United Nations peacekeeping missions routinely avoid using force to protect civilians who are under attack, intervening in only 20 percent of cases despite being authorized to do so by the U.N. Security Council, an internal U.N. study found, Reuters reported. "There is a persistent pattern of peacekeeping operations not intervening with force when civilians are under attack," the report by the Office of Internal Oversight Services said. "Peacekeepers are absent from many locations when civilians come under attack, and when they are present, are unable or unwilling to prevent serious physical harm from being inflicted," the 26-page report said. Of 507 incidents involving civilians that were included in U.N. reports between 2010 and 2013, 101 sparked immediate response from peacekeepers, the report said. Presented this week to the U.N. General Assembly Fifth Committee, which deals with the U.N. budget, the report focused on eight of 10 U.N. peacekeeping missions with a Security Council mandate to protect civilians: Lebanon, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur, Abyei and South Sudan. It excluded the newest operations in Mali and Central African Republic. "While no mission can be expected to protect all civilians all the time, each can reasonably be expected to provide protection in areas of highest risk," the report said. "Force was mostly likely to be used to protect civilians when troops were engaged in self-defence or defence of U.N. personnel and property." The top 10 contributors to the U.N.'s almost $8 billion a year peacekeeping budget are the United States, which contributes 28 percent of the budget, Japan, France, Germany, United Kingdom, China, Italy, Russia, Canada and Spain. Countries interviewed for the report that provide peacekeepers for U.N. operations said the risk to their troops was higher than they would accept. Some of them have entirely ruled out the use of force. The biggest troop contributors are India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. -- SPA 23:32 LOCAL TIME 20:32 GMT تغريد
