Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

IF PEACEKEEPING in Africa is to succeed, there must be more involvement and a “robust” commitment from both the continent and the multitude of international role-players involved in ending wars.

This was the message from the DefenceWeb Peacekeeping in Africa conference in Midrand yesterday.

The conference is aimed at bringing those responsible for peacekeeping together to discuss matters crucial to bringing stability to Africa.

Conflict resolution and analysis experts, peacekeepers, private security experts and representatives of non-governmental organisations said it was vital for those who wanted to bring peace to the world to work together.

Highlighting the crisis in Darfur as an example of where more needed to be done, South African police assistant commissioner Mike Fryer said that to improve the situation in Africa, the African Standby Force had to be properly trained and deployed.

Fryer is the UN African Union civil policing commander in Darfur.

He said the police and the military played an important role in peacekeeping, although the former’s role was often overlooked.

“Long after the guns have gone silent, crime continues, especially organised crime such as the trafficking of weapons and drugs, which can shake a country to its core.

“This is my biggest fear and the signs that these crimes are starting in Sudan are there, especially with the increase in reported hijackings,” he said.

Fryer said his members, whose mandate was to protect civilians and help build up the Sudanese police service, were working in a tough environment.

“We as a police force are unarmed. Our only defence is our running shoes, our helmets and bullet- proof vests,” he said.

Fryer said that while they had been promised a force of 6 382 members, which included 2 660 crowd management policemen and 3 772 other police members, they so far had only 50 percent of the required forces.

“What makes our operations even more difficult is that the Sudanese government had stated that 80 percent of the UNAMID had to be from African states.

“The problem is that African countries don’t have the money to deploy and we are therefore forced to rely on donor funds.

“This has led to severe challenges such as slow deployments and the provision of troops who are not properly trained,” Fryer said.

“For the past 18 months I have been struggling and I have now run out of people to inform about the situation. I have gone to both the UN and the AU and now do not know who to go to anymore. Some countries have stepped in to help but others have not.

“While I am confident that we are going to achieve our mandate, I do not know when this struggle is going to end,” he said.

He said he believed the only way for “this conflict and other conflicts in Africa to be resolved is for the peace agreement to be signed”.

Lieutenant-General Themba Matanzima, SANDF joint operations chief, said modern conflicts demanded more robust force protection and operational capabilities from peacekeepers.

He said both international and African countries had to be more involved to achieve lasting peace.

“While there is scope for more international involvement in many of the ongoing conflicts, be it through peace support operations, skills development or bilateral military assistance programmes, Africa has to do more,” he said.

Doug Brooks, International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) president, said any military force that intended to be relevant beyond its national borders would be working with the private sector.

“The private sector is revolutionising international peace operations and no mission can succeed without contractors,” he said.

The IPOA represents private companies such as security companies involved in conflict areas.

Brooks said that what made private companies so useful was that they often had the means to make a mission successful.

“A perfect example is that when calls went out from the UN to countries to provide 24 helicopters for that peacekeeping mission only three were provided,” he said.