Dar es Salaam — Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa has called on African leaders to exhibit political will in a bid to end the many conflicts on the continent.
Mkapa was speaking at the opening of a three-day political-military seminar in Dar es Salaam, organised by the French military, under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations.
The Tanzanian leader made the keynote opening speech on peacekeeping and conflict resolution, as part of a French initiative called RECAMP, which stands for Reinforcement of African Peacekeeping Capabilities.
About two hundred participants from more than thirty countries are representated at the seminar, including ranking military officers from Africa, Asia and Europe.
Addressing the gathering, Mkapa lamented the myriad African conflicts saying that they needed to be addressed urgently and that necessary resources should be released "toward construction, rather than destruction, life rather than strife and death".
"Unfortunately, we still have people and governments in Africa that believe their personal interests can only be promoted and safeguarded through military might and conquest", said Mkapa.
Officials from international organisations, including the UN and the OAU, as well as diplomats and invited guests, are attending the seminar, which the French hope will help prepare African military forces for effective peacekeeping missions.
Mkapa said that no matter how fierce a conflict, one day the protagonists would have to sit down and talk. "How many of our people do we need to kill before we can sit down and talk?" he asked rhetorically.
The upcoming French RECAMP initiative - which will include practical joint military exercises in Tanzania next February - is currently open to members of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) .
The French, who until recently were predominantly active militarily in their former colonies, say future RECAMP programmes are open to any country that wishes to take part. A similar American initiative works bilaterally, rather than on a multinational basis. France retains military bases in a number of African countries, including Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti and Senegal.
A senior former member of the UN, Lakhdar Brahimi from Algeria, who now works as a high-ranking consultant for the organisation - and recently produced a highly critical report of peacekeeping around the world -- had a stern warning for the international community, especially the wealthy countries.
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Speaking about the French role in RECAMP, Brahimi said it was "extremely useful to see France in Tanzania, getting Africans together to talk not only about military training, but also about peacekeeping operations". But, he warned, "Training Africans is an absolute good. But if this is going to be an excuse for those doing the training not to do anything themselves then it is bad".
Other than France, another twenty countries provide both military equipment and hardware, as well as expertise, to the RECAMP initiative. All have sent delegates to the seminar. These include representatives from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
The African countries involved in the programme are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
