"AU's Peace, Security Council lauded"

By Innocent Gore recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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THE launch of the African Union Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa on Tuesday should be a step in the right direction for the continent which has been ravaged by wars and conflicts that have had a massive impact on economic development.

Wars and conflicts have gone on unabated on the continent, killing millions of people, including innocent women and children.

And the now defunct Organisation of African Unity did not help matters by not taking action through its policy of noninterference with the affairs of sovereign nations.

The launch of the African Union Peace and Security Council on Tuesday, which coincided with Africa Day commemorations marking 41 years since the formation of the OAU, marks a new thinking by African leaders that none but Africans themselves will solve their own problems.

But analysts say conflicts in the Sudan, Liberia, Burundi, the DRC, Uganda and Cote d'Ivoire will be test cases for the AU Peace and Security Council.

African leaders adopted the protocol establishing the Peace and Security Council at the launch of the AU in Durban, South Africa, in 2002.

The second AU summit in Maputo, Mozambique, in July 2004 authorised the executive council to take the necessary measures to operationalise the security council.

In March this year, 15 countries were elected as members of the council on a rotational basis. All AU member countries will one way or the other be members of the council because of the rotation system.

The 15 are Algeria, Cameroon, the Congo Republic, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and Togo.

Members of the council take turns to chair the body for a month and the chairperson for May is Nigeria, having taken over from Mozambique which chaired in April.

The council elected in March adopted the rules of procedure and submitted them to the executive council which decided that the council starts work immediately.

According to AU Commission chairperson Mr Alpha Konare, the Peace and Security Council has to date held eight meetings to discuss peace and security on the continent.

The council will be the permanent organ charged with dealing with peace and security, management of disasters, humanitarian crises, postconflict situations, issues of observance of the rule of law and conflict prevention.

It will comprise an early warning system comprising chiefs of army staff from selected countries, a panel of the wise, and a standby force comprising brigades from Africa's five regions — north, west, east, south and central.

Mr Konare said the launch of the PSC is a "break from the past" in that the organ is indisputably an important tool that will enable Africa to take up issues of peace and security on the continent rather than have the international community impose their own solutions.

He said member states should demonstrate political will to avoid dependence of the organ on donors.

"The more we mobilise our resources the more the international community will support us, and the more then we will solve our problems with dignity," he said.

"Let us have more confidence in ourselves and let us have more confidence in our institutions. Nobody will build Africa in our place, nobody will establish lasting peace in Africa in place of the Africans themselves."

Mr Konare said while considerable progress had been made in the DRC, Uganda, Sudan, Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Somalia and Ethiopia and Eritrea, more still needed to be done to establish lasting peace in these areas.

Important pragmatic solutions, he said, must be put in place to mobilise peacekeeping troops within, say a week, to where they are wanted. Africa must condemn the coming to power through unconstitutional means.

"Illegal power is anachronistic in Africa today," said the former Malian president.

An Africa at peace cannot stand without a world at peace and Mr Konare said what was happening in the Middle East, that is the Palestine-Israeli conflict and the war in Iraq, concerned Africa.

AU chairman and Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said peace and security should be a prerequisite of economic development and prosperity for Africa.

He gave an example of his country whose economic development was inhibited by years of war waged against his government by the Renamo rebels.

He called upon Africa's five regions to contribute brigades to the Peace and Security Council for the African Standy Force which is expected to be gradually established by 2010.

Policy documents establishing the standby force, the panel of the wise and a common defence policy would be presented to heads of states and governments at the AU summit in July.

Mr Chissano urged member states to fully commit themselves to the Peace and Security Council so as to end conflicts and unconstitutional changes of governments.

The force will require resources and President Mugabe said member states will have to go the extra mile in providing financial resources, equipment, weapons and other facilities to ensure the success of the force.

While admitting that a lot still needs to be done to establish the force, President Mugabe lauded the launch of the PSC saying this would defend Africa's territorial integrity and the sovereignty of African nations.

Algerian President Mr Abdel Aziz Bouteflika said Africa would have to look for constant support from the United Nations and the international community in order for the initiative to succeed.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said the council should make a lot of difference from the way Africa handled conflicts in the past.

"We must demonstrate to the international community that Africa is poised for action and that it will no longer be business as usual," he said, adding that the launch of the council should mark a historic progress towards peace and security in Africa.

He said no conflict should be out of bounds for the PSC.

The issue of the reemergence of mercenaries on the continent also took centre stage, with leaders expressing concern at the menace which they said is aimed at plundering and exploiting Africa.

However, despite the noble intentions of the Peace and Security Council, analysts and observers said there was a danger of overrelying on donors for funding.

They said these donors might have their own agendas and might infiltrate the council to further their causes.

They said the standby force could be a source of destabilisation of national armies in that its members may consider themselves as "the elite" sand above national armies.

The setting up of an African tribunal to try mercenaries, said one observer, may subvert national laws and might be infiltrated by some western governments whose nationals might have been involved in mercenarism.

After all that was said and done in Addis Ababa on May 25, observers note that the success of the AU Peace and Security Council would be measured on how it handles conflicts in Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia/Eritrea, Liberia, the Sudan and Somalia.

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