by Richard Chidowore
At a colourful ceremony in the Angolan capital Luanda, recently, Angolan children joined various cultural groups and began singing about their hope for peace and never again to have war.
The children’s lyrics, part of African women’s efforts for peace, sent a message, not only to Angola but to the rest of southern Africa, that there is need to work for the prevention of conflict in the region. The current peace process in Angola provides the most opportune moment for total peace in southern Africa.
Regional analysts are unanimous that economic development in southern Africa is central to the region’s future. But they also agree that security issues will underpin development prospects.
“This, of course, is not to suggest that security questions alone will promote economic prosperity, but without considering security there cannot be development,” said Dr Abillah Omari, Director of Mozambique/Tanzania Centre for Foreign Relations in Dar es Salaam.
It is because the leaders of southern Africa realise that regional peace is a prerequisite for meaningful economic development, that they have maintained peacekeeping mechanisms. And one of these efforts over the years has been through the Frontline States (FLS).
There is enough documented evidence to support that the southern African region has always attempted to work together as a region to resolve conflicts through the FLS forum.
Because of these endeavours, Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 and Namibia in 1990. The conflict in Mozambique was successfully negotiated between 1992 and 1994, culminating in multiparty elections of October I 994. South Africa had its first multiracial election in 1994 in which the African National Congress (ANC) won and formed a government of national unity.
The conflict in Angola is as good as resolved after the government and rebel movement – the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) — agreed to work for peace and national reconciliation. It will, however, take continued outside assistance to ensure lasting peace.
Furthermore, the FLS continue to uphold the virtues of democracy. The organization threatened to send a regional force into Lesotho in January 1994 at the height of the military destabilisation of the mountainous kingdom. It then issued an ultimatum in August of the same year for King Letsie Ill to restore the dismissed democratically elected government of Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle.
Zimbabwean President and FLS Chairman, Robert Mugabe, said at the time that the FLS would be setting a very dangerous precedent if it allowed the reversal of democracy in any southern African country. “If a country that has some democratic order is experiencing a situation where the order is being threatened by forces beyond its control, and that country appeals to its neighbours to assist, that is not a reversal of democracy,” said Mugabe.
And just before the Mozambican elections in October I 994 – when Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama had threatened to pull out of the process -the FLS sent representatives to persuade him to participate and to accept the results of the elections.
Despite its impressive record, and especially the signing of SADC Treaty that signalled the importance of regional co-operation and economic integration, the leaders of southern Africa have found it useful not to disband the FLS which is now drawn into wider regional security concerns. Earlier this year, regional leaders announced that they were ready to transform the grouping into an informal regional peacekeeping and dispute settling body, known as the Association of Southern African States (ASAS).
1
Although the major focus of debate at th.is year’s OAU summit was on Burundi, Sierra Leone.
Liberia, Somalia and Rwanda, and not on Mozambique, South Africa or Angola – which had dominated debate in recent years – this should not be seen as complacency on the part of the OAU.
In fact, the continental body made progress at the summit on the idea of creating an African standby force to intervene where conditions allow for military intervention. Despite strong opposition in the past to the idea of creating an African military force, a majority favouring the establishment of a standby force – a quick reaction force of soldiers based in their own countries – appears to be emerging. Zimbabwe bas been mentioned as a possible location for such a force.
“Unless we make decisive progress in this exercise, our efforts in making the lives of our people better and efforts at making our continent more relevant in international affairs, will be severely undermined,” OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim said.
After 30 years of concentrating on decolonisation of Africa, the OAU decided five years ago to focus on Mechanism for Conflict Prevention. Management and Resolution as a principal instrument for peacekeeping. But its success depends on the cooperation and solidarity of African states to achieve peace, stability and development.
Salim, who described this year’s summit as the most “profound” in trying to address conflicts in Africa ·which have seen over seven million people escaping to neighbouring countries as refugees – said the OAU should have the capacity to intervene where the UN is either unable or unwilling to get involved. Again, Burundi, Liberia, Somalia and southern Sudan were cited as cases where the OAU could intervene.
According to the OAU eminent person for Liberia, Professor Canaan Banana, African leaders should not wait for conflicts to occur before responding but should take preventative measures. He said ·conflicts could arise where there was poverty, underdevelopment and lack of democracy in some countries.
External forces such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund could also fan conflict by prescribing economic reform programmes which makes life unbearable for the majority of people.
The problem of refugees continues to test regional security. The region has had political and economic refugees, internally displaced persons, and now environmental refugees.
To the host country for example, refugees come at an unknown time and unprepared but there is hardly anything the host country can do since international conventions and humanitarian considerations force the country to accept refugees, regardless of the numbers.
More important, however, is the social tension between the host country and refugee populations and the problem normally affects and determines the nature of relations between the country of origin and the host. The recent case of refugees from Burundi and Rwanda to Tanzania is but one example.
It is widely accepted that insecurity and lack of socio-economic development are the main causes of refugees and internally displaced persons.
Another historically entrenched problem is the high population growth rate. Southern Africa’s average growth rate has been steady at three percent, above the average economic growth rate of two percent. This phenomenon has proved to be a constraint to development and has created social problems of uncontrollable proportions. Among these are urban housing, social services and amenities, environmental degradation and high crime rates as a result of increasing unemployment.
Despite the prevailing peace in southern Africa, there are still areas that require special attention.
In Angola and Mozambique, for example, people may now be enjoying a peaceful life after almost two decades of war, but their freedom of movement is limited by landmines which litter the respective countries’ rural areas.
It is estimated that there are more than 10 million landmines in Angola while about two million mines still have to be removed from the Mozambican soil. The situation is worse for the returning refugees who are not familiar with the no-go areas. In some areas, the former refugees and displaced persons only know of the areas after someone has been maimed or killed by a mine.
“While the ultimate responsibility for the success of the peace process lies with the Angolan people and their leaders,” said US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Prudence Bushnell, “the United States and the international community can take steps to significantly increase the chances for success by continuing humanitarian aid, development assistance, and aid for the peace process.
“The US is committed to supporting Angolans as they consolidate the peace process and address the legacies of three decades of civil war,” said Bushnell.
Angola bas been largely peaceful since the meeting of Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Unita leader Jonas Savimbi in May. The first units of a 7 600-strong UN peacekeeping force have arrived in Angola to ensure the accords do not collapse. Zimbabwe’s Major-General Philip Sibanda has been tasked to command the UN troops drawn from Brazil, Uruguay, Pakistan, India, Romania, Argentina and Zimbabwe.
It is timely, therefore, that this year’s SADC summit is being held in South Africa which only last year emerged from one of the most intractable conflicts in the world. This serves as a testimony that if the region works for peace and security, anything is attainable. (SARDC)
