Folks, culled from the independent.

...................................................................

The West Africa Network for Peace Building, a regional non-profit NGO with
member organisations in fifteen West African countries has listed The Gambia
among several countries infringing several Ecowas principles on democracy
and good governance.

The Gambia was named among West African countries like Guinea, Nigeria,
Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Togo as culpable for having infringed
specific ECOWAS principles. This charge was made in Ghana during the
network's second annual general meeting from 29 to 31 January this year.

According to the network, the principles infringed by The Gambia involved
"the promotion and encouragement of full enjoyment of the people's
fundamental human rights, especially their political, economic, social,
cultural and other rights inherent in the dignity of the human person and
essential to his free and progressive development". This principle, it was
claimed, is linked to the call for political pluralism based on which Ecowas
leaders had solemnly promised to ensure the liberty of the individual and
his inalienable right to participate by means of free and democratic
processes in the framing of society in which she or he lives.

The Gambia was criticised for not encouraging a culture of free speech,
political tolerance and press freedom since the dawn of the second republic.
The country's administration was found wanting in educating Gambians on
basic rights connected with the socio-political demands of the times.
Arbitrary arrests and detentions of civilians and the victimisation of
ruling party opponents were cited as one of the commonest examples of abuses
perpetrated by the APRC regime.

In an introductory remark to his keynote address on "Democratic Governance
and Conflicts in West Africa", Professor Emanuel Kwesi Anin, the
organisation's Director of Governance, Peace and Security Unit outlined that
the phrase "Election 2000" was increasingly acquiring a negative
connotation. He observed that with the only possible exception of the
Senegalese elections in February 2000, most other African elections,
especially in Cote D'Ivoire had been mired in conflict, contestations and
violence.

On the connection between the failure of governance and conflicts in West
Africa, the meeting agreed that governance was about conflict management,
"which is because governing a state was not only about preventing conflict,
but in reality the continual effort to handle ordinary conflicts among
groups and their demands which arise as society plays its role in the
conduct of normal politics".

On the dynamics of conflicts in the Manu River Union, the meeting reached a
consensual assertion that with the increase in the number of civil conflicts
in Africa, civilians are always left hard done by. It was cited among other
things that by 1996, fourteen of the continent's fifty-three countries were
engaged in one form or another of armed conflict, which accounted for more
than half of all war - related deaths around the world. These African
crises, it was observed, resulted in 8.1 million internally displaced
persons or refugees. By 1997, refugees, internally displaced persons and
returnees formed 1.06 percent of the continent's total population, it was
also reported.

A meeting on the "Dynamics of Conflicts in the Manu River Union" was aimed
at discussing the structure and character of wars in Africa. Using Liberia
and Sierra Leone as typical examples of such wars, the changing
international responses to them and how civil society organisations can
contribute to preventing outbreak of conflicts formed a pivotal anchor of
the discussion.

The AGM was continued with a two-day workshop on the Manu River Union
crisis. The Manu River Union countries Guinea-Conakry, Liberia and Sierra
Leone discussed the role of civil society organisations in transforming the
armed conflicts in the area and help build sustainable peace. The Gambia's
member organisation, the Islamic Relief Association - ISRA was represented
by its Executive Director, Phoday Mahmoud Kebbeh


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