Copyright 2000 InterPress Service, all rights reserved. Worldwide distribution via the APC networks. *** 15-May-0* *** Title: POLITICS: Has the International Community Failed Africa? By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, May 15 (IPS) - Surveying the economic and military crises spreading across sub-Saharan Africa in early 1998, Secretary-General Kofi Annan blamed both African leaders and the outside world for "the colossal human tragedies" facing the devastated continent. By not averting these calamities - including wars, famines and the spread of the deadly disease AIDS - African leaders have failed the people of Africa, he complained. At the same time, Annan also blamed the international community and the United Nations for not shouldering their responsibilities to rescue the beleaguered African continent from the rash of disasters. Every one of them - African leaders, the international community and the United Nations - has failed Africa, he declared. Last week, Annan's words rang true once again as sub-Saharan Africa was threatening to go up in flames: a renewed civil war in Sierra Leone, the escalation of the border war in Ethiopia and Eritrea and rising military tensions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But Western nations and the UN Security Council, both of which were quick to authorise military forces to Kosovo and East Timor, remained reluctant to do likewise in Africa - if not on military, at least on humanitarian grounds. "There is some anger in Africa in the way the Security Council is dealing with African issues," Ambassador Abdallah Baali of Algeria told reporters last week. Speaking on behalf of the 53-member Organisation of African Unity (OAU), of which Algeria is the current chair, Baali said that African countries have demonstrated they are capable of resolving their own conflicts. "We have been seeking peacekeeping forces only in post-conflict situations - long after we have settled the problems ourselves," he pointed out. "But if you look at peacekeeping operations in Africa, more and more African countries are sending troops because of the reluctance of European nations to send soldiers," he complained. Amama Mbabazi, Uganda's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, was quoted as saying that African nations are conscious of the fact that Western states are just reluctant to provide troops. "When it is Kosovo, you are there in one minute spending billions. When it is East Timor, you are there. But when it is Africa, there are all sorts of excuses," he said. The Western states feverishly participated in the Kosovo mission fearing that a conflict in the former Yugoslavia would drive hundreds and thousands of refugees into Western Europe. In the case of East Timor, Australia took the lead fearing a wave of East Timorese refugees into its own borders. But Western Europe, the United States and Australia, all geographically far removed from battle zones in Africa, have no fears of African refugees at their doorsteps. The July 1999 peace accord in Sierra Leone fell apart last week only after the withdrawal of a regional peacekeeping force, the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), led by Nigeria. The regional force, which also consisted of troops from Ghana, Guinea, Gambia and Mali, succeeded in keeping the peace over the last few years. Nigeria pulled out primarily because of a shortage of funds. Annan had earlier urged UN member states to provide funds, logistical support and military equipment to the 15,000-strong ECOMOG which was responsible for propping up the democratically-elected government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone against the rebel force, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) led by Foday Sankoh. Aaron Kollie, Press Counsellor of the Embassy of Liberia in Washington DC, argued that had the United States fully supported the ECOMOG force in Sierra Leone, the current crisis may not have occurred. "But the failure of the West in committing support for the ECOMOG force, in favour of a UN force, led to the pullout of ECOMOG, setting the stage for armed renegades to overrun the understaffed and under-equipped UN peacekeeping force," he said. Now that the crisis has flared up again, he said, where is the US government going to find the resources to put the peace back on track? "Wouldn't it have been cheaper to maintain the ECOMOG forces on the ground than to begin a new process of troop mobilisation?" he asked. Last week Annan made several desperate pleas for a "rapid reaction force," manned by well-trained, well-equipped soldiers from countries such as the United States, France and Britain, to reinforce UN troops in Sierra Leone. But he did not receive a single offer from any of the Western states. "I plead with you," Annan told the Security Council last week, "Let us not fail Sierra Leone. Let us not fail Africa. This time, in this crisis, let us back words with deeds, and mandates with the resources needed to make them work." But his plea has fallen on deaf ears. Since it lost 17 soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, the US has backed out of all peacekeeping missions in Africa. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke of the United States, who designated January "the month of Africa" when he presided over the Security Council, sought to turn the spotlight on Africa early this year. But the United States has paid only lip service in trying to resolve some of the ongoing conflicts in Africa. Annan says the United States has made it clear that it will not provide the type of military assistance he needs in Africa. It is just not willing to risk any of its soldiers on the ground, he adds. However, the United States, Canada and Russia have agreed to transport UN troops from India and Bangladesh to Sierra Leone. The United Nations says that Washington is trying to exact a high price for this service. Operating its peacekeeping operations on a shoestring budget, the United Nations has declined the US offer because it is charging about 17 million to 21 million dollars for the airlift operations compared with only six million dollars for a chartered commercial airliner. The Canadians, on the other hand, are providing free transport on a government Airbus while the Russians are using a chartered plane. Since 1970, more than 30 wars have been fought in Africa, the vast majority of them domestic in origin. In 1996 alone, 14 of the 53 countries in Africa were involved in military conflicts, accounting for more than half of the war-related deaths worldwide and resulting in over 8 million refugees. Currently, conflicts are raging in several African countries, including Sudan, Angola, Sierra Leone, Somalia, the DRC, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Additionally, countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Namibia and Zimbabwe are also directly or indirectly involved in conflicts with their neighbours. Last week British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said that "the succession of conflicts in Africa will not end unless we tackle the underlying roots". These include the alleviation of poverty, the elimination of debt burdens, the reduction of arms supplies, and the control of the illicit trade in diamonds in Sierra Leone, DRC and Angola. Addressing a meeting of the Security Council last September, Zambian President Frederick J.T. Chiluba criticised the world body for paying little or no attention to some of the ongoing conflicts in the African continent. "There is a perception that the United Nations, and in particular the Security Council, is usually slow and reluctant to support peace efforts in Africa," he declared. Ghana's Foreign Minister James Victor Gbeho told delegates that the time has come for the international community to do in Africa as much as it has done in other areas, particularly the Balkans, to guarantee peace. "African member states feel discriminated against when the response of the international community to conflicts on the continent is muted or lukewarm," he added. (END/IPS/IP/td/da/00) Origin: SJAAMEX/POLITICS/ ---- [c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------