Washington, DC — Much is being made of the idea that, come the African Union, there will be greater commitment among member countries to end regional conflicts. But little has been said about exactly how this will be done, and why pressure from neighbouring countries should prove more effective in the future than it has, to date. We spoke to Ecowas' Bakary Bobbo, Head of Bureau in Zone One of the West African regional body's Conflict Prevention and Management Programme.
Many believe that conflict is one of the biggest factors holding Africa back. Is there anything about this transition to the African Union that's going to make it easier to resolve conflicts and prevent war?
I want to stress the importance of regional organizations. In Ecowas, we are familiar with the conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone; I believe they would have continued for so much longer if there was no mechanism for conflict resolution through Ecowas - although now we have moved on to emphasise to conflict prevention.
Nigeria played a leading role, in the sense that they provided the leadership financially and otherwise. But if there wasn't Ecowas, Nigeria would have had no institution through which to do that. Million of dollars were spent in Liberia and Sierra Leone, by Nigeria alone - the international community came later.
I'll give you an example when Ecowas made a difference. When Liberia was the problem, backing the RUF in Sierra.Leone and Ecowas countries sat down and said to the United Nations, "we have to have sanctions", things changed. It is Ecowas countries that really are enforcing the sanctions, not an international organization. Really there are six countries who are participating in the enforcement of sanctions on Liberia. Now, if President Taylor wants to do something he will have to change; he is ostracized - you cannot do anything without your neighbors.
These conflicts only linger when they have support. If the countries around decide "we have had enough" the conflict will be finished. I think if southern African countries said today, okay, we are going to stop Unita, they could do so.
Of course, the Ecowas example may support your point, but if you look to southern Africa, if you look to central Africa and the Congo situation or if you look at Sudan, the regional organizations in those areas have not been nearly as successful, and it doesn't look as though that's going to change.
For a long time, apartheid left the southern African countries leaderless. Now, South Africa should naturally be the regional leader and I think they should look critically at what is happening there. First of all, you need to have everything, economic might, political might and military might. Congo is a good example. The conflict is not just between the Congolese. I mean realistically, it involves Rwanda, Uganda and other countries., to a good extent. Okay, If the southern African countries sat down and said "okay, what do we want and how do we get it?" I think they would achieve a long-term solution there. The same thing in Sudan. I always said, those regional organizations are not well-founded. They have to really have a good base. They are not like Ecowas because they don't meet regularly, they don't have a program. If you have something concrete, a headquarters, a mechanism already put in place to prevent manage and solve conflict, you have a chance.
Are you saying that other regional organisations don't have an independent existence from their member countries? Because they do have a program, in the sense that they have meetings and they pass resolutions about regional problems.
In Ecowas, you have the executive secretariat. If there is a problem, the staff there are the ones who really count. I am one of the conflict prevention officers who oversees 'zone one'. If there is a problem in zone one country - Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde - then I file a report to the Ecowas headquarters. Then the conflict prevention mechanism begins to work, because you have the mediation security council, you have the council of elders, you have a council of ministers and heads of states.
If there is a small conflict, you can send a mediation team made of former heads of state, chiefs of staff, ambassadors, well-respected people within the region. They sit people down together, they discuss. If it has gone beyond that, the chief of staffs will meet and you will find that all 15 member countries are ready to work as a force. Everything is there. They are identified. They are permanently committed to Ecowas, for Ecomog.
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But if it has gone beyond even that, then the security council will meet. There are nine countries on that mediation security council and they will meet. If they call the heads of state, there are budgets to support that.
If you have such a mechanism, you can do something. But if you can only call an ad hoc meeting for two days in Uganda, or in Johannesburg, it doesn't work well because there's no back up. I think that is very important. You have to have a body that is already identified, so that any time there is a conflict you can call upon them, and everyone has their own role and responsibility - then things will move forward.
You can't do it if the countries just meet and talk and go. People will not stop fighting if they do not have something to dissuade them, if they don't have the strength to match them, sometimes to meet force with force, if need be. Maybe you only need to send people to talk to those fighting. But you cannot fight conflict without all of these mechanisms in place, and that's the reality. We should have them in all the parts of the continent, West, East, Central, Southern. We need them. That's why we can't get anything done in Congo . [ADF3]
