The Gahnaian TIMES - jeudi 27 mai 2004
UN stops sending troops to Africa
By Norman Cooper
THE United Nations (UN) Department of Peacekeeping Operations
(DPKO) will no longer send troops on peacekeeping missions in
Africa.
In their place, an African Standby Force (ASF) or ad-hoc
sub-regional forces, such as the ECOWAS Peace Monitoring Group
(ECOMOG) will be deployed.
The Deputy Military Advisor to the UN Under-Secretary-General for
Peacekeeping Operations, Brigadier-General Mouhamahu Kandji, who is
based in New-York, announced this at a news conference following a
politico-military seminar, dubbed RECAMP IV, which was held at the
Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) at
Teshie, near Accra.
He said the decision had been taken because the UN had limited
resources at its disposal.
In addition, he explained, with the establishment of the African
Union (UA) Peace and Security Council (PSC), it was no longer
necessary for international troops to be send to, or maintained on,
the African continent to deal with crises like those that had
occurred in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi, Sudan, the Comoros or
Cote d'Ivoire.
A representative of the AU, Mr. Gregorio Lingande, in his
contribution said that conflicts were largely the direct cause of the
economic and social retardation of the African continent.
The Peace and Security Council of the AU, he explained, was a
collective security and early-warning mechanism designed to make
possible a timely and effective response to conflicts.
"It is incumbent upon us Africans to create a new image for Africa
ant to change the current situation on the continent" Mr. Lingande
said.
He said that Africa's internal borders should be seen as "links that
unite our peoples" and not "reasons for mistrust and rivalry".
The 200 seminar participants were made up of military personnel,
politicians and civilian representatives from 40 countries in Africa,
Asia, North and South America and Europe.
The gathering was sponsored by the French government and was aimed
at empowering African armies to be their own peacekeepers in the
event that conflict was to break out on the continent.