Daily Graphic - vendredi 28 mai 2004
"We'll help Africa develop peacekeeping
capacities"
Story : Michael Donkor
THE United Nations (UN), has expressed its readiness to continue to work with other international donors and partners to help Africa develop its peacekeeping capacities.
It said this was because African peacekeeping operations were crucial
in complementing the UN's role, particularly in crises where the UN
was not in a position to deploy troops rapidly enough.
The Deputy Military Advisor of the United Nations Department of
Peacekeeping Operations, Brigadier-General Elhadji M. Kandji, said
this at the closing ceremony of a political and military seminar
dubbed "RECAMP 2004" at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping
Centre in Accra last Thursday;
The three-day seminar was organised by the French Armed Forces in
collaboration with the Ghana Armed Forces.
About 200 participants, made up of diplomats, senior military
officers from Africa and France as well as some officials from the UN
and ECOWAS, attended the seminar.
The seminar forms part of the French government's effort to promote
greater stability in Africa, as well as reinforce African
peacekeeping capabilities.
It also aims at equipping the political authorities, as well as the
armed forces of African countries to properly position themselves in
resolving conflicts, without necessarily having to rely on the
traditional United Nations system for support in peacekeeping
operations.
Brig-Gen. Kandji said the UN attaches great importance to
enhancement of African peacekeeping capacity, as it benefits the
United Nations peacekeeping capacity, which heavily relies on African
massive valuable contributions.
The Deputy Executive Secretary for Political Affairs, Defence and
Security of ECOWAS, General Cheick Oumar Diarra, said the seminar had
been beneficial and gave the assurance that the recommendations made
would be considered at the next ECOWAS meeting in Abuja.
A diplomat in Resident at the Legon Centre for International Affairs
"LECIA", Ambassador Joseph Cleland, said the participants were taken
through crisis management and issues of disarmament, how to handle
issues of child soldiers, and illegal exploitation of natural
resources as well as consolidation of a state after a civil
war.
He expressed the hope that the lessons learnt during the seminar
would be implemented by the participants.