Written Records Peacekeeping Operations

Peacekeeping operations, miscellaneous records

Peacekeeping is a term mainly applied to United Nations (and some other multinational) initiatives to limit or reduce various regional conflicts in the wider interests of international peace and security. Series AWM260 comprises miscellaneous records generated as part of Australia's on-going peacekeeping activities, particularly military assistance provided by the Australian Army in various regions. In some cases the records were donated to the Memorial by individual service personnel involved in these missions, rather than through the normal official channels by which larger, more complete series of records are transferred.


The basis for series AWM260 is founded in the Memorial's tradition of creating series of 'Written records' for particular conflict periods. These series were designed to accommodate miscellaneous items received from unit headquarters and other sources relating to the 1914-1918 War (AWM25), 1939-45 War (AWM54), BCOF and Korea (AWM114) and Southeast Asian conflicts (AWM125). It was decided that a similar series for Australia's involvement in peacekeeping operations would be in order.


The series was created in September 1993 and began to accumulate records, particularly small accessions and estrays which found their way into the Memorial's Official Records Collection. The series is therefore considered ‘artificial’ in that it has been constructed by the Memorial, not by the organisations originally creating and maintaining the records.


Content

Thisseries contains items on a variety of topics from the following peacekeeping operations:


[1/-] Iraq (Kurdistan Relief Team) (Operation Habitat)

[2/-] Cambodia (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC))

[3/-] Somalia (United Nations Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM))

First UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM I) 1992-1993

Unified Task Force in Somalia (UNITAF) 1992-1993

Second UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM II) 1993-1994

[4/-] India and Pakistan (United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP))

[5/-] Sinai (Multinational Force and Observers (MFO))

[6/-] Uganda (Commonwealth Military Training Team Uganda (CMTTU))

[7/-] UN Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) operations covering Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan and Egypt

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) 1978

[8/-] East Timor – UN Advance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) 1999

International Force in East Timor (INTERFET)

United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET)

[9/-] Solomon Islands – International Peace Monitoring Team

[10/-] Peacekeeping General

[11/-] The United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR II)

[12/-] Commonwealth Monitoring Force, Rhodesia (CMFR) 1979-1980

[13/-] United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) 1989-1990

[14/-] United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group (UNIIMOG) 1988-1990

[15/-] United Nations Mine Clearance Training Team (UNMCTT)

[16/-] Operation Osier – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Interim Force (IFOR) and NATO Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia

[17/-] United Nations Operation in Mozambique (UNOMOZ) 1992-1997

[18/-] United Nations for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) 1991-1994

[19/-] United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM)

[20/-] Operation Fino, Vanuatu

[21/-] Truce Monitoring Group and Peace Monitoring Group – Bougainville Operation Bel Isi (I & II)

[22/-] United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS)

[23/-] Peacekeeping records that cover more than one operation

[24/-] United States Forces in Haiti (UNMIH), Multinational Force (MNF) 1994


Over time it is expected that miscellaneous items from any peacekeeping missions in which Australia was involved, will be included in this series as they arrive at the Memorial. Researchers should periodically check the RecordSearch database using keywords against this series number.


System of arrangement and control

The original control system developed for AWM260 was a two-part numbering system imposed by the Memorial. It reflected groups of records relating to specific peacekeeping missions, and were simply allocated as they were received into the series. Until 2005 this system was used and there were six sub-classes or categories within the series see [1/-] – [6/-] above.


In February 2005 the two-part numbering system was replaced with a single number system. Given the series is purely an open-ended and miscellaneous one, and that peacekeeping missions are ongoing, it is difficult to predict what will be added to it in the future. Therefore, the change in numbering was made to accommodate any future additions to the series so they could simply be allocated the next available number, rather than constantly re-shuffling the series to fit in new items and new sub-classes. This numbering system was used until 2008.


In November 2008 it was decided to revert back to the two-part numbering system to reflect groups of records relating to peacekeeping missions. There are several sub-classes within the series – see above.

• AWM260 3 - [United Nations Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM):]
• AWM260 11 - The United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR II)