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Consulting Africa's Elders On Conflict Issues
By Isabella Gyau Orhin
IPSnews.net, May 12, 2003 |
ACCRA,
GHANA - Among the many
pictures adorning the corridors and walls of the United Nations Office in
New York is one of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his wife Nane
cuddling a three year old Sierra Leonean Girl who has both hands chopped
off.
For the many millions of tourists who visit the UN headquarters on daily
basis this is the image of West Africa and Africa at large. Civil wars in
West Africa and Africa, apart from destroying human lives and property,
have painted a bad image for the continent worldwide.
A Communiqué issued at the end of last year's World Summit for
Sustainable Development(WSSD) in South Africa said Africa's efforts to
achieve sustainable development have been hindered by conflicts,
insufficient investment, limited market access opportunities declining aid
and unsustainable debt burdens among others.
The Plan of Implementation of the Summit therefore stated: ”We would act
to support African efforts for peace, stability and security, the
resolution and prevention of conflicts, democracy, good governance,
respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Throughout the1990s Africa, and particularly West Africa, has been a hot
bed of conflict. Notable among these has been the Liberian and Sierra
Leonean wars. The last straw which has been quite heavy and which has been
a wake up call to many West Africans and their leaders has been the recent
Ivorian crises. In all these wars, thousand of human lives have been lost
while millions have been physically or psychologically maimed.
ECOMOG, the West African Peace keeping force, was formed to help solve the
crisis in Liberia and later Sierra Leone. Currently the forces are also
helping in the Ivorian crisis. An ECOMOG mission in Liberia, Sierra Leone
and currently Cote d'Ivoire has put a lot of strain on the already
impoverished countries involved in terms of human resource and finance.
In addition to that the cost of caring for refugees has overwhelmed most
West African states. It is in this light that many see the recent call for
the establishment of mechanisms for early warning systems and institutions
that have the credibility to be honest brokers in the event of conflict in
West Africa by Ghana's President John Kufuor as timely. He made the call
while inaugurating the 15-member ECOWAS Council of Elders in Accra last
month.
The members, representing each one of the 15 ECOWAS states, were selected
at the 26th Summit of Heads of States and Governments held in Dakar in
January this year. According to President Kufuor the Council is expected
to advise the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS as well as help the regional
sub-body in the prevention and resolution of conflict.When the Ivorian
civil war broke out a six member contact group was established to mediate
in the crisis and help find a solution to the conflict. Participating
countries included Ghana, Nigeria, Niger and Togo . the Group had
President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo as their leader.
Perhaps it is the important role played by the ECOWAS contact group in
finding a solution to the Ivorian crisis, which has triggered the
formation of the ECOWAS council of Elders. But critics are questioning
whether the Council of Elders will be as effective.
According to President Kufuor, experience has shown that timely and
concerted efforts in conflict situations have helped to restore peace and
stability in some of the member countries of ECOWAS. While this could be
true what is not clear is whether the mediators in such conflicts were
elders or senior citizens.
”Through the timely intervention and efforts of ECOWAS and the
international community, Sierra Leone today enjoys relative peace and is
engaged in rebuilding itself from the ravages of war,” President Kufuor
said. But brokering the peace agreement in Sierra Leone's 10 years civil
war was a military action.
First ECOMOG drove away the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC ) and
the Revolutionary United Front ( RUF) before President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
returned from Guinea where he had been hiding. Later British forces were
deployed in the area.
But President Kufuor believes elders could be equally effective.
”Pioneer leaders of the sub-region overlooked some of the traditional
institutions that enabled their forefathers to resolve disputes,” he
told the Council.
One can, however, argue that traditional norms of conflict resolution are
no longer effective in West Africa. This can be blamed on colonialism and
globalisation. Colonialism weakened the base of traditional institutions
such as chieftaincy with the introduction of party politics. For instance
the 1992 constitution of Ghana does not allow chiefs who hither to were
political leaders to take part in active politics.
Today in Africa, the very mechanism used in resolving conflict in the past
has become the source of conflicts in itself. A typical example is the
many chieftaincy disputes all over Ghana with the major one being the
Dagbon chieftaincy crisis in northern Ghana which led to the assassination
of the paramount chief in that area.
Critics say this makes President Kufuor's assertion of using traditional
mechanisms such as respect for elders in African tradition as a means of
resolving conflicts including military insurrection as happened in the
case of Ivory Coast a bit difficult to accept.
Gone are the days when kids use to get up in buses in order for adults to
sit down. In this day and age where poverty has led to child delinquency
and many children under the influence of drugs and even participating in
civil wars, one may ask if asking for adults to mediate in conflicts will
make an impact. Even in Ghana where respect for elderly counsel is still
highly upheld in many areas, the concept of Council of Elders has failed
to even solve internal political wrangling, one analyst said.
The Convention People's Party (CPP) and former President Rawlings'
National Democratic Congress are all engaged in internal battles, which
are crumbling the parties. The Council of Elders of these parties have
failed to resolve the disputes.
However, President Kufuor who is also the Chairman of ECOWAS, believes it
can work. He says ”the establishment of the Council of Elders should be
seen as a reaffirmation of the attribute of statecraft of the past and the
determination of ECOWAS to reclaim that important Heritage”.
Supporting President Kufuor is the ECOWAS General Secretary Dr. Mohammed
Ibn Chambas who says his organisation would consult the elders but he
admits that the challenges facing the elders are enormous. However he says
given their wisdom and value, the Elders would rise up to expectation.
Ghana's Minister for Foreign affairs Nana Akufo Addo says he hopes this
will work but says until the sub-regions finds effective solutions to the
perennial conflicts, economic and social development of member countries
of ECOWAS will continue to suffer.(ENDS/IPS/AF/WA/IP/IG/SM/03)
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