allAfrica.com: West Africa: Ecowas Totally Opposed to Armed Insurrection, Says New Chief (Page 1 of 3)

Mohamed Ibn Chambas is the newly-appointed executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, which has 15 member countries and is headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. A former deputy foreign minister of Ghana, under President Jerry Rawlings, Chambas was involved in many rounds of shuttle diplomacy around the region during the 1990s, trying to end the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. He also served as deputy education minister and as a member and first deputy speaker of Parliament. He has a PhD. from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and a law degree from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also practiced law for several years.

Dr. Chambas has been in his new job less than a month and one of his first continental activities in the new post was to join more than a thousand delegates in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the third African Development Forum to discuss regional integration from 3-8 March 2002. Defining the Priorities of Regional Integration is the theme of ADF III and ECOWAS is considered, by many, as one of the regional organisations that is making some progress in this respect. AllAfrica.com's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton caught up with Mohamed Ibn Chambas to find out more.

What are your priorities as the new executive secretary of ECOWAS?

Frankly, my first two weeks have been quite exciting. I have found a very welcoming environment in Abuja from the secretariat, from the host government. I think we are off to a good start. I had a very smooth transition with my predecessor Ambassador Lansana Kouyate who, incidentally, worked very hard over the last four years to give ECOWAS a high profile.

The path is very clearly defined. We have to focus now on trade liberalisation within West Africa, ensure that there is greater trade, smoother trade, remove most of the impediments which are still restricting greater interaction in the commercial sector and then concentrate on some of the other projects, infrastructure projects, which will further enhance greater, freer movement of persons, goods and services within the sub-region.

But doesn't what you've outlined there come almost second to conflict? And you have walked bang into the conflict between Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Although the three leaders of the Mano River Union recently met in Morocco, there are still problems. Lives are still being lost and people are still fleeing war.

No question. Our sub-region has some of the lingering conflicts which we have to really wrap up, and quickly. But we should put a balance on things, focus more on the economic, social and commercial integration, physical integration. But at the same time we should work hard to bring finality to the conflicts.

In Sierra Leone there is good progress, and we need to ensure that this is consolidated. Hopefully the elections in May will go very well and then we'll build on national reconciliation there.

In Liberia, we have initiated a process which will culminate in a national reconciliation conference in which all Liberians -- those who are in and, especially, Liberians who are not at this time able to go to their country -- for them to be able to return and to sit down with the government and discuss ways in which an environment could be created in Liberia for all Liberians to participate politically.

But how do you get to that stage when you have a rebellion, an active rebellion, going on inside Liberia?

Well the first step is to convene a preparatory meeting in Abuja which is what we're going to do. We have the support of the Nigerian government. President Obasanjo is fully behind it. I have only last week been talking to the Liberian government, President Taylor. He is agreeable to convening this preparatory meeting in Abuja. The government will be represented, those who are outside the country will be there, so that we can find out what is preventing the groups outside from going home and laying the basis for a national conference in which all the parties -- including those who have resorted to the use of arms -- to come home and sit down and talk about their problems.

Violence cannot be the solution to the problem in Liberia. And the ECOWAS position is very clear, that we are totally opposed to the armed insurrection, the rebellion, and that any government that emerges from that kind of process will simply not be recognised.

You say that you are going to call together the government and then groups outside Liberia, but surely it's the rebels fighting -- they say inside the country, the LURD rebels, who also need to be at the negotiating table, otherwise they may not comply with any agreement that comes out of the negotiations you're hoping to host.

We have to move very cautiously on these issues. Because, first and foremost, it has to be absolutely clear that use of force, use of unconstitutional means to fight a government, is simply no longer acceptable in our sub-region. That is first and fundamental.

Beyond that, people or persons or institutions within a country, which have legitimate grievances with their government, should have an avenue to sit down with the government and talk about these problems.

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