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The challenges of peace-keeping and peace-making in Africa: The role of the United Nations and Nigeria's contributions |
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ANNOUNCE THIS ARTICLE TO YOUR FRIENDS! |
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Remarks
Professor Ibrahim A. Gambari at
The National Convention I. INTRODUCTION It is a great pleasure and distinct priviledge for me to address this distinguished audience. The topic of my brief address, the Challenges of Peace-keeping and Peace-making in Africa: The Role of the United Nations and Nigeria's contributions, is both relevant and particularly timely. For Africa, perhaps the biggest challenge is peace or, more appropriately, the absence of peace in far too many countries in the Continent. Hence, there is a need to critically examine the role of the United Nations, in partnership with countries, regional organisations and the Organisation of African Unity and leading African nations such as Nigeria, in the efforts to end the multiplicity of conflicts and wars in Africa. Furthermore, it does appear that the pendulum has swung and this is, once again, the season for peace-keeping operations by the United Nations. But with particular reference to Africa, it is a troubled season indeed considering the enormous difficulties being encountered with regards to present and prospective United Nations Peace-keeping Operations such as in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL); Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC); Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the inter-positional force authorised by the Security Council for the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict. Hence, the issues of appropriate mandate; adequate financing; equipment and logistic support of these operations and co-operation between the United Nations and Regional Organisations, cannot be more timely. II. THE UNITED NATIONS PEACE-KEEPING EXPERIENCE IN AFRICA The founding fathers of the United Nations made a bold declaration contained in the Preamble of the Charter that "we the peoples of the United Nations (are) determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in (their) life times have brought untold sorrows to mankind". This is a clear expression of the ideal of collective security. In reality, the Cold War, which dominated the Post-World War II era, undermined the capacity of the UN to operationalise a true collective security system. Global collective security, the organising precept of the UN Charter, was impossible in a world divided into hostile blocs. However, the United Nations did manage to carve out a more limited and narrower international security role. As a relatively neutral Organisation, it could sometimes help to bring smaller conflicts to an end, keep them from flaring anew, and keep them from leading to a direct and potentially catastrophic clash of the then two Super Powers. Thus, the United Nations came to be associated over the years with more modest but, under the circumstances, more realistic objectives: the mediation of isolated and peculiar conflicts, the monitoring of cease-fire arrangements and the separation of hostile armed forces. Novel kinds of field operations were developed to support this work such as unarmed military observer missions and armed peacekeeping missions (first utilized in the Sinai in 1956). As an international peace-keeping nation and with the new lease of international respectability conferred on her due largely to the return to democratic rule, Nigeria has both the opportunity and the duty to provide the leadership in Africa's own efforts to address the root causes of conflicts and to manage such conflicts wherever they occur in the continent. The Cold War has been over for about half a decade now, but the high expectations for a New World order have not materialised. The post Cold War era has often unleashed ethnic and nationalist forces that challenge state authority and old imperial boundaries. Indeed, subnational groups' demands for empowerment, autonomy and even independence represent a new stage in the struggle for self-determination that has often turned violent and may yet fragment the globe into ever smaller, and ultimately vulnerable, polities. The UN has contributed frequently to the containment or resolution of first-stage conflicts and wars between states, but it now faces permanent entanglement in second-stage conflict over territory, resources, and political control where emotions run high and there are no agreed rules and, in some cases, violence is perpetrated by non-regular armies. Some examples of such conflicts are the Democratic Republic of the Congo where foreign armies fight in an alien territory adding to violence that national factions are waging against each other; Somalia, where armed gangs roam at will thus inaugurating the concept of a "failed" or collapsed State and the killing field that once was Yugoslavia, where civilians are the targets of ethnic cleansing and Sierra Leone where rebel forces commit unspeakable atrocities with innocent civilian population as victims. In general, conflicts in the 1990's which tend to be more intra-state than inter-states have shown great complexities. They are not solvable only with operations of military character. Today, I cannot imagine conflicts such as that in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo without multi-functional peace-keeping operation involving military and civilian personnel. There is a need to support these countries in finding political settlement, in overcoming humanitarian crisis, in strengthening law and order, security and economic institutions. There can be no doubt, however, that the conflicts in Congo, Sierra Leone and Angola present the UN with yet another new set of challenges. The link between diamonds and the ability to fuel the wars have been established in both Sierra Leone and Angola. This means that the United Nations will have to devise vigorous mechanisms of intervening to impede the continuing fuelling of wars with illegal trade of diamonds. The three conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and the Angola also reaffirm one of the most important lessons we have learned in Namibia: the need to intimately link peacekeeping with peacemaking. In Namibia, peacekeepers were constantly engaged in negotiations with parties concerned about issues relevant to the final resolution to the conflict. Namibia was again an innovation for peacemaking because it proved that peacemaking is not an activity restricted only to a phase prior to the deployment of peacekeeping but it is a constant aspect of the entire peace process. But perhaps, the most important lesson being learned by the United Nations from the recent debacle in Sierra Leone and the difficulties of deployment of peace-keepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is for the Organisation to match "robust" mandates or rules of engagement with equally robust means of accomplishing them. As the Secretary-General also reminds us all: "we have in the past prepared for peace-keeping operations with a best case scenario. The parties sign an agreement, we assume they will honour it, so we send in lightly armed forces to help them. The time has come for us to base our planning on worst -case scenarios to be surprised by co-operation, if we get it. And to go in prepared for all eventualities, including full combat, if we don't". III. THE CHALLENGES OF PEACE-MAKING IN AFRICA It can be argued that the greater challenge for the United Nations with regards to Africa is in peace-making rather than peace-keeping. There are a number of reasons for such an argument:
Therefore, while we need to focus on both current and potential United Nations Peace-keeping Operations in Africa, broader attention need to be paid to the challenges of United Nations peace-making in Africa which also covers preventive actions and post-conflict peace-building endeavours. In this regard, it is my belief that United Nations' peace-making efforts are unlikely to succeed unless the root causes of conflicts are properly addressed. This was highlighted in Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Report (A/52/871 - 51998/3180) of April 1998, which noted that peace and developments are indeed closely inter-related. Most serious disenchantment with existing political order in several countries emanates from problems of power sharing, religious intolerance, ethnic chauvinism or feeling of marginalisation, and of course, mis-management of national resources. Hence, the Secretary-General's Report of September 1999 recommended that good governance, promotion of public health priorities, investing in human resources, and focusing on social justice and promotion of human rights are essential ingredients to promote durable peace and security in Africa. In this regard, he identified what African countries should do and what the international community should do to assist them in realising these objectives including:
At the moment, Africa is being confronted with the multiple armed conflicts during a period when the Continent cannot depend on a large international community to provide the necessary human, logistic and political resources to resolve them; therefore the need to resort to regional and sub-regional organisations peacemaking initiatives to deal with such conflicts becomes obvious. An example is ECOWAS under the leadership of Nigeria which successfully brokered peace agreements in Liberia and the successful restoration of President Kabbah to power and the continuing efforts to promote peace in Sierra Leone through the basic aspects of the Lome Peace Agreement. Also, the SADC and OAU active mediation efforts in Angola which culminated in the Lusaka Peace Agreement of 1994 as well as the 1999 Lusaka Cease-fire Accord on the crisis in DRC, although that Accord is now faltering. It is true that the Security Council has the primary responsibility of maintaining the international peace and security. This is based on the concept of collective security that consists of a common commitment to the proposition that a threat to peace in Africa or elsewhere should be considered a threat to peace everywhere. Yet, there is a recognition that the United Nations cannot do everything; hence, the importance of Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter which encourages the enhancement of the co-operation between United Nations and regional arrangements (working closely with regional leaders such as Nigeria in West Africa and South Africa in Southern Africa) and the need to improve their relative capabilities in undertaking certain peace-making initiatives. The latter has the advantage of proximity and familiarity with such conflicts in their respective regions while the United Nations has the advantages of universality, relative impartiality and greater financial resources. IV. CONCLUSIONS The international community needs to increase support to the United Nations in its efforts to promote peacemaking in the African Continent. It is cheaper and longer lasting. Meanwhile, United Nations Peace-keeping operations in Sierra Leone must succeed not only for the sake of the people of Sierra Leone but for the credibility of the world body. In this regard, the most recent resolution adopted by the Security Council (August 4, 2000) to further strengthen the 13,000 troop component of UNAMSIL (with Nigerian troops as the back-bone of the operations) and to adjust its mandate is aimed at effectively countering the continuing threat posed by RUF in Sierra Leone and their outside supporters. Moreover, the efforts by the Security Council to cut the source of financing of RUF's military activities through greater control of illegal exports of diamonds from the country is also very welcome. And with respect the the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is now up to President Kabila, the other signatories to the Lusaka Accord and the Organization of Africa Unity, to salvage the cease-fire and return to the process of inter-Congolese dialogue. These are the basic prerequisites for the deployment of phase II of United Nations Peace-keepers there. On the part of African leaders, there is need for greater political will to enhance a peaceful resolution of conflicts. In this regard, clear commitment to the promotion of peace must be demonstrated individually and collectively in co-operation with United Nations efforts to resolve African crisis. The bottom line to promote lasting peace is democratisation, good governance, better management of natural resources and economies. As an international peace-keeping nation and with the new lease of international respectability conferred on her due largely to the return to democratic rule, Nigeria has both the opportunity and the duty to provide the leadership in Africa's own efforts to address the root causes of conflicts and to manage such conflicts wherever they occur in the continent. Nonetheless, Nigeria's credibility would be enhanced if charity truly begins at home and our leaders put into practice at the domestic level what they preach and endeavour to do abroad. Thank you 
Ibrahim A. Gambari |
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