The UN is in Crisis over Africa

Preamble

In recent months it has been said many times that because of the war in Iraq that the UN is in crisis. That may be true, but the most important reason why the UN is in crisis is because over 4 million people have died in Africa in the last 4 years due to the conflicts and the effects of conventional arms. 4 millions dead in the last 4 years. That's like the whole of the population of black people in England, Jamaica and some of the Caribbean Islands dead in the last 4 years. That’s like the whole of South London, or Yorkshire, or Yokohama, or Los Angles, or Sydney, or Ireland, or Central African Republic or Uruguay dead in the last 4 years. That is more than those killed in the First World War dead in Africa in the last 4 years.

Introduction

In the last 4 years over 4 million people have died due to the wars and arms in Africa. Over 3 million in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone. 4 million dead in the last 4 years; That’s more people died per month than in the whole of the Iraq war. 4 million dead in the last 4 years; That’s more Africans dying than at the highest rate during slavery. That's almost twice the number of deaths during the Middle passage during slavery over a 200 years period. 4 million dead in the last 4 years; imagine the heartache, pain, suffering, despair and injuries. 4 million dead in the last 4 years and yet Africa does not produce many weapons. 4 million dead, yet incredibly, not one person has been prosecuted for supplying the weapons of their destruction and death of the 4 million in the last 4 years. It's like legalised aiding, abetting and facilitating mass slaughter.

In Prime minister’s Question time Wednesday 6 Feb 2002

"Mr. Alex Salmond (Banff and Buchan) asked: Is the Prime Minister aware that on the day of the Twin Towers disaster, there took place in this city an arms trade fair sponsored by the Ministry of Defence? Among the customers at that fair for state-of-the-art weaponry were both sides in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Would it not be a useful start to the Prime Minister's mission to Africa if he announced that henceforth this country will not sell arms to both sides in African civil wars?"

Part of The Prime Minister (Tony Blair's) reply was: "Our arms sales to Africa run at about 1 per cent. of total arms sales, so it is important to put that in context. There are also, incidentally, jobs and industry in this country to consider. Of course it is important to take care who we sell arms to, and we do." Parliament - UK web site: www.parliament.uk/

I listened to a live web cast of Prime Minister Blair's speech at the UN Millennium summit in 2000, and his later speech to the Labour Party Conference, and was hopeful as he had spent much of those speeches pleading for something to be done about Africa. It would appear he did not get the support or encouragement of other leaders both at home and abroad. Instead of helping save lives in Africa he was hoodwinked and obligated to prosecute the illegal war on Iraq.

4 million dead in 4 years and weapons made by the Veto 5 are being supplied to both sides. It's like the police giving you and your family and friends guns whenever you have a conflict.

His-story will focus on the recent Iraq war. But Human-story will remember the 4 million dead in Africa in the last 4 years. It will remember those who fate has put in positions of power and leadership, who instead of helping the African peoples have overseen and even facilitated the mass carnage. Some bury their heads in the sand, some dismiss it as not their problem, some spout near empty rhetoric, some throw their hands up in exasperation, some exploit the situation to amass wealth, some focus on other more politically advantageous issues. While the blood of the African Peoples run and run and the cries of their sufferings go unheeded by some impotent and or intransigent leaders. The UN is indeed in crisis over Africa. A crisis of leadership, morality and integrity.

What can be done

The UN has tried to help Africa. God knows it has tried and is trying. But it has had a catastrophic failure in the last 4 years. Below are some suggestions of things to consider doing (some already being done) that may help to stem the carnage in Africa.

1 Give Up Armies

Historically in many countries in Africa armies have been a main cause of conflicts; through military coups. The rationale for armies has now changed. Few conflicts are between states; most are within states. In Kofi Annan’s Millenniums report "We the peoples the Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century.." report we read that most wars are within states and most people killed or injured are civilians. 90% of all war casualties are civilians.

Africa is now the dumping ground for obsolete technology weapons. Much of the debt owed by developing countries was brought about through the purchase of arms. At a recent Jubilee 2000, Drop the debt meeting we were informed that some 30% of the loans made to the highly indebted nations is spent on arms. In some parts of Africa armed gangs are wreaking havoc, terrorising and robbing people, raping women and spreading HIV/Aids. The arms trade not only provides the veto 5 with economic wealth but also provides the finance to enable them to develop even more weapons. People in indebted countries will be paying interest and loans for many years to come, some of which will be used to develop more weapons. (Think of the suffering that this will cause many mothers and their children.) The result is that millions have been and will be killed, wounded, maimed, suffered and impoverished. Some responsibility for the wrecking and termination of these lives must be born by the arms makers. "Like slaves of haughty rulers and tyrants', who, heedless of their own liberty, make armaments to overthrow the liberty of others". They make some of their living from making and selling weapons to people to kill other people.

OK this is very risky. Countries suggesting giving up their armies are likely to have their leaders assassinated, or overthrown in military coups, or aid withheld, or be flooded with arms, or have external forces inciting groups into conflict. Its not going to be popular with the $800 bn a year arms industry, or with countries that make and sell arms such as the Veto 5 or their armies. But lets face it. What good or benefits have the armies and the resources spent on arms bought to many African or developing countries? What can small armies equipped with redundant technology do? We all watched with shock and awe the waste of resources and terrible use of technology in the bombardment of Baghdad during the war on Iraq. Can your army provide real security in such an environment? Are you going to condemn your peoples to a life of poverty by using essential resources to acquire such technology?

Table a resolution at the UN:

• Recalling the UN Charter and appropriate resolutions - such as 57/337. "Prevention of armed conflict", 35/142 B "reduction in military expenditure", 57/65 "Relationship between disarmament and development", 57/70 "Assistance to state for curbing the illicit traffic in small arms and collecting them", 57/75 "Transparency in armaments", 57/76 "Regional disarmament", 57/81 "Consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures" and their citations.
• Welcoming the countries without armies.
• Affirming the UN Security Council's prime responsibility to maintain peace and security.
• Asking for the Veto 5 and willing countries to agree to defend your peoples from external aggression, internal conflicts, and military coups.
• Asking for assistance to convert your army into a civilian force and to collect and destroy weapons.

2 Stem The Tide - End the Conflicts Now

That is easier said than done. The UN is constantly trying to end all conflicts. Yet one feels that more could be done. The political will of many powerful leaders is not committed to a culture of peace; but rather to profit from the chaos of war. In civil law most countries have developed effective mechanisms to end conflicts but this has not yet been achieved at the highest levels; that of international law. I suspect its even more complex, the mechanisms are in place, but political bickering and loyalties, old cold war mentalities, greed, lack of resources and power crazes contribute to their lack of implementation.

The International community, through the UN, must exercise its "Responsibility to Protect". ".. if humanitarian intervention is, indeed, and unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenia - to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity" (Kofi Annan 1999/2000). The responsibility, principles, criteria, rules and thresholds that define military intervention must be documented and agreed. Too many times the actions of the Security Council are ineffectual and seemingly cosmetic; like lipstick on a pig. A mechanism is required whereby cases can be refereed to the UN General Assembly, when the UN Security Council fails to act appropriately and effectively or remains seized by inactivity while many lives are being or about to be lost.

Make it a numeric Goal of the UN to reduce the number of lives lost in conflicts. The UN has a good record of achieving its numerical goals. Regularly collect, collate, update and publish statistics on a single web site on the internet on Africa and other regions so that progress can be easily measured.

Publish statistics such as:

"Many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die, don't ask me why" (Bob Marley).

3 Prosecute the Guilty

Prosecute those guilty of causing these deaths. Suggestions include:

• Suppliers of weapons
• War Criminals
• Corruption - Both those embezzling funds and those handling them.
• Kleptocracies
• Resource looters

The anarchy and deaths in Africa are due to the non prosecution and profiting of those guilty of crimes against humanity over the last 40 years. In many cases this occurs at the very top, with support from powerful external nations. "We cannot allow bad rulers and their supporters to profit. Otherwise there will be no end to it; others will not be discouraged. As in civil law if there will be no deterrent or motivation to do good anarchy reigns." (Karl Miller) Measures to stop corruption should include:

• All governments should publish foreign investments and assets of politicians and their families.
• External monitoring of corruption.
• Treat embezzlement by government officials as crime against humanity.
• Establish task forces to forfeit assets and return money looted from countries.
• Banks external to countries with corrupt or despotic rulers should act as if dealing with thieves / drug barons / money launders / terrorists.
• Sanctions should be targeted at rulers, so all their (and their families, supporters and cronies) financial assets are seized or frozen. Travel and other comforts restricted.
• More naming and shaming.
• Agree the long discussed UN legal instrument against corruption

 The fact that no one has been prosecuted for supplying arms to Africa can be interpreted as either incompetence or collusion. It will be interesting to know the public's view.

"The events of the recent months are a severe setback to those who believe that morality and adherence to the rules of law should be our guiding principles. For the time being, the rule seems to be: might is right," (Sir Joseph Rotblat - "The Nuclear Issue: Pugwash and the Bush Policies" - 53rd Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs - Advancing Human Security: The Role of Technology and Politics - Halifax and Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, 17-21 July 2003)

Is this the right example for Governments to set.

4 Collect and Destroy the Weapons

In some parts of Africa it is cheaper to buy a gun than chicken. Yet Africa makes few arms.

"The first challenge, the author argues, is to assist countries emerging from the devastation of warfare in their efforts to rebuild and fashion viable civil societies and economies less susceptible to breakdown and strife. The second is to slash the enormous arsenals of weapons accumulated over decades; to adopt meaningful restrictions on arms production, possession, and trade; and to convert war-making capacities to civilian use. Finally, and this is likely to be the greatest challenge, there is a need to create institutions that are capable of robust peacekeeping, nonviolent dispute resolution, and war prevention."
From Peace Pledge Union www.ppu.org.uk/indexa.html BUDGETING FOR DISARMAMENT

5 Effectively Implement Sanctions - Supplies to and Resources from Conflict Areas.

The arms moratorium in West Africa was not effective. It amazes me how, no matter where the conflict is, no matter how prominent the sanctions imposed by the international community, the weapons and suppliers to fuel the conflicts always gets through, and few if anyone is ever caught and prosecuted. The fact that some countries involved in the war in the DRC were still receiving aid from developed countries; seems like a reward in contrast to the public rhetoric of condemnation. Myself and many people I have talked to do not understand how weapons can be supplied to kill people; but food cannot be to feed the starving children.

The plundering of resources in areas of conflict in Africa (such as coltan; short for colombo tantalite, a strategic mineral needed for the manufacture of mobile phones and computer chips) implies the recipients of those resources are funding or facilitating the conflicts. There always seems to be a readily available markets for such resources. "In mid-October, the UN Security Council was presented with a report detailing how Rwandan, Ugandan and Zimbabwean officers, as well as Congolese authorities, manipulated internal conflicts to facilitate the looting of natural resources. The report also stated that the withdrawal of foreign troops would not end this exploitation. At this writing, there had been no indication that the Security Council intended to take further steps to end the plundering of the DRC's resources."

Pray that your country does not discover resources such as oil and diamonds coveted by the veto 5. Because if they do your people will suffer, they will have little peace because outsiders will facilitate and orchestrate wars so they can get those resources cheaply; in exchange for scrap metal and weapons of death and destruction of your people and country. For example Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, South America, Iraq to name a few. I note that over $80 Bn dollars was spent on the war on Iraq killing over 20,000 people (??) to secure their oil resources; yet Africa paid for 4 million to die in Africa due to conflicts in the last 4 years and for outside interests to plunder and secure their resources.

6 Reduce resources spent on arms

"Every gun, every warship, every tank and every military aircraft built is, in the final analysis, a theft from those who are hungry and are not fed, from those who are naked and are not clothed."
Dwight D Eisenhower, General Commander Allied Forces, World War 2 and US President 1952-1960 (from Peace New's Nonviolent Action Issue 22 June 2001

In Angola over 22% of its GDP was spent on the military during 2001.

Professor Peter Willetts of City University reports that the IMF concluded that many developing countries can only satisfy the needs of their populations by diverting funds from their military budgets.

"How will any form of equity be established unless more resources are aimed at developing people who are at the bottom of the economic ladder? Years after the end of the cold war, the world’s governments continue to spend more than $800 billion a year on arms and the arms trade is once again expanding. Though the bulk of military spending is on conventional arms, the possession of nuclear weapons by the powerful is driving militarism around the globe. Grotesque imbalances result:

• In at least 84 countries, military expenditures exceed expenditures on health alone.
• In one out of three developing countries, military expenditures exceed half or more of all expenditures on health and education. In more than one out of six developing countries, military expenditure actually exceeds combined expenditure on all forms of health and education, in eight cases by two to four times.
• The countries spending the highest proportion of their resources on military uses are also those countries whose standing in human development lags most behind their standing in wealth and GNP. In contrast, countries with the lowest military expenditures generally rank considerably higher in human development than in GNP per capita. "

There is a dynamic, triangular relationship between disarmament, development, and security. The more disarmament and development are advanced, the more security is enhanced and strengthened. But most nations haven’t yet made the mental leap that security today requires the development of the human being, not the preparation for war."
DEVELOPMENT AND EQUALITY by Douglas Roche A former Canadian Member of Parliament and Ambassador for Disarmament, Douglas Roche is author of The Ultimate Evil: The Fight to Ban Nuclear Weapons and other books, and served for 6 years as GEA's Chairperson.

Implement Article 26 of the UN Charter "to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources". Implement an unannounced year on year reduction on the resources spent on arms of between 5 and 10 Percent. Your people could use those resources more effectively. If you must spend aid money on arms buy thing that can be used to develop your country rather than to kill people. Buy things such as transportation vehicles, medicines, infrastructure (bridges) and building equipment. It would increase jobs, reduce poverty and speed up the development of your country.

Weapons don’t bring peace or security, they kill people.

"But we have also seen in our goals a basic purpose: survival. Any use of nuclear weapons would carry the danger of escalation and a threat to our continued existence." (Sir Joseph Rotblat)

As Kofi Annan puts it "We the Peoples"

238 "The death toll from small arms dwarfs that of all other weapons systems – and in recent years greatly exceeds the toll of the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In terms of the carnage they cause, small arms, indeed, could well be described as "weapons of mass Destruction". Yet there is still no global non-proliferation regime to limit their spread, as there is for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons."

And Douglas Mattern "At the same time, UN Secretary General Koffi Annan reminds us that half of humanity lives in poverty, existing on an average of $2 a day. The Arias Foundation reports that world military spending increased from $798 billion in 2000 to $839 billion in 2001. Half of the world's governments spend more on the military than for health care. This expenditure is a monumental waste of our wealth, resources, and intellectual talent for the means of destruction and astonishing profits for the armament companies. The war business is the world's ultimate criminal activity. "

It also amazes me how some very religious and moral people fight against contraception yet support and even invest in the arms industry. It is as if the investment in arms is so profitable that it overrides their beliefs, and the extra people are needed as cannon fodder or test subjects for the arms to be used to kill them.

"The U.S. should be ashamed of themselves," said South African
delegate Jean Du Preez. "We are very disappointed." 
A united Africa had fought for language that would bar weapons supplies to non-governments. "If you send arms to non-state actors, you are sending them to rebels who are trying to overthrow governments," Nigerian delegate Sola Ogunbanwu argued. 
The United States had said it could not support any measure that would bar governments from supplying small arms to rebel groups, noting that it would not forego foreign policy options such as helping to overthrow a threatening regime." (Small Arms conference 2001  - press report)