Security Council meeting 4538-Resu.1

The President

I should like to inform the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Malaysia, in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the Council's agenda. In conformity with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives to participate in the discussion without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure.

There being no objection, it is so decided.

The President

The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of Sierra Leone. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Kanu (Sierra Leone)

I would like to thank the Security Council, and in particular you yourself, Sir, for organizing today's debate and for inviting Sierra Leone to participate in it, and to express my delegation's satisfaction at seeing you preside over such an important meeting.

Our appreciation also goes to the Chairman of the ad hoc Working Group, the Ambassador of Mauritius, for his initiative.

Since this is the first time my delegation is taking the floor since the election of the new members of the Council -- Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico and the Syrian Arab Republic -- we would also like to salute their election and to wish them all success in the fulfilment of their arduous mandate.

Today's debate certainly attests to the Security Council's commitment to seeking long-term solutions to the problems of Africa. The report of the Secretary-General on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa -- which was considered by the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council -- contains a series of specific as well as broad recommendations on issues ranging from post-conflict peace-building to the mobilization of resources for development. We also salute the importance of the follow-up work of the Open-Ended Ad Hoc Working Group of the General Assembly on the Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa.

The causes and solutions to conflicts in African countries are nearly always linked to a wider, regional problem of instability. The Council needs to maintain its attention, as it has done in the past, on the overall regional problems. West Africa, in particular, is a region where the intricate net of individual conflicts, fed by poverty, has heightened the risk of the region becoming the world's first failed region.

Sierra Leone has preoccupied the Council over the past few years, but today I can assure you that, thanks to the constant involvement of the United Nations, the Sierra Leonean people have been given hope. The imminent establishment of the Special Court and the peacefully held presidential and legislative elections are testimony enough to encourage the Council to further support the peace process.

However, as long as the situation in neighbouring countries, such as Liberia and Guinea-Bissau, remains dire, the threat of instability spilling back into Sierra Leone is still very real. Equally, the huge number of refugees and internally displaced persons still on the move in a number of countries in West Africa troubles us.

In that sense, it has always been our view that the efforts of subregional organizations, such as the Economic Community of West African States, in the context of Chapter VIII of the Charter are absolutely essential and that cooperation should be given a very practical focus. Indeed, the subregional organization's efforts must continue to be enhanced. The Council should not, however, concentrate only on conflict. It ought to properly integrate all the economic, social and political problems that create conflict and poverty.

Sierra Leone wishes to acknowledge the support provided for certain African initiatives to resolve disputes. In this respect, we would like to pay tribute to the United Nations Development Program for its contribution to the Mano River Women's Peace Network.

Another example is the work of the United Nations Development Fund for Women towards gender mainstreaming in its peace programme in East Africa, Central Africa and the Horn of Africa, facilitating women's participation in peace and reconciliation meetings and negotiations, and supporting their involvement in advocacy for peace. We strongly encourage its further development in the rest of the African region.

The report of the Secretary-General on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa highlighted the critical nexus between peace and development and advanced a comprehensive and integrated approach to conflict prevention, poverty eradication and development. That approach has been accepted by the international community, including African countries themselves, as a framework for the provision of support to Africa.

Indeed, Sierra Leone, based on its own painful experience, confirms that peace, democracy and good governance are prerequisites for sustainable development in any African country.

One of the elements contributing to violent conflict in Africa is the rapid accumulation, illicit sale and indiscriminate use of small arms, which aggravate conflict situations. Indeed, in Sierra Leone, the illicit trade in arms and diamonds has shown to be a major element fuelling the conflict.

An effective way for the United Nations to assist African countries in the area of peace-building is to combine measures in support of peace-building and longer-term development in a comprehensive and coherent response. A critical element of forging national reconciliation and social cohesion is to promote a culture of peace, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has a leading role in that field. We can only agree with the importance of disseminating the culture of peace among parliamentarians and members of the armed and police forces as well, in particular when many of them were ex-combatants and joined a reintegration programme.

The public service is weak in a country that has experienced years of civil war, not to say sometimes non-existent, and strengthening those countries' capacity is one of the critical contributions that the United Nations -- especially this Working Group -- can make in assisting these countries to direct and manage their own development. The work of the Economic Commission for Africa in enhancing the administrative capacity of African countries is commendable.

Building the capacity required for the consolidation of democratic practices and institutions is also of crucial importance.

The importance of creating small- and medium-sized enterprises in Africa in order to increase the employment prospects of the underemployed and unemployed needs to be given continued attention.

While special school feeding programmes are very positive initiatives that help both boy and girl students to learn in better conditions, special efforts are still needed to get more girls to enter school and to improve their attendance, thereby eliminating a form of discrimination.

In conclusion, the Sierra Leone delegation wishes to emphasize again its belief that the regional approach to the prevention and resolution of conflicts is an efficient one that requires thorough cooperation with the subregional and international community.

The President

The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of the Gambia. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Grey-Johnson (Gambia)

I congratulate you, Sir, for convening this important meeting, to allow us share our ideas with you on what the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the ad hoc Working Group might do severally and collectively, to more effectively address the problems of peace, security and development in Africa. They are the real challenges that face the continent and the ones on which we feel the United Nations must concentrate if it is to be of meaningful service to African countries. We must also recognize that the problems of peace and security and the problems of development are in fact two sides of the very same coin. That is why we are gratified that the Economic and Social Council and the Security Council have decided to come together to address them jointly. We also know that it is mainly for that reason that it has been decided to set up the United Nations Office for West Africa under the dynamic leadership of Ibrahima Fall, whom we wish well as he takes up his duties in Dakar.

At this very moment, there is jubilation in Sierra Leone for the smooth conduct of presidential and parliamentary elections, signalling a full transition from conflict to peace and democracy. We extend our congratulations to the Government and people of Sierra Leone. The Security Council also deserves our commendation for the role it played in stabilizing the situation and in getting the warring factions to choose the political rather than the military route in the pursuit of their objectives. We also congratulate the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, as well as the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and its dynamic leadership, for staying focused on the ground, despite the adverse odds and many challenges that they faced, and for prosecuting their mandate to a successful outcome in record time -- a not-too-common occurrence in United Nations peacekeeping.

I should very quickly like to raise a number of issues that might cut across some of the areas proposed for consideration at this meeting.

Let me start with the situation in the Mano River Union. There is a need for the United Nations perspective on the Mano River question to be broadened in order to realistically address the problem. Accordingly, not only should the offices of the two Special Representatives of the Secretary-General in Monrovia and in Freetown be rationalized, but also moves should be made to incorporate the Guinean dimensions of the problem into present programmes. Perhaps the time has come for there to be one Representative office for the Mano River Union. An expanded mandate for UNAMSIL along those lines might best meet that need.

On a related matter, I should like to address the issue of mercenaries in West Africa. A large number of mercenaries from all over the subregion have been involved in the conflicts in West Africa. They participated very actively in Sierra Leone and Guinea and are now back in Liberia. There is a need for the United Nations to formally recognize the existence of this group of actors in the various conflicts, with a view to designing and implementing appropriate programmes to address them as an important factor in our search for a durable peace in the subregion. At present nothing is being done to demobilize them, as was the case with the combatants in Sierra Leone. In fact, we have evidence to show that when the situation calmed down in Sierra Leone many of the mercenaries fighting with the RUF moved over into Liberia to join the various militias in the fighting that picked up recently in that country. When this conflict does come to an end, is it not likely that this army of mercenaries will move over to another country in the subregion to ply its trade? My Government has been drawing attention to this problem for a long time now and would sincerely wish that something be done without any further delay to address it.

We firmly believe that the United Nations, perhaps along with ECOWAS, must take up this issue seriously. It must first begin by finding out who these people are, how many of them there are, where they came from, who recruited them and for what purpose. Then the United Nations should proceed to design appropriate interventions to have them effectively demobilized and eventually fully reintegrated into their various communities. These interventions should include a more concerted effort to deny them and the militias they fight for access to the arms that keep them in business. In this regard, arms manufacturers and exporters in the West should be held more to account and be made to be more selective, more judgmental and more responsive in their arms and ammunition transactions with African buyers.

The time has come for United Nations peacekeeping to be more proactive so as to prevent conflicts before they flare up. At present the United Nations appears more equipped to react to conflict situations, much like closing the doors after the horses have left the stables. The case of Guinea a couple of years ago amply demonstrates this shortcoming. Although everyone knew for many months before it happened that Guinea was poised to fall victim to rebel attack, there were no perceptible efforts on the part of the United Nations to prevent that from happening. The current situation in Madagascar, and the Security Council's reaction to it, is another good case in point. At present, there are many countries throughout Africa that are displaying all the signs of a flare-up. The United Nations must strengthen its ability to keep a close watch on those countries and to intervene in order to reduce, and eventually, diffuse the existing tensions.

As part of its peacekeeping activities, the United Nations should seek to encourage and support initiatives by individual Member States to prevent or resolve conflicts. It is true that the United Nations supported the intervention of ECOWAS in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It should strengthen its partnership with that intergovernmental organization, as well as with others, such as the Community of Sahel-Saharan States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and so on. It should show solidarity with them and increase their confidence and capacity to handle conflict in their respective areas.

Equally, bilateral initiatives taken by certain States to address conflict situations in their neighbourhood deserve to be supported in concrete ways. For example, my country's peace programmes for Guinea-Bissau and for Cassamance in southern Senegal could be significantly bolstered, given the many resource constraints that we face, if systematic material and financial support of the United Nations were more forthcoming.

Post-conflict support has been something of an enigma for the United Nations. It would appear that in many cases, we seem to be in a hurry to move out, once there are signs that the conflict may be coming to an end. The Central African Republic some years ago is a good case in point. I know that there are those who would be in a hurry to begin pulling the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) out of Sierra Leone, now that a smooth transition from conflict to democracy has been made in that country. That would be a grave error. Post-conflict Governments must be assisted with confidence-building measures, as well as with the requisite deterrents, to ensure that the situation does not slide back into chaos. Peacekeeping mandates should, therefore, not cease with the cessation of hostilities. Rather, they should be sustained well into peacetime and be adjusted as necessary to fit the prevailing circumstances and needs for sustainability in each country.

Finally, post-conflict interventions must include strong capacity-building programmes. Typically, countries emerging from conflict are left with significantly weakened capacities. Institutions are destroyed and human resources are decimated. Perhaps the greatest damage done to a country in conflict is the erosion of its skills base through the brain drain -- the flight of skilled people. Whereas physical infrastructure can be rebuilt in a relatively short period of time, replacing lost skills requires a lot of time. The absence of that vital input very often stalls recovery and frustrates development. Perhaps the Economic and Social Council should come up with innovative measures to replace the large pool of skilled manpower lost to African countries, not only as a result of conflict, but also as a consequence of the adverse economic conditions prevailing in many parts of the continent. Technical cooperation among developing countries may be one way to address the need. Another would be a focused programme of assisted voluntary return to bring back the many professionals and highly skilled people who have left the African continent and now live in the West.

These were the few points I wanted to contribute to this discussion.

The President

I call on the representative of Tunisia. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Mejdoub (Tunisia)

The Tunisian delegation wishes to thank you, Sir, for planning and presided over this formal meeting of the Security Council devoted to Africa.

I also wish to congratulate Ambassador Koonjul, Chairman of the ad hoc Working Group on conflict prevention and resolution in Africa, for his commitment to Africa. We are convinced that, thanks to his professional and human qualities, the work of this Group will be crowned with success.

My delegation supports the mandate of the ad hoc Working Group on conflict prevention and resolution in Africa. Of course, the statement of the President of the Security Council of 31 January 2002 contains very interesting recommendations and suggestions that pave the way for the future action of the Working Group. We also believe that the activities of the Group should be part of the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Secretary-General's report on the causes of conflicts and the promotion of sustainable peace and development in Africa. The analysis and the recommendations in that report are still very relevant four years later.

While expressing our gratitude for the document that was prepared in order to facilitate this discussion, allow me to stress the following points.

We attach great importance to cooperation between the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. Their participation in the Security Council meeting held on 29 January 2002 on the situation in Africa shows how beneficial the interaction between these two main organs of the United Nations is when we are talking about the maintenance of international peace and security in their political, economic and social dimensions, which themselves generate development within a context of stability. Cooperation and interaction between these two organs can fit perfectly into efforts to prevent armed conflicts and to build peace before and after conflicts.

In the course of its presidency of the Council in February 2001, Tunisia suggested for the Council a discussion on peace-building, being convinced that peace is not simply the absence of armed conflicts or declared hostility. Peace is rather something that has to be built, with the combined efforts of all United Nations bodies, in order to establish with foresight the foundations for peace or to build peace following a conflict.

I would like to express our support for the establishment of an Economic and Social Council advisory group on African countries emerging from conflict and express the hope that the Security Council ad hoc Working Group will cooperate closely with the Economic and Social Council advisory group.

The Special Representatives of the Secretary-General play a very important role when it comes to preventing conflicts and also in the field of peace-building. Often placed at the head of support offices of the United Nations for peace-building, the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General already have a certain number of achievements to their credit. These include support given to Governments to build peace, fostering national reconciliation, strengthening democratic institutions, providing a framework to harmonize the United Nations peace-building activities in the field and facilitating the mobilization of international political support. There is also the collection of arms and assistance for their destruction, and facilitating communication between Governments, neighbouring States, regional organizations and bilateral donors. Within this context, my delegation supports the adoption of new institutional arrangements, with a view to making the role of the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General in Africa more effective.

Regional and subregional organizations have an important role to play in the area of conflict prevention and peace-building after conflicts. Chapter VIII of the Charter provides an ideal framework for cooperation and coordination between the regional organizations and the United Nations, in particular the Security Council and the Secretary-General. Because of their geographic proximity and their better knowledge of the unique situations that they cover, regional organizations could be a rapid early warning centre for the United Nations. They are sometimes better equipped in order to determine the right time for the Council to act. Most of the conflicts that take place in Africa in this post-cold-war period are domestic conflicts; and thus we feel that it is crucial to strengthen the institutional abilities of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), support its Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution and help the OAU in the area of training, increasing its participation in United Nations activities and initiatives and promoting joint United Nations-OAU initiatives. Modalities for this cooperation have to be strengthened through the implementation of appropriate strategies in the area of cooperation and permanent mechanisms, including early warning, conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace-building. It is also important to include the subregional organizations, such as the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CENSAD), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is undeniable that these subregional organizations constantly contribute directly to resolving internal conflicts and inter-State conflicts in Africa; and therefore they must be heeded by the Security Council whenever dealing with a conflict or tension in the regions that they represent.

The efforts and initiatives of ECOWAS in the Sierra Leone conflict and in Liberia are well known. The CENSAD has also contributed greatly to resolving the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the internal conflict in the Central African Republic. This regional organization has also undertaken mediation between the Central African Republic and Chad, as well as among the different Somali factions. This experience needs to be acknowledged by the Security Council, as these are mechanisms able to contribute to conflict resolution.

Lastly, we must point out in this context the matter of the lack of resources within the OAU and subregional organizations - namely, when it comes to being able to play their role in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace-building. The role of regional organizations can be crucial, especially when it comes to designing exit strategies after peacekeeping operations. Once the conflict is resolved, the long-term plan and peace-building could be entrusted in the field to subregional mechanisms that the United Nations must assist politically and financially.

Peace depends on economic and social development. Despite the unquestionable progress that we have seen in recent years, the situation in many regions in Africa remains alarming. Africa has not been able to radically break with all matter of ills that still plague it. The continent has the largest number of least developed countries: 34 out of 49. This critical situation is worsened by the burden of a severe debt, low levels of savings and investment, the depreciation of the prices of commodities, reductions in official development aid, as well as insufficient levels of foreign direct investment.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) reflects the Africans' desire to take the future of their continent in hand. NEPAD clearly expresses how Africa, in association with the rest of the world, could finally begin to tackle the enormous challenges that face it. The implementation of NEPAD is of great importance, and we are convinced that, if we want to put an end to the vicious circle of conflicts, violence and instability in Africa, the Working Group must seek to make itself aware of the economic and social causes of conflict whenever it looks at a given situation on the African continent.

It is this relationship between peace, security, stability and development that should, in our opinion, always be at the very basis of every treatment of a conflict in developing countries, and in Africa in particular, where it has been amply shown that every intra-State or inter-State conflict also has economic and social causes and implications. This is a reality with which we have to contend from now on.

Now I would like to quote a wonderful statement by Mohatma Gandhi, who said that "Poverty is the worst form of violence and insecurity". The Security Council has the right and the duty to recall this to the international community.

The President

As I said this morning, it is my intention to allow a Council Member to respond after several non-Council member statements. Accordingly, I now give the floor to the representative of Ireland.

Mr. Corr (Ireland)

May I first thank you, Mr. Minister, as other colleagues have, for presiding over our meeting and thank Singapore for convening this important meeting of the Council on Africa. It is important, because, following our earlier meeting in January, a discussion such as this offers to Council members, to the wider United Nations membership, and to the United Nations family of institutions, including the Economic and Social Council, the opportunity to stand back from day-to-day consideration of issues and engage in a genuine dialogue and exchange of views on wider issues and give a strategic focus to the policies we have both in the Council and within the United Nations.

First, before responding to some of the points made in the course of our discussion, I want to warmly thank on behalf of my delegation Ambassador Koonjul for his work in establishing the Council's ad hoc Working Group -- a theme picked up by most speakers so far. We have made a very good start in the Working Group. We have a very good programme of work. Over the coming period, I think that the Working Group can bring both focus and richness to the work of the Council in terms of the way we approach issues, but also in terms of a wider sense of engagement with institutions within the United Nations, with African organizations, with the non-governmental organization community and with other actors involved.

I would also like to welcome Ambassador Simonovi, the President of the Economic and Social Council, since it is important that the Security Council, given the extent to which its engagement with African issues is critical to its work, have the chance for partnership and dialogue with the Economic and Social Council.

Therefore, the establishment by the Council of the ad hoc Working Group on conflict prevention and resolution and the envisaged Economic and Social Council advisory group on African countries emerging from conflict can play a very important role in partnership with each other. This will be important in bringing an extra dimension to the work of both the Economic and Social Council and the Security Council. The establishment of both groups will, one hopes, strengthen not just the level of United Nations engagement on African issues but also international engagement.

These themes are important for a number of reasons. I think they came from many speakers this morning because of the critical need for the United Nations, the Council and the international community generally to focus on Africa and the challenges facing it.

There is a phrase in the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) on the need for bold and imaginative thinking. This is something on which we in the United Nations, after many years, need to adjust our thinking as we approach issues in Africa. In the context of NEPAD and of new thinking in the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and throughout Africa, we need to look again at the way we approach issues of conflict, peacemaking and peace-building to see how we can bring strength and coordination, but also new thinking.

Several speakers have rightly made the point this morning that each situation in Africa is different. The situations in Ethiopia-Eritrea, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as we saw during the Council mission to the Great Lakes region, and Madagascar all have their own particular circumstances, and each therefore calls for a strong emphasis on regional cooperation, not just in the context of the OAU but the subregional organizations.

The Council Working Group -- and the same is true, I think, of the Economic and Social Council group -- can, in dialogue with the OAU and the regional organizations in Africa, bring an extra dimension of reflective thinking to the situation as we approach it.

Ambassador Dauth of Australia made the point earlier not only that peace and development are two sides of one coin, but also that there is much new thinking. It is reflected in the OAU. It is reflected in the Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and our African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners. They have helped bring together security, economic, humanitarian and military issues. We approach the different requirements of regional conflicts in a way that brings together the different dimensions that are needed in addressing the conflict and also the instruments of development cooperation that are later needed to help resolve it and ease tension.

I think there were three or four themes that I did want to look at briefly, because they came out very strongly in the contributions made this morning.

The first is institutional issues. It is clear that one of the weaknesses in the United Nations approach over recent years has been that there has been a failure of partnership at times between the United Nations and the OAU and regional organizations. There is blame on all sides for that, but there is now a very real opportunity in terms of the OAU structures and the new ideas that will be going to Durban that we heard of this morning to look at ways in which we can seriously engage, jointly, in approaching both pre-conflict and conflict situations in Africa. There are various ideas put forward on how to do this: joint missions between the Council and the OAU, the sharing of information and documents, special briefings, joint special envoys, and bringing in subregional organizations such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community into this framework.

What is certainly true is that there is very substantial room for working together, and this is an area where the new Council Working Group will be able to play a major role in a way that has not been possible up to now. So when the Council does look at different situations it will do so with deep knowledge of where African countries themselves are coming from and where, as Ambassador Kanu of Sierra Leone just said, we have a serious knowledge of the regional implications and what this means.

The Mano River countries are a very good example where, as several speakers have emphasized, it is very difficult to consider one country -- Sierra Leone, for example -- in isolation from what is happening in the neighbouring countries. This is true of many of the countries in Africa where conflict or the potential for conflict may exist.

The second point on the institutions is to look at ways of strengthening the mediation capacity of the United Nations, including fact-finding missions and special representatives. We can look at various new mechanisms for doing this, but there is an important requirement to look at new possibilities to add to the range of instruments that the Council and the United Nations have at their disposal.

The point on the Economic and Social Council has already been made strongly by several speakers and is absolutely true. Up to now, over the past 5 to 15 years, as the Council has become increasingly engaged in African issues, it has at times appeared to lack a serious partner and interlocutor on the economic and development side. There were always, of course, the funds and programmes and specialized agencies, but the importance of the Economic and Social Council in this is to bring that extra dimension of pulling threads together and providing a concept of partnership both to the Council and to the OAU and regional organizations in Africa as to what is possible and the range of actions that can be jointly undertaken.

One point that did come up this morning, raised by Assistant Secretary-General Fall and which I also wanted to mention, is the issue of sanctions. That is an important issue for the Council at the moment, partly because of the number of countries in Africa where there are targeted sanctions in operation through Council action. The point on this, which I think has been made by several speakers this morning, is, first, the need for sanctions not only to be targeted but to be focused so that their humanitarian impact is limited, but also, as Assistant Secretary-General Fall said, so that there is the possibility of an exit strategy when circumstances are appropriate. There is a phrase to the effect that when change is not necessary, it is not necessary to change. That conservative dynamic can sometimes apply to institutions as well.

It is therefore important to remember that when, for political reasons -- in terms of the impact of sanctions regionally and on particular countries -- and for reasons of justice, a decision has to be taken about sanctions, it should be remembered that, even when applied in a very limited way, sanctions can sometimes be a blunt instrument. There I think the partnership and dialogue that the Working Group and the Economic and Social Council can advance with the OAU and regional organizations would be important.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) makes the point on development issues that the challenge facing Africa in this area is enormous. It is not simply the inability to harness globalization. It is not simply the technology gap that has developed. But, as several speakers have said in our discussion, it is the range of problems such as lack of trade access and, despite the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, the problem of debt. These are two sides of one coin. It is very difficult to address underlying causes of conflict without offering people the opportunity for economic and social development.

Therefore, as is emphasized in NEPAD and has been emphasized by most speakers today, the issue of development, while it is not a direct responsibility of the Council, is of critical importance to Council action in terms of pre-conflict or conflict situations or of peacemaking operations. There the dialogue with the Economic and Social Council will be of critical importance to the work of the Working Group in looking at implications of Council actions on development and vice versa.

The issue is especially important, I think, because one of the themes that struck me during the Council mission to the Great Lakes region was the disconnect between what happens in development and the actions undertaken by the Council. For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where we had a briefing on the economic and social situation, we heard about the results of the Consolidated Appeals by the United Nations agencies. I think that something like one-sixth of what is required has been provided so far for the current year. That makes it extraordinarily difficult.

On the one hand, you have the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) and the prospects for disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration, and you have the role of the Council in fostering and encouraging peace and dialogue, while on the other hand you have enormous problems of economic and social development. Logically, in terms of action by the United Nations family, these have to be considered as two sides of one coin.

There are two final points that I also want briefly to pick up on. One is arms, which has been emphasized by several speakers. Clearly, in Sierra Leone there is a very good example of this. We need to continue to highlight the importance of disarmament and arms control initiatives in conflict prevention. This is something that in the Working Group we can seriously look at in the period ahead.

The final point is the role of NEPAD, which of course will be considered at the G-9 Summit, at the World Economic Forum in Durban and beyond. The issues at stake with NEPAD are, without exaggeration, of fundamental importance to the future of Africa. They will affect every aspect of policy, of development, of conflict prevention. They will require the closest cooperation and coordination by the international community. They will require the engagement of all United Nations institutions, including the Council in terms of its own role. It will also require a sense of focus and clarity so that, as African countries themselves put in place structures of cooperation that advance good governance, economic policies in terms of trade, and new codes of action, the international community will respond in a reciprocal way so that the challenge that is now being undertaken by African countries is met fully and adequately by the international community. If it is not, as NEPAD emphasizes, it would be extremely difficult for the people of Africa or African countries to do this on their own.

In conclusion, I think that all the points made this morning emphasize the need for greater focus on partnership and cooperation among the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and African regional and subregional organizations, African countries and civil society. But it is also a critical point that in advancing this goal we also need to ensure that, with respect to the development component, the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions and the international donor community are brought together so that, as we tackle challenges in one critical area, we provide the people of Africa and African organizations with the resources to advance both goals at the same time.

The President

I now call on the representative of South Africa. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Kumalo (South Africa)

Allow me, Sir, to begin by thanking you for presiding over this meeting today. It is no accident that this issue has come before you, because your Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani was a Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly's Open-Ended Ad Hoc Working Group on the Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa, and he did us proud even then.

I also wish to express my delegation's appreciation and thanks to Ambassador Koonjul of Mauritius, Chairman of the Security Council's ad hoc Working Group on Africa, for the terms of reference and other proposals before us and for his commitment to the issues of African peace and development. It is also gratifying that the President of the Economic and Social Council and the Permanent Observer of the Organization of African Unity were also invited to participate in this meeting.

It is realistic to accept that the Security Council will always be faced with issues that are beyond its mandate. My delegation has on previous occasions urged that the Security Council review its relationship with the Economic and Social Council. We are pleased that this effort is continuing, and we remain convinced that how these two main councils of the United Nations work together will go a long way towards addressing some of the challenges that we face in Africa.

We endorse the recommendation that the Security Council's ad hoc Working Group on Africa should maintain effective interaction with the Economic and Social Council ad hoc Advisory Group on African Countries Emerging from Conflict to be established during the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council this July. The cooperation between these two Working Groups will help create a useful instrument for addressing conflicts in Africa.

Article 24 of the United Nations Charter confers on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. But conflicts in Africa are complicated and cannot be resolved only by using the tool of peace and security. These conflicts in Africa are rooted in poverty and underdevelopment, and they result in the displacement of millions of people and the destruction of the social infrastructure within those countries. These are just two issues which fall outside the mandate of the Council. However, we believe that the mandate of the Council is premised on the broader framework of the United Nations and not in isolation from it. That mandate includes maintaining peace and security through arrangements with regions and subregions as specified in Chapter VIII of the Charter.

It is for that reason that the primary objective of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), as a central programme of the Organization of African Unity/African Union, is to eradicate poverty in Africa and to place African countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development, thus reversing the marginalization of Africa in the globalization process. In other words, NEPAD is about Africans resolving African problems.

NEPAD has identified three elements of achieving comprehensive peace and security in Africa. They are: promoting long-term conditions for development and security; building the capacity of African institutions for early warning, and enhancing Africa's institutional capacity for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts; and institutionalizing the commitment to the core values of NEPAD, which are peace, security, democracy, human rights and sound economic management.

My delegation believes that, if effectively managed, the ad hoc Working Group on Africa has the potential to facilitate interaction between the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and, indeed, the entire United Nations system in helping Africa rebuild its capacity to manage all aspects of conflict. Africa has the structures in place to provide effective support to the Security Council's ad hoc Working Group on Africa when it is ready to engage. The proposals already made by Ambassador Koonjul are providing the international community with a good basis for further work in developing adequate strategies for conflict prevention, resolution and management in Africa.

In conclusion, I recall that in the earlier part of this meeting, the representative of France raised the important issue of partnership between the Security Council and African countries with respect to conflict resolution and peace-building. We agree with the representative of France that very sensitive issues are often raised in this relationship. However, we would encourage the Security Council to continue to be open to the views not only of the countries in conflict, or even of those that have taken sides in a conflict: the Council, in carrying out its mandate for peace and security, must continue to be willing to hear the views -- no matter how contrary -- of the countries that have an interest in conflicts or are affected by their spread. In the past few years, the Council has begun a very commendable practice of visiting countries and regions that are engulfed in conflict. We believe that that is a good practice that should be followed wherever there is conflict. We believe that such visits allow Council members to observe first-hand the impact of the decisions and the resolutions that are adopted in New York. That, indeed, is a good thing.

The President

I thank the representative of South Africa for his kind words addressed to my delegation.

I now give the floor to the representative of Nepal, whom I invite to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Sharma (Nepal)

Thank you, Mr. Minister, for convening this open Security Council meeting on the work of the ad hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa and for presiding over the debate. Singapore deserves our appreciation for this innovative debate, in which Africa's peace and security problems are put in perspective, in which Council members speak only occasionally and in which most of the speaking is done by non-members of the Council.

The Secretary-General's report on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa, contained in document S/1998/318, puts the issue before us in context. Today, Africa is in deep crisis. While its natural bounty has attracted colonizers and prospectors from far and wide and has made some of them fabulously rich, most of its people are caught in a vicious circle of poverty, illiteracy, disease and conflict. That, together with the colonial legacy, bad governance, injustice and greed, offers a potent recipe for instability and underdevelopment in Africa. It is untenable, and we must collectively change it.

First and foremost, African leaders will have to show leadership in transforming Africa from a land of conflict into a land of construction. It is a happy development that they have already taken two major steps that are vital for Africa's lasting peace and progress: they have pledged themselves to promoting peace, democracy and freedom, and they have launched the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to reduce poverty and to bring renewal and growth to Africa.

Never before have African nations had so much faith in freedom and democracy and so much awareness and resolve to invest in their people and in their development. As the African countries spearhead their respective specific efforts to resolve conflicts, to improve governance, to mobilize resources and to strengthen service delivery systems, they have also formed regional and subregional mechanisms to pool their resources for collective peace and progress. But their problems are too complex and their poverty too deep for them to be able to address those problems individually and regionally. Therefore, the United Nations, along with other stakeholders in the international community, ought to continue to encourage African countries to initiate regional and subregional cooperation where there is none and to reinforce it where it exists, so that they can increasingly shape their own destiny.

The United Nations has already been extensively engaged in Africa through its peacemaking and peacekeeping missions, its humanitarian assistance and its New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. Its peace missions, barring a few, have helped to manage conflict and to bring peace in many lands, and its humanitarian assistance has benefited millions of refugees and other needy Africans. Likewise, the New Agenda and the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa have placed Africa firmly at the top of the global development agenda.

However, Africa, like other needy areas elsewhere, requires more United Nations involvement. Nepal therefore urges the world body to mobilize more of its own resources and to play a stronger advocacy role to help African States to achieve durable peace, to protect their people and to invest in tackling poverty, illiteracy and disease, including HIV/AIDS and malaria, which are now devastating the whole continent. To come to grips with those problems, African countries -- particularly the least developed among them -- need more aid, deeper debt relief and more investment. They also require improved access to global markets so that they can join the process of globalization.

The Security Council deserves full appreciation for establishing the ad hoc Working Group, chaired by the very competent Mauritian Ambassador Koonjul, to respond to some of the pressing imperatives of Africa. The Group has shown its commitment and competence by convening a brainstorming session and by drawing up its broad programme of work. This is certainly an encouraging beginning and I congratulate Ambassador Koonjul on it.

Yet, formidable challenges remain for the Working Group. The issues identified by the Ambassadors of Singapore and Mauritius in their letter of 13 May 2002 are useful and relevant, but on the one hand, they entail close cooperation and partnership between the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, which are largely lacking at the moment, as well as between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations; and on the other hand, they do not cover the entire gamut of issues, which include the humanitarian assistance and sustainable development necessary to ensure effective conflict prevention and resolution in Africa.

Indeed, durable peace and security for Africa, as we have reiterated umpteen times in the hallowed chambers of the United Nations, call for a comprehensive approach that includes all these elements. Hence, there is no doubt that United Nations organs and other relevant bodies must seamlessly cooperate to fulfil the overall goals of the United Nations.

If the United Nations is to be able to grapple with the problems of peace and security, we will have to look at these issues in a more holistic manner. We must ask how we can revitalize each United Nations organ so that it can fulfil its own specific mandate better and, at the same time, work together with other organs on the cross-cutting issues, as the founding fathers of the United Nations envisaged. This basically entails agreement, first, among the United Nations organs on the modality of cooperation, coordination and coherence that will ensure full understanding of each other's sensitivities and respect for each other's mandate in a collective effort. Critical to the success of such an arrangement will be the involvement of all key stakeholders in all phases of the planning and execution of a comprehensive plan of work of which conflict resolution would be only one element, albeit a very important one.

We encourage the Security Council to pay careful attention to these rather sensitive aspects and to work in such a way that other organs do not feel excluded or marginalized. To address this issue, the Presidents of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, supported by regional group chairmen and the Secretariat, could agree on a modus operandi that, if necessary, could be firmed up by the adoption by those organs of identical resolutions. Perhaps similar arrangements might be in order later between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations.

The conclusion of the brainstorming session and the programme of work presented by the Working Group provide a sound basis for developing such a framework within the United Nations, as well as across the regional and subregional bodies. While too much detail is likely to entangle us in procedure, adequate conceptual and procedural clarity will be essential to erecting a stable edifice of inter-organ cooperation on complex issues of a multidisciplinary nature, such as conflict prevention and resolution.

Nepal is committed to working for such greater cooperation and coordination between the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, as well as between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations. We are also in favour of clearly, though not cumbersomely defined rules of the game so that the stakeholders can all engage in seamless cooperation to help Africa and to achieve the United Nations goals without our being drawn into turf battles.

The President

The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of Nigeria. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Apata (Nigeria)

Nigeria conveys its gratitude to you, Sir, for personally presiding over the deliberations of the Council this afternoon. We want to thank the delegation of Singapore and Ambassador Mahbubani, whose interest in Africa has always been outstanding. Up until last January, he was the Co-Chairman of the Open-Ended Ad Hoc Working Group of the General Assembly on the Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa, and he has brought that commitment into the work of the Security Council. We thank him very much.

We also want to thank the Ambassador of Mauritius for the outstanding work he has been carrying on in the Council since the election of his country to membership, and in particular in his capacity as Chairman of the ad hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa.

This morning, we listened to Ambassador Kébé speak about the involvement and role of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and cooperation with the United Nations. We heard his proposals and briefing about what the OAU is trying to do in the establishment of peace and security. We agree with the thrust of his statement.

These issues are not new to Assistant Secretary-General Ibrahima Fall. For over 30 years, he has been very active on all these issues in Africa Hall in Addis Ababa, in Geneva and here in New York. He has always brought clarity and focus to all the issues he has dealt with and we are sure that he will bring all this to his new responsibilities as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa. There could be no better appointment, because he is known in West Africa. The doors will open to him in all capitals and that will facilitate his assignment.

I want to depart from my written statement in order to react to some of the comments that were made this morning, particularly by Assistant Secretary-General Ibrahima Fall, Ambassador Koonjul and the Ambassador of France. Let me start by saying that the format that the Council has adopted today is extremely useful to our deliberations in order for us to listen to non-Council members and, as appropriate, for Council members to react. In this manner, we can have a dialogue and exchange of views, which will hopefully reach the Council's informal consultations and its future decisions in matters relating to conflict prevention and resolution in Africa.

Therefore, let me focus on a few issues that Ambassador Koonjul asked us in his letter to focus on. The first issue I want to deal with is the role of subregional leaders and organizations. I am separating them into two categories -- regional and subregional leaders and regional organizations -- because they are not one and the same. They interlock but they are different. The Ambassador of France, Ambassador Kébé and Assistant Secretary-General Fall extensively covered this issue in its different aspects this morning.

Let us say first that most conflicts are resolved by the efforts of African leaders themselves, without prompting by anybody. This has been going on for years; it is going on now and will continue. A number of regional leaders in Africa -- Presidents Mbeki, Konaré and Bongo and even my own President -- have always been active in continuously trying to solve different problems in Africa. Some of them are resolved without anyone noticing, without even reaching the public's eye. Because of the nature of this open meeting, one cannot name countries, soldiers or the nature of such conflicts, but these leaders have been successful in persuading other leaders before elections that they should not run for office but should instead allow for an easy transition in their country. That is part of the ongoing efforts that they are making.

With respect to their quiet interventions, the challenge we need to face is how do we feed information on such interventions into the work of the Council? How do we get what they are doing on an ongoing basis fed back to the Council. I am just raising these questions for the reflection of Council members. One role the ad hoc Working Group on Africa will have is to feed ongoing work in Africa into the work of the Council.

If we do this, we can avoid the type of problem that Ambassador Levitte mentioned this morning, where African leaders are active, planning efforts in one particular direction, and the Council is acting in another. We then have to resolve the contradiction. So, the challenge for the ad hoc Working Group is to work in collaboration with the Secretary-General and to identify the particular leaders across Africa who are actively engaged in some of these issues and feed whatever they are doing into the work of the Council. Nigeria is willing to assist the ad hoc Working Group, at least in regard to what we are doing, to feed the Council information of this kind.

The second point is in relation to the collaboration between the United Nations and subregional organizations. Ambassador Kébé focused on the OAU. I will not focus on that. We are happy that the United Nations has been able to establish a framework for cooperation with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is working very well. Only a couple of weeks ago, the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS was here to hold discussions with members of the United Nations Secretariat. What one would have loved to see is for the leaders of these organizations to be involved in this type of meeting today because they play a role. If, in the future, the Executive Secretaries of ECOWAS, SADC and others can be invited to participate in this type of deliberation, it will be extremely useful.

Let us briefly discuss the question of preventing conflict following elections. Ambassador Levitte raised that question this morning. He stated that the immediate cause of conflict can be the holding of elections and the acceptance or non-acceptance of election results. He suggested that perhaps it is necessary for the United Nations and the OAU to have joint election monitoring units in place. I would support that initiative. I would even suggest that we start not three months but six months before the election and increase the number of United Nations and OAU officials we send into the field as the election approaches. Let us start working on that because it is surely cheaper for us to spend the type of money needed to prevent conflict than to mount a peacekeeping operation in the aftermath of an election. We do not know what will happen in Madagascar. Because peacekeeping operations are full-fledged operations, if we mount one, we will spend an enormous amount of resources doing so. It is crucial for the ad hoc Working Group of the Security Council and the advisory group of the Economic and Social Council to work together in planning this type of election monitoring support and observation, particularly as some of the aspects will impact on human rights, freedom of the press and so forth.

On the question of drawing down peacekeeping operations, in places where we have peacekeeping operations, peacekeeping forces have been rapidly drawn down immediately after elections were held. We need to exercise caution and be patient because the holding of elections does not guarantee peace. It is just the beginning of a process: a process of peace-building. We must try to avoid war in the Central African Republic. I say this also with reference to Sierra Leone, where an election was recently concluded. We in Nigeria see that as the beginning of a process. We urge the Council not to precipitately withdraw or draw down forces. One should draw them down as the situation improves, while doing so in consultation with national and subregional leaders, who are involved in the peace-building process there. We urge you do so. To use a British saying, we should not be penny wise and pound foolish.

On the question of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), to which Ambassador Baali and Ambassador Kumalo of South Africa referred earlier on, I will flag only one aspect of NEPAD. The African leaders have committed themselves to not accepting in their midst those who take power by unconstitutional means. They will only accept democratic leaders. In this regard, they have established what they call peer review: if you do not behave well, you are not welcome in our midst. I think they have introduced an important concept. They have also said that African leaders will not be accepted if they are seen to be manipulating the constitutional process in order to extend their time in office. That is one of the problems that brings about the conflicts that the Council is concerned with. African leaders need to be commended for that initiative.

Lastly, on the role of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in resolving conflict, the choice of Assistant Secretary-General Ibrahima Fall, as I stated earlier, is commendable because he knows the terrain. All doors will be open to him. He will be able to interact with the various heads of State in our subregion. He will, therefore, be able to propose solutions to some of the conflicts.

I want to make some practical suggestions to the Council. There are a number of Representatives and Special Representatives of the Secretary-General in West Africa: in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and of course the Office recently established in West Africa. It would be useful for all of them to meet occasionally to compare notes on what is happening there, because the conflicts seem to be interrelated. The situation in Sierra Leone is related to the situation in Liberia. Liberia is related to Sierra Leone and to the Mano River Union. The Representatives can bring their collective wisdom to bear, share information and then decide what needs to be done. I think it will be useful.

I also believe it is necessary for the Special Representative for West Africa to regularly consult, not only with the ECOWAS secretariat and the chairman of the authority of ECOWAS, but also with ECOWAS leaders who have plans to act on a particular conflict. I am referring to timely intervention. As I said earlier, the Special Representative has many contacts, which will help him accomplish these tasks for the Council.

Let me briefly explain what I thought should be part of the role of the ad hoc Working Group. I am not trying to define its mandate, but I think we should draw a lesson from the Counter-Terrorism Committee, whose working methods would be useful for the ad hoc Working Group. Because we cannot meet all the time with Council members in this type of forum, it would be useful for the ad hoc Working Group to meet occasionally outside the Chamber with members of the African Group and with the general membership of the United Nations as the situation demands.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock (United Kingdom)

Thank you, Mr. President, for guiding us again today in what I think is proving a very interesting debate. I congratulate first those who have participated in it. I think that we are moving the subject forward in a way that would be not nearly as productive if we were sticking to our written text. I congratulate Ambassador Apata of Nigeria for abandoning his written text, leaving it with us because it makes some good points, and making even better ones in his ad lib intervention. A lot of good points have been made. We got off to a good start with the interventions of Ambassadors Koonjul, Simonovi, Kébé and Assistant Secretary-General Fall. There was a lot of meat in all their interventions. I want to draw out one or two points, perhaps touching, as Ambassador Levitte did, on one or two sensitive areas.

First of all, the ad hoc Working Group is a good idea. Ambassador Koonjul is taking it forward in exactly the right sort of way. But the proof of it has got to be that it makes a difference, just as the proof of a better relationship between the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council -- which is another area that has got warm support from everybody who has spoken so far -- has to be that coordination in New York and indeed with Geneva, where it matters, makes a difference on the ground. Sierra Leone is a very good example of this, a peacekeeping operation that has covered much wider areas than straight peace and security. But it has needed the input of different agencies.

The way we work in New York has to reflect the results that we need in the field; that is the point of doing it. I think a good example is one which Ambassador Simonovi and others have drawn attention to -- Sierra Leone and Gambia were quite clear on this -- and that is the gap between the end of a crisis and the beginning of normal development. It is an area that we have begun to point to, but it was only when the Secretary-General established a particular office for Afghanistan that we had somebody responsible for the recovery period. This is something that the United Kingdom has been looking for and which we have been talking about in theoretical terms for a long time, and indeed starting to seminar on. But lo and behold, it has begun to happen in Afghanistan. Why is it not yet happening in Africa?

I think our relationship with the regional and subregional organizations has rightly come out as a very necessary theme. I am very glad that the African Union is going to establish a Peace and Security Council, which will give the kind of links that we want to have with the African Union -- a very practical utility. I very much like the approach in Ambassador Kébé's speech, where he makes points A to D on his page four of what the mechanism of coordination between the Security Council and the African Union or the Peace and Security Council should actually cover. We should note his focus, because it is first of all rightly typical of the African approach, but it is also something we must pay attention to on funding and on the evaluation of humanitarian needs and of recovery and reconstruction needs -- all areas on which the Security Council is not necessarily the primary player. So we need horizontal coordination. We need vertical coordination with other bodies that are our sisters in this and with the main players, the regional players, the subregional players. That is the grist to the mill of cooperation between the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council.

I am very pleased that there is warm support for that. As everyone knows, we the United Kingdom have been pushing for it for a long time, and the establishment of an ad hoc advisory group of the Economic and Social Council is going to make that much more practical. I do not see why we should not have -- I would have no objection -- in at least some meetings of those ad hoc or advisory groups members or one member of the other sitting in the sessions so that there is immediate cross-seeding of the ideas in both groups.

I continue to be very interested in the whole area of governance, which Ibrahima Fall spoke of at some length, as have others. It is remarkable how Africans themselves are now talking about governance. It is the key to a new era of progress, in my view, on dealing with African problems. I want to point to a little contrast that I noticed between what Ambassador Kumalo said about the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), that this is about Africans solving African problems, and what Ambassador Sharma of Nepal said as an interested outsider looking at Africa, that -- I paraphrase -- the weight of African problems all coming together is too great for Africans alone to bear.

How do we put those two things together? I suppose that one answer is to say, as we often feel on the Security Council, that we are all Africans now. But there is a political sense in which Africans must take the lead in solving African problems. The important thing about NEPAD is not only that the document recognizes for Africans the whole gamut of things that need to be done, but that Africans are also, as African leaders, inviting outsiders to come in on a partnership to solve those problems. If we follow Ambassador Kumalo's formulation, we are being invited to become Africans in solving the problems of Africa. I think that is the frame of mind in which the Security Council established the ad hoc Working Group.

But there is also this trade-off, if you like, or interface between conflict and development. I was particularly struck by Sierra Leone's intervention on this, strongly put from a strong recent experience. Peace, democracy and good governance are prerequisites for sustainable development, and the causes of conflict and their solutions are nearly always linked to aspects of wider regional stability.

The fact is that it is only since the Security Council has taken on board that conflict resolution is an aspect of development that we have begun to develop working methods that have a chance of solving the concatenation of problems that conflict and development produce. This is why it is not only just a good thing, as a matter of coordination, that we should be working with the Economic and Social Council and with other organs of the United Nations; it is absolutely essential if we are to have an effect on the ground in resolving the problems that hit both conflict resolution and development. What the Ambassador of Benin said for the African Group on this is relevant. Frankly, what the European Union has done by way of analysis and action on this -- as the interventions of Spain and Hans Dahlgren, the Special Representative of the European Union to the Mano River Union demonstrate -- is extremely important and is an area with which we will continue.

To sum up, what the United Kingdom is interested in out of all of this is results on the ground, better coordination to that end, continuing the institutional progress that we are making in debates of this kind, and learning the lessons not just of our failures, but also of our success stories. We must do a "lessons learned" exercise on Sierra Leone, the latest success story to date, and apply those lessons, if necessary, to the Great Lakes region, which for Africa must now be gotten right, first of all by Africans, but also with us supporting them.

We must take up the cross-cutting issues. AIDS is one such issue. AIDS was not our subject first of all, yet it was the Security Council that gave political impetus to the fight against HIV/AIDS, something we may have to come back to when the Economic and Social Council takes it up later this summer. Also, there is the matter of support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which we are all talking about. But, as Ibrahima Fall said so clearly in his intervention, what matters now is follow-up.

Disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and repatriation or resettlement (DDRRR) is a matter of follow-up and is something we have not yet got right in Africa, because we do not look at the "RRR" aspects of demobilization. Many other delegations have underlined this, because they are looking for implementation of the analysis that we have all done. They are looking for results.

So we will follow up this debate. We are setting aside time during the United Kingdom presidency in July for an Africa workshop which will build on what we learn in this debate, so that it does not just get left in reports on Council members' shelves or in their capitals as something ephemeral. Rather, it will lead to something that we take up, implement the sensible elements of, move forward in coordination about and produce results on, so long as we are working under the leadership of Africans who know what they want and invite those who want to help to do it with them. That is what we are talking about.

The President

Before giving the floor to the next speaker, I would like to note that we have 19 remaining non-members inscribed to speak. In addition, several Council members have indicated their desire to respond. This is an important topic that we are debating, and it is my intention to give every speaker the opportunity to put across his or her views. But, given the long list of speakers, I am sure that everyone will agree with me that we have a common interest in not finishing our discussion too late. If possible, I hope that speakers will attempt to be as brief and focused as possible, without, of course, leaving out any important points that they may wish to put across.

The next speaker is the representative of Senegal, whom I invite to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Fall (Senegal)

Senegal welcomed the Security Council decision taken following its public meeting last 29 and 30 January to set up an ad hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa. The Group is fortunate to have the Permanent Representative of Mauritius as its Chairman.

Sir, I should like to congratulate you warmly on assuming the presidency of the Council. We greatly appreciate your personal commitment to continue the work of your predecessors in the presidency. I should also like sincerely to thank all other Council members for doing their utmost to make the issues of Africa their mission.

Regrettably, it has now become a ritual that whenever we discuss the situation in Africa we hear the same hackneyed descriptions: it is a poor neighbourhood on the edge of the planetary village; it is a small, forgotten spot in the world, where the worst horrors pile up one on top of the other -- armed conflicts, countless refugees and displaced persons and the apocalyptic ravages of HIV/AIDS. Faced with these tragedies and their dreadful consequences -- and the Africans themselves are primarily at fault -- the United Nations has to reflect, together with us, on "new and innovative initiatives" -- to use a favorite expression of the Secretary-General -- because this could eliminate or at least significantly reduce the suffering of people in Africa.

Turning more specifically to the issue of conflict in Africa, regional institutions are firmly committed to seeking political situations with, of course, the irreplaceable assistance of the United Nations. Thus, in Angola, Burundi and the Great Lakes region, for example, there are encouraging prospects, and those countries may soon regain the joy of stability, peace and development.

The role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in maintaining peace and stability is well known, and is recognized even here in the Security Council. Here, the most eloquent case is that of Sierra Leone, where elections have just been held with the support of the international community, and to its great satisfaction.

Turning to the work of the ad hoc Working Group -- fortunately chaired, as I said by the Permanent Representative of Mauritius -- we congratulate its members on the alacrity and serious-mindedness with which they began their work, thus opening up new prospects for the Security Council to reduce tension and to ensure the intelligent management of conflicts. In that spirit, Senegal fully endorses the approach taken by the Group: that it should look in depth at how to integrate the Economic and Social Council, the new United Nations Office in West Africa, in Dakar, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and civil society in working on strategies for a new kind of productive partnership.

The vital cooperation and coordination between the Working Group and the ad hoc Advisory Group on African Countries Emerging from Conflict will be crucial in bringing about an improvement in the working methods of the various United Nations structures and in enhancing the coordination of their activities. My country attaches the greatest importance to diligent consideration of the Secretary-General's recommendations in the relevant reports, particularly with respect to Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic.

On the subject of conflict prevention, I would like, just as the Foreign Minister of Senegal has done, to highlight the enlightening example of Guinea-Bissau. This is a typical case of a country where there is every indication of social chaos. Yet, the international community, sitting by as spectator, is waiting for the criteria of good governance and transparency to be met before taking action. The Government and the people of Guinea-Bissau are making enormous efforts to get their country out of crisis. We reiterate our urgent appeal to the entire international community, including the Bretton Woods institutions, to quickly provide the necessary assistance to Guinea-Bissau, as well as to the Central African Republic, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and soon to Madagascar, to help them solve problems relating to the functioning of their institutions and to the implementation of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process. Also, Senegal truly believes that, with valuable input from the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa, Mr. Ibrahima Fall, Guinea-Bissau can soon find its way back to the path of growth and development.

Senegal would like to draw the attention of the ad hoc Working Group, and of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa to a scourge that has become endemic in many African countries, particularly in West Africa. I refer to the proliferation and illegal trafficking in small arms; this is very widespread and has an impact on the stability, security and development of countries in the subregion. The ad hoc Working Group, working with the Office of the Special Representative for West Africa, could really help countries more effectively to mount the various initiatives under way at the national and subregional levels, if not at a continent-wide level.

Senegal supports setting up a working partnership with the main subregional players in priority areas such as early warning, strengthening human resources, capacity building, development and the processes of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration.

While the Working Group works to implement its programme of work, it is essential that there should also be functional support and participation on the part of all partners in civil society. The international community believes that civil society is extremely important here as a fully fledged partner. It ensures a breadth of representation that must be encouraged.

Senegal believes that conflict settlement and the eradication of poverty in Africa is not something that can be done by governments or public institutions alone. The international community has to take account of, and more deeply involve, other groups and sectors, such as women, youth, the elderly, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, private enterprises, transnational corporations, and so forth.

Experience shows that the only way out of conflict is to enable people to fully and freely enjoy peace, socio-economic security and human rights. This means that political leaders and others at the decision-making levels must respect the principles of a state of law based on democracy and good governance.

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) is now becoming the African Union and with the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) there are hopes for the future. These hopes have three anchors: the credo of the crucial responsibility of Africans themselves, the essence of the partnership and the belief in mutual respect. NEPAD, in addition to economic, financial and commercial opportunities, is also a globally integrated strategic framework for freeing Africa from the disasters that it suffers from: endemic poverty, bad governance, fratricidal conflict, and so forth.

This is why Senegal fully endorses continually strengthening the cooperation among the United Nations, the OAU the and subregional organizations in the areas of conflict prevention, management and settlement. Once the Dakar office is up and running, we hope the ad hoc Working Group will visit West Africa to learn at first-hand about the situation there.

I now conclude by repeating what the Secretary-General said: "Armed conflict is the worst enemy of development." Further, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, reminded us that "development" is the other name of "peace".

The President

The next speaker is the representative of Ukraine. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Kuchinsky (Ukraine)

My delegation warmly welcomes you, Sir, to the presidency of the Security Council. We would like to thank the delegation of Singapore for organizing this important debate. We commend its unremitting efforts to introduce an outreach approach in the work of the Security Council in order to increase its transparency and credibility by seeking input from all of the United Nations membership. The background documents, which have been helpfully prepared by the presidency to facilitate today's constructive discussion, deserve our high appreciation.

I wish also to thank Ambassador Koonjul of Mauritius, a devoted initiator and the chairman of the Working Group, for his very useful briefing on the Group's activities. Our thanks also go to Assistant Secretary-General Ibrahima Fall for his very important and forthright statement today.

I would also particularly like to welcome the presence at this meeting of the President of the Economic and Social Council, Ambassador Ivan Simonovi, and the Permanent Observer of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Ambassador Amadou Kébé, as they represent major partners of the Security Council in the areas of conflict prevention, resolution and peace-building in Africa.

We support the ideas that were presented to us concerning ways of enhancing cooperation with the Working Group in pursuing common objectives within each body's mandate.

I have the honour today to speak on behalf of a country that has always been committed to strengthening relations of true partnership with Africa. This commitment of ours was confirmed by substantial participation on the part of from Ukraine in the United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa, by our consistent position in the Security Council, and by our ongoing efforts to expand and foster bilateral relations with African countries and to strengthen interactions with regional organizations.

Today, our attention is devoted to the activities of the ad hoc Working Group on Africa, which we consider a useful, proactive mechanism of the Security Council. My delegation endorses the concept that the Working Group on Africa should assist the Security Council in addressing the conflict situations on that continent. With regards to specific elements of the terms of reference and the programme of work, I would like to make some brief comments.

As far as the participation at the meetings of the Group, we support the importance of inviting major institutional, financial and academic views to address specific conflict situations. At the same time, we believe it would be useful if participation could be extended, as appropriate, specifically to the parties to the conflict and to troop-contributing countries.

Welcoming in principle the establishment of groups of friends for specific conflict situations, we consider that such groups should be open to anyone who does make and can make a constructive contribution to the resolution of conflict. With regard to the setting up of groups of friends for African conflict situations, we support a greater involvement of African actors in such endeavours.

We also recognize the importance of effective cooperation and coordination between the Working Group and other existing, relevant mechanisms within the United Nations, in particular those in the General Assembly and in the Economic and Social Council.

Now that the Group is focusing on confidence building in the Mano River Union, it is vitally important that closer contacts be established between the United Nations Office in West Africa and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in order to consider ways of strengthening cooperation between the countries of the Mano River Union and supporting ongoing subregional peace initiatives. We wish every success in promoting these objectives to Assistant Secretary-General Ibrahima Fall, who is going to take up responsibilities as the head of the United Nations Office in West Africa.

In conclusion, I wish to express the hope that this brainstorming session today will provide additional impetus to the activities of the ad hoc Working Group on Africa and ensure an effective role for the Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security in Africa.

The President

I now call on the representative of Morocco, whom I invite to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Loulichki (Morocco)

I should like to begin by thanking you, Sir, for having taken the initiative of organizing this debate under your competent presidency, a debate in which Africa is once again at the centre of the Security Council's attention.

I should also like to welcome the presence of Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul, Chairman of the ad hoc Working Group; of Mr. Ibrahima Fall, Assistant Secretary-General in charge of the United Nations Office in Dakar; and of Ambassador Ivan Simonovi, President of the Economic and Social Council, whose contributions will enrich and enlighten our current and future discussions.

The sustained attention of the Security Council and of the United Nations system in general that Africa now enjoys is all the more reassuring in that it is now shared by the entire Council. That is also the result of the daily and persistent action of the Secretary-General, who has fostered an international awareness of Africa and who spares no effort in giving the continent hope for a better future.

We are pleased that this debate is taking place at a juncture marked by encouraging prospects for conflict settlement, particularly in Angola and Sierra Leone and between Eritrea and Ethiopia. As a member of the African family, my delegation is glad to participate in this debate, which concerns the role, the functions, and the programme of work of the ad hoc Working Group on conflict prevention and resolution in Africa. That Group, established three months ago, was given the mandate of monitoring the implementation of the successive recommendations of the President of the Council with regard to conflict prevention and resolution in Africa. The nature and the scope of that mandate poses, at first glance, the problem of a possible overlap between the Group's activities and those of the General Assembly's working group charged with the application of the recommendations contained in the Secretary-General's report on the causes of conflicts (S/1998/318).

Despite the informal nature of the ad hoc Working Group, a delineation of the fields of action of both bodies seems desirable in order to ensure the rationality and the effectiveness of United Nations action in this area. We believe it is indispensable that there be complementarity between the tasks of the ad hoc Working Group, those of the General Assembly and those of the Economic and Social Council.

For any action undertaken by the Council in the area of conflict prevention and management in Africa, the Secretary-General's report of 13 April 1998 remains the indisputable reference, inasmuch as it contains a detailed analysis of conflicts and of their deep-rooted causes, and it proposes realistic and achievable recommendations to put an end to them. This basic document remains, therefore, the point of departure for any discussion or action designed to suppress or prevent African conflicts. It is only fitting that the programme proposed by the Ambassador of Mauritius draws its references from that same report.

As you have requested, Mr. President, my delegation will focus its observations and comments on four items. I shall begin with relations with the Economic and Social Council.

Given the well-established interaction between peace-building and the socio-economic development of the African countries emerging from conflicts, the coordination of the Economic and Social Council's activities and those of the Security Council goes without saying. The same logic calls for the establishment of links between the Economic and Social Council advisory group and the Security Council ad hoc Working Group, thus giving concrete form to the integrated approach described in the Secretary-General's report on the causes of conflict. Indeed, such coordination is not an end in itself; it will be worthwhile only if it is pragmatic and oriented towards achieving results. It would have the merit of offering more visibility to the Government of a country involved in a conflict, as well as to its partners, whether they be donor countries, international financial institutions or private investors.

Within the context of the coordination sought by the Council in order to prevent the aggravation of conflict or to prevent the outbreak of new conflict, we feel that particular mention should be accorded to cooperation and coordination with the High Commissioner for Refugees and with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Conflicts in Africa are a constant source of untold human suffering. Millions of persons have been displaced from their homes, separated from their families and forced to live in deplorable conditions. In that regard, the High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Cross play a valuable and irreplaceable role in the treatment of the humanitarian aspects of African conflicts and should therefore be able to fulfil their mandate with regard to refugees and detained persons, regardless of the final political settlement. In that respect, it is essential that the United Nations adopt concrete measures with a view to ensuring strict respect for the norms of international humanitarian law by all of the parties to conflicts. As we know, these are imperative norms that must be respected by all.

I should now like to discuss the second item, concerning confidence-building measures in the Mano River region. The Mano River region deserves all the attention that the Council can accord it in this debate. My country, which, upon the invitation of His Majesty the King, hosted on 27 February a summit of the heads of State of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, can testify to the commitment of the leaders of those countries to re-establish peace in the Mano River region. The summit in Rabat launched a quest for peace with the adoption of a set of measures to make common borders safer, to repatriate refugees and to provide assistance to displaced persons.

In the framework of the follow-up to the summit, a meeting of foreign ministers was held in Morocco on 7 and 8 April. At that meeting, confidence-building measures were drafted and adopted by the participants. They included the rapid deployment of joint border-security units; the control of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons; the establishment of an environment conducive to the repatriation of refugees; the organization of a caravan to restore confidence along the common borders, to include dignitaries from the three countries; and the official opening of borders to permit the free movement of people and goods. The implementation of those measures warrants all the support that the international community can muster with a view to restoring peace to the region.

With respect to the role of the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General, my delegation wishes to stress the following elements.

First, the role of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, entrusted with the primary responsibility for a peacekeeping operation, is crucial to the fulfilment of the Organization's mandate with respect to a given dispute or conflict. That mandate logically begins with a guarantee of strict respect for a ceasefire by all parties. That respect is the starting point and fundamental basis of any process leading to a definitive political solution to the conflict.

Secondly, ongoing coordination between the various United Nations agencies involved in a peacekeeping operation is of significant added value and a principal asset towards the success of a given mission.

Lastly, as we know, the Secretary-General occasionally and periodically holds coordination meetings with the various Special Representatives, either in New York or in Geneva. It might be desirable for similar regular meetings to be held within an African region or subregion or even at the African continental level. Such regular meetings could encourage an exchange of experiences and information that could prove useful in improving mission performance.

I wish now to discuss cooperation with regional and subregional organizations and with States. Such cooperation, set forth in the United Nations Charter and institutionalized by General Assembly resolutions, should be extended to such subregional organizations as the Southern Africa Development Community, the Economic Community of West African States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States, which, it must be said, play an active role in reducing tensions in several African regions. Interaction between the ad hoc Working Group of the Security Council and these state groupings could only be beneficial to United Nations efforts to resolve conflicts. Similarly, States whose proximity to or relations with parties to a conflict recommend them for a role in promoting rapprochement and reconciliation would benefit by being included regularly and whenever necessary or useful in the work of the ad hoc Working Group.

Lastly, I wish to say that my delegation is pleased to note that peace-building and the implementation of preventive diplomacy, particularly in Africa, continue to be a focus of the Security Council. This debate, however, should not lead us to forget that peace in Africa remains linked to development and that the United Nations and the international community must pursue both of these objectives at the same time and, with the same determination and energy, assist Africa in its efforts towards democratic, economic and social recovery and to eradicate, in particular, poverty and AIDS.

Mr. Valdivieso (Colombia)

Once again, I am pleased to see you, Sir, presiding over this important meeting, just as you did the other day on an another item of tremendous relevance to you and to all of us.

The Council's programme of work will surely be considerably enriched by this debate; by the contributions of all delegations and Council members; by the very important statements of Ambassador Simonovi, speaking on behalf of the Economic and Social Council, and Ambassador Kébé, speaking on behalf of the Organization of African Unity (OAU); and, most especially, by all the efforts of the ad hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa, under the guidance of Ambassador Koonjul.

Following the agreed procedure for this meeting, I wish to refer to some of the points raised today. First of all, it has been made quite clear by the vast majority of speakers that the Council devotes a very significant share of its time to addressing problems of peace and security in Africa. I should like to note the emphasis that has been placed on the quantitative aspect of our work on African issues, whereas it seems to me that the qualitative dimension of our work has yet to be defined and agreed. This leads me to conclude that today's debate and the activities of the Working Group may serve to redress the deficit in the quality of the attention dedicated to the African agenda by the Council, which stands to be improved.

Secondly, we note and have heard a number of references to the fact that the other main organs of the United Nations, each in its own field, are developing initiatives linking peace and security to development problems in Africa. The General Assembly is soon to hold a final review and appraisal of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. The working group of the Economic and Social Council has also continued to function. The Economic and Social Council dedicated a segment of its annual session on coordination to the question of Africa in 1999. It later dedicated a high-level ministerial segment to Africa. The creation of this new advisory body on countries emerging from conflicts is a new contribution. Lately, the Secretariat has concentrated on giving validity and effectiveness to the regional focus in the resolution of conflicts, starting by applying this concept -- attributed to Ambassador Fall -- to West Africa, where he will be working.

Nevertheless -- it must be frequently repeated -- we feel that this broad effort will not lead to conclusions and recommendations that can be easily coordinated in the Council's work of seeking to maintain international peace and security. Often, one has the impression that the General Assembly or the Economic and Social Council or even the Secretariat belonged to an organization separate from the United Nations based on their contribution to the work of the Security Council. In other words, this lack of conceptual and operational cohesiveness in the treatment of African issues among the various principal organs of the United Nations should be resolved. Therefore, it is important, as several delegations have mentioned, that the various contacts and the meetings on Africa of the main organs and even the subsidiary organs, whether in the Security Council or the General Assembly, should be mutually reinforcing. The Working Group is very important in this respect.

I wished to refer to one of the points of the programme of work as described by Ambassador Koonjul at the start of the meeting and in the support documentation. There is general agreement on the relevance of those points. There is unanimous agreement, in particular, on the question of cooperation of the Security Council with the Organization of African Unity and with the subregional organizations. As for the functioning of groups of friends for specific conflict situations, those groups should include African and non-African countries. I listened with interest to the remarks on the prudence with which the Working Group should proceed in studying the electoral processes, precisely because of the risk that it might weaken the competencies of the General Assembly or the Secretariat in that field. In general, we believe that the United Nations should advocate the formation of a greater regional capacity for electoral monitoring, so that it can be present in the African continent, where the electoral process will ultimately be managed most, and thus strengthen democracy in the African continent.

Finally, my delegation wishes to support the recommendation expressed by Assistant Secretary-General Fall, supported by various speakers, to include the issue of the proliferation of and trade in small arms in the agenda of the ad hoc Working Group. He mentioned that it was necessary to more strictly enforce the moratoriums and regional actions to prevent the proliferation of arms. It must also be said, on the issue of the trade in small arms, that it is indispensable that we expend greater efforts. It is well known that there are well-organized and even well-known criminal organizations that continue to function without the Council deciding to confront them in a more direct manner. Mr. Fall mentioned the importance of going to the sources of the weapons. In that context, he mentioned that the Chairman of the Working Group could meet with the weapons-manufacturing countries to request their greater contribution to the solution of this problem, which is overwhelming many countries and destroys thousands of lives in Africa and in many parts of the world. It is therefore an important issue. We will well consider that point in order to elaborate on the suggestion of Mr. Fall in the programme of work.

Recently, we have spoken of the importance of the Security Council building collective positions on the question of Africa. I wish to say that the need of building collective positions exists at the level of the overall system of the United Nations. That is why I believe that this Working Group can contribute to the creation of such collective positions in the United Nations system.

The President

The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of the United Republic of Tanzania. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Mwakawago (Tanzania)

We are honoured to see you, Sir, preside over the Council's meeting. I would like to start by commending Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore, the current President of the Council, and Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul of Mauritius, the Chairman of the Working Group, for organizing this special meeting devoted, yet again, to the situation in Africa. It is our intention to make a modest contribution to the workings of the Working Group. But before I do that, I would like to congratulate the people of East Timor for achieving statehood. The United Nations, and the Security Council in particular, deserve our commendation.

As we are meeting, my delegation would like to register our appreciation and delight at the good news emanating from The Hague with respect to the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, from Luanda, the capital of Angola, and from Freetown in Sierra Leone. The Ethiopia-Eritrea border conflict has been settled, and the two countries have accepted the arbitration of the Boundary Commission. In Angola, a general amnesty has been proclaimed to UNITA fighters and a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Government and UNITA. A few days ago, the Council lifted sanctions on UNITA for 90 days. The latest good news is the peaceful outcome of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone. In all these cases, the peoples of those countries deserve our very hearty congratulations. But it would be remiss not to recognize the positive and active participation of the United Nations and of the Security Council, in particular.

It is against that backdrop that these deliberations are being held today. In all three cases war situations have been resolved through the use of different mechanisms. But one thing is certain and evident, and that is that the Security Council worked in close collaboration with regional and local entities. Perhaps the Working Group could go over the elements that were positive and isolate the negatives in order to expedite conflict resolution.

In the light of the above positive developments, we may wish to ask whether there is a need to revisit all resolutions pertaining to the three resolved conflicts and determine what elements are still outstanding so that they can be programmed for resolution.

In the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from where the Security Council Mission has just returned, it is heartening to note that the inter-Congolese dialogue took place in Sun City, South Africa. From the reports we have seen, substantial progress was made. We expect that the Council will stay engaged until all the outstanding issues are sorted out and ownership of the process returns squarely to Congolese hands. However, at this stage it is important to commend the Congolese people on the achievements registered. Along with that, we took note with appreciation of the destruction of 1,000 firearms during the Security Council Mission's visit to Kisangani.

Trafficking in illegal small arms and light weapons is the worst scourge in African conflicts. It will be recalled that the Council has had occasion to address the issue. I need not over-emphasize here that African conflicts cannot be resolved without also addressing the perennial problem of illegal trafficking in small arms and light weapons.

Peace is central to addressing the development equation of Africa. African leaders are determined to bring positive change to the continent. The people are yearning for peace so that poverty, ignorance and disease can be confronted head on. It is, therefore, important that the Council become an active partner for change. At this juncture, I would like to underscore the postulates of the 2000 Millennium Summit with respect to the plight of Africa. We hope that the Working Group will not try to reinvent the wheel. Rather, we hope that it will analyse the various proposals and come up with workable solutions.

I need also to state here that some progress was achieved in Burundi by the end of last year. After four years of protracted negotiations, an agreement was reached and one of the recommendations was an interim power-sharing arrangement. The transitional Government was installed on 1 November last year. In 12 months there will be a changeover. Fighting, unfortunately, is still continuing, but the regional leaders are working very hard to secure a ceasefire. At the international level, it would appear that there is a wait-and-see attitude. That is not helpful.

The pledges made in Paris have not been honoured. The Transitional Government needs the aid that was promised. It is our conviction that, if assistance were given to the Transitional Government, it would greatly help cement peace by isolating the rebels for what they are. I cannot overstate the fact that conflict resolution has elements of "the carrot and the stick". It is vitally important that the two elements are carefully calibrated. Otherwise, all the efforts will come to naught.

Let me conclude my statement with a few general observations, which I hope the Working Group will address as well.

One of the unintended consequences of conflicts is the movement of peoples, either as refugees or as internally displaced persons. Tanzania has been host to refugees since long before its independence. Currently, we host over 500,000 refugees from Burundi and over 170,000 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a huge responsibility. We submit, therefore, that conflict resolution mechanisms should at all times be factored into the plight of refugees. I am aware that disarmament, demobilization, reinsertion, repatriation and resettlement are an integral part of the conflict resolution mechanism. I am, therefore, flagging the issue of refugees, so that it is does remain an afterthought.

The second issue is the question of the relationship between the Council and local actors. I raise this because of three considerations. The Council is entrusted with the overall authority for securing international peace and security. Along with that mandate is the power to impose sanctions. Given the fact that it is the neighbours of a conflict area who bear the brunt of the fallout of the conflict, it is our view that sound coordination is vital. The region is closer to the scene on a daily basis and punitive measures by neighbours have managed to cajole an obstinate Government to negotiate. Yet, in the light of past experience, the Working Group could discuss the issue and come up with recommendations as to how best to use regional mechanisms to enforce Council mandates.

Last but not least, I would like to address the issue of peacekeeping operations in Africa. There have been misgivings with regard to the handling by the Security Council of African peacekeeping operations. There is a perception out there that there has been a lot of hesitation and under-subscription. The Sierra Leone experience is instructive. There were, indeed, two peacekeeping operations: one by the United Nations under the Security Council and the other by a leading member of the Council. It is quite obvious that that model cannot be replicated elsewhere in the continent, but the Working Group could examine the implications and the ramifications of such an experiment. I have referred only to the presence of two operations in the same area with different command structures. I did not tackle the firepower at the disposal of each of the forces. That can be analysed by the Working Group.

In conclusion, I will only make brief reference to the importance of the peace dividend in any conflict resolution. The African drama has been documented extensively. Indeed, all analyses emphasize the preponderance of poverty. It is our hope that in working on blueprints for conflict resolution, the question of humanitarian assistance and overall development will be given pride of place.

This initiative is welcome. But I would like to conclude by hoping that special sessions do not replace African initiatives; at the end of the day very little is achieved on the ground. With the good will of all, I am quite sure that peace can prevail in the continent and that African development can become a reality.

The President

I call on the representative of Bahrain. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Saleh (Bahrain)

Allow me at the outset to express our thanks and gratitude to you, Sir, for organizing this public meeting on this important issue. We fully appreciate your transparent method, which includes the involvement of non-members of the Council in its deliberations and the deliberations of the ad hoc Working Group of the Security Council. It is our hope that these deliberations will be crowned with success and will contribute constructive ideas that will assist in conflict prevention and resolution in the African continent.

I also wish to express our appreciation to the Chairman of the Working Group, the Permanent Representative of Mauritius, for his comprehensive report to the Council today and his ambitious programme. We wish him every success in his endeavours.

Mr. President, allow me to speak about three important points that I believe need further deliberation. The first of these is the strengthening of coordination between the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. In Chapter I of the United Nations Charter, entitled "Purposes and Principles", paragraph 1 of Article 1 lists the maintenance of international peace and security as one of the most important purposes of the United Nations. It proceeds stating that the United Nations should "take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats" to international peace and security. Taking these collective measures, as we understand it, requires the coordination of efforts of all actors in the international community and within the United Nations organs themselves.

Chapter X of the United Nations Charter states in its Article 65 that the Economic and Social Council

"may furnish information to the Security Council and shall assist the Security Council upon its request".

Hence, we can see that there is a clear and unequivocal legal basis for cooperation and coordination between the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. Furthermore, the Secretary-General has emphasized this objective in his report on the prevention of armed conflicts, in which he says: