[allAfrica.com]  [http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0921/p07s01-woaf.html?s=swAfrica]


Africans Urged to Fund Own Peacekeeping Efforts

BuaNews (Pretoria)
NEWS
October 25, 2004
Posted to the web October 25, 2004

By Richard Mantu
Pretoria
Africans themselves need to fund peacekeeping operations on the continent no
matter how small their contributions may be, rather than rely on international
donors.
The Peace and Security working group said this at the Nepad Stakeholder
Dialogue at the weekend.
As part of their submissions to the Dialogue that took place in Johannesburg,
to review Africa's economic recovery plan three years after its establishment,
the group said that if Africans did not fund peace keeping operations
themselves, they should in no way expect donor countries to do so.
"We can't expect donors to fund our operations while we can't make
contributions ourselves," said a delegate on the final day of the conference on
Saturday.
The group said lack of financial resources and adequate equipment were
hampering the continent's ability to deal effectively with all the conflicts.
"We need assistance in equipping troops and maintaining troops once they are
deployed in a country. We have had some assistance but it's still not
sufficient to deal will all the conflicts in the continent," said the group.
The group proposed building partnerships with the African business community
and civil society to mobilize resources for peacekeeping in the continent.
It also called on the African Union (AU) to take advantage of the restructuring
of the United Nations (UN), to get the multilateral body to contribute greater
to post-conflict building.
It said the UN had the tendency to deploy troops in conflict ridden countries
but made no contribution after the conflict.
Some delegates of the groups also pointed out that African women needed to play
a pivotal role in post-conflict reconstruction of the country.
The group said plans were still afoot to establish the African Standby
Peacekeeping Force, with Regional Economic Communities (REC) expected to each
contribute three battalions to the AU force.
The issue of building capacity within the continent and particularly RECs was
of utmost importance in establishing the Standby Force, the group said.

   

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