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SADC Assesses Defence Cooperation

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
NEWS
December 13, 2004
Posted to the web December 14, 2004
Maputo
Mozambique's Deputy Defence Minister, Henrique Banze, said in Maputo on Monday
that the establishment of an African Rapid Reaction Force, ready to go into
operation anywhere on the continent, is a challenge to the organisational
capacity of the member countries of the Southern African Development Community
(SADC).
Speaking at the opening of the first SADC conference on cooperation in defence
and security matters, Banze called for harmonising the work of SADC and the
African Union (AU) in the military sphere.
The meeting brings together senior civil servants from defence ministries,
police commanders and heads of general staff from across southern Africa, and
seeks to assess the degree of regional cooperation in these sensitive areas.
The themes on the agenda for the two day conference include "emerging peace and
security initiatives at continental level", "maintenance of peace and security
in SADC", and "SADC perceptions of regional threats and responses".
"Debate over conflicts, over how to prevent, manage and solve them, seems to me
unavoidable", said Banze. "We must refine our understanding of early warning,
adequate forms of political, diplomatic and military intervention, and the
capacities to build and maintain peace in Africa and in the sub-region".
Banze argued that any discussion on security policy should recognise the role
played in the past by the Front Line States in the struggle against apartheid,
as the precursor of the current Inter-State Defence and Security Committee.
It was within the Front Line states, stressed Banze, that the idea of the
common security of the region was nourished.
He pointed to the establishment of a mutual defence pact last August, and the
Indicative Strategic Plan of the Defence and Security Committee as enormous
steps forward.

   

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