by Richard Chidowore and David Gonzalez
Five decades after the end of the 2nd World War, Southern Africa emerges at last from conflict and apartheid — sequels from colonial times – that the United Nations contributed to eradicate.
The UN passed, in these 50 years, various declarations and resolutions that demanded the independence of African nations — most vehemently in the case of those that were not decolonized by the ]ate 1960s, such as Mozambique and Angola. By the late 1970s, African countries accounted for one-third of UN membership.
The UN has become an important power broker, particularly in southern Africa, where the world body is perhaps best known for its role in peace efforts, from Zimbabwe in 1980 to Angola at present.
One UN milestone in the region was the 1966 Security Council decision to impose mandatory sanctions against racist Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Another was in the 1970s, when South Africa’s apartheid government was suspended from participating in UN sessions.
The relations of the UN with Africa were not always smooth. The disastrous performance of UN peacekeepers (the “Blue Helmets”) in the civil war of the former Belgian Congo — present-day Zaire — in the early 1960s shocked most African governments. The “Blue Helmets” would thus not be welcomed again on the continent until Namibia’s decolonization in the late 1980s.
As a consequence of the UN’s acknowledged “special responsibility” with regard to Namibia, the struggle for independence in that colony required UN involvement. Namibian sovereignty, in more than one way, was the culmination of a determined UN effort. The UN Transition Assistance Group for Namibia had, at its peak, more than 8 600 people of 124 nationalities, including some 4 500 military personnel. After its Namibia success, the UN returned to southern Africa in full force as peace broker, observer and also pacifier. The UN had a central role in monitoring the implementation of the Mozambican peace accord, agreed upon in 1992.
Despite delays, by October 1994 — the date of the country’s UN-supervised elections — more than 76 000 soldiers from both the government and Renamo hid been demobilised, and 155 000 weapons had been collected. But many Mozambicans complained that UN peace-keepers packed and left before the setting up of an operative army, thorough demining and full collection of weapons.
The UN became increasingly involved in the struggle against apartheid, which it condemned in 1966 as a “crime against humanity”. Apartheid remained on the UN agenda from 1948 until the democratic elections of April 1994 — again observed by the UN. Economic sanctions imposed by the international community are largely credited for bringing non-racial governance to South Africa. When South African
President, Nelson Mandela, spoke at the UN General Assembly in October 1994, he remarked: “The historic change has come about not least because of the great efforts in which the United Nations engaged to ensure the suppression of the apartheid crime against humanity.”
But UN initiatives have not always had instant success guarantee in southern Africa. In Angola, the UN was heavily involved in efforts to stop civil war and — by virtue of the Agreements on South Western
Africa, signed at UN headquarters in late 1988 — bore the UN Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM).
War re-ignited after opposition Unita disputed the results of the September 1992 elections, declared free and fair by UN observers. It was not until 1995 when a second UN-brokered peace agreement led to the deployment of a new peacekeeping mission.
Beyond these tasks, the UN has remained busy in other areas such as promotion of human rights, political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights. Through the World Health Organization and other agencies such as UNICEF, the UN has played a major role in safeguarding the health of the world’s adults and children alike. Immunisation campaigns have brought some of the world’s killer diseases such as polio, tetanus,
TB and many more, under control, while others have been eradicated. Southern Africans vividly remember the repatriation – by the UNHCR — of Mozambican refugees who had fled to neighbouring countries during the 16-year war. The World Food Programme and other UN bodies have also spared countless southern Africans from starvation in the wake of man-induced conflict and natural disasters.
The list of UN successes is long indeed, but not endless. It is true that there has been no world war since the UN’s inception 50 years ago. But one only has to look at the wars that have been fought between and within nations since 1945 and the millions of lives lost and are still being lost: Rwanda, Sudan, Pakistan, the Middle East, the Balkans, Somalia ..” the list is perhaps longer than the record of UN successes.
Moreover, the present-day arsenals of sophisticated weapons of mass destruction suffice to destroy the world, while total disarmament remains out of sight. South Africa recently became the first country ever to destroy its nuclear arsenal — but none of the other members of the exclusive “nuclear club” appears ready to follow suit.
UN Resident Representative in Botswana, Deborah Landey, recalls that great challenges lie ahead – like poverty. “Over one billion people in the world live in poverty. A billion adults are illiterate, two thirds of whom are women. Millions of children around the world die unnecessarily each year, and almost 13 million people are infected with the HIV virus,” she said.
On 1 December, proclaimed World Aids Day by the UN, southern Africa — critically affected by
HIV/AIDS — has little to cheer about. Landey warns that, without equitable social and economic development, problems of growing poverty, joblessness, population growth and the degradation of the environment will breed despair and instability.
Finally, there are two areas of concern for southern African and other developing countries when contemplating the future of the UN -~ lack of democracy and of financial resources. Following strong pressures from the developed North, the countries of southern Africa have been adopting new forms of governance and economic management — including severe structural adjustment programmes. Southern
Africans now think it is the turn of the UN to democratize and to put some order in its accounts. But they discover that — surprisingly — it is in the developed North that opposition is strongest to power-sharing and to the payment of enormous arrears keeping UN balances in the red.
African leaders criticize the North for neglecting Africa and ref using to share power in the UN SecurityCouncil. They castigate the sweeping powers enjoyed by the historically privileged countries that sit permanently on that body, and their refusal to pay their dues.
“Genocide taking place in Rwanda is treated by the world with less significance than genocide in Bosnia… Where, we ask, is the brotherhood of man? Where, we ask, is man’s impartiality? Where indeed is the proof of his non-racialism? Is it a scourge to be black, we ask?” inquired Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe at the UN’s 50th anniversary celebrations. (SARDC)
