Haiti and Lebanon.

More than 40 percent of all peacekeepers come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria and Nepal, while Japan and the United States are the largest financial contributors.

But peacekeeping is dangerous work. Ninety peacekeepers lost their lives last year and more than 2,400 during the last six decades. On Wednesday, one more peacekeeper's name was added to that list, when a Ugandan peacekeeper was killed in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The U.N.'s peacekeeping department has also encountered other problems, notably⁶, misconduct on the part of a small number of peacekeepers that has hurt their reputation.

This week, British charity Save the Children issued a report saying some peacekeepers and international aid workers have sexually abused young children in world trouble spots. Guéhenno says this is one of the challenges of peacekeeping.

"That kind of report is never happy reading," he said. "But it's a very useful report, because it puts the light on one of the challenges we have when you rotate 200,000 people every year. How do you make sure you have the full picture? How do make sure misconduct is not under-reported? How do you make sure when there is misconduct it is effectively followed up?"

Guéhenno says his department is working vigilantly⁷ to improve mechanisms⁸ for reporting instances of misconduct and to educate peacekeepers, but concedes more needs to be done.

As the United Nations marks the 60th anniversary of its role as international peacekeeper, the 15-member Security Council is about to go to Africa, where it will visit peacekeeping missions it has authorized in Chad, Sudan's Darfur region, the Congo and the Ivory Coast.

1 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

2 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

3 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

4 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

5 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

6 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

7 vigilantly   

adv.警觉地，警惕地

参考例句：

• He was looking ahead vigilantly. 他警惕地注视着前方。 来自互联网
• Why didn't they search more vigilantly? 那他们为什么不再仔细地搜一搜呢？ 来自互联网

8 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》