Tokyo Statement of Principles for Peace and Development

IV. Management and resolution of conflicts in Africa

Management and resolution of conflict refers to mechanisms that address a political conflict once it has turned violent. Actual resolution of the conflict lies with the conflicting parties, and third party intervention cannot be successful if the conflicting parties do not wish to put a stop to the conflict. Notwithstanding this, it is important that conflict management procedures be readied and kept alive so as to be able to intervene where an appropriate opportunity for intervention or arbitration arrives. Until recently, the acceptance of the principle of non-interference by the African countries in the internal affairs of a sovereign state caused Africans to assign the main responsibility for managing conflict in their own continent to the international community. However, in the more recent years, because of the conflicts significant impact on neighboring states and a generally negative impact on the entire continent, African countries have implicitly accepted the limitation of the principle of national sovereignty in the interests of "higher good." African countries through the OAU are taking a major part in conflict management within Africa -- witness the African role in Burundi, Rwanda, Liberia and South Africa. These examples illustrate the African collective will to take responsibility for conflict management in Africa, just when the international community has seen an erosion in its willingness to intervene in African conflicts. The international community, especially the United Nations Security Council, has an indispensable role to exercise and it must fully assume its responsibility in conflict management in Africa.

There are lessons from the above experience, both for Africa and for the international community. Conflict management requires both commitment and patience but it also requires resources, technology and organizational capacity. Africa has demonstrated the commitment and patience but its efforts must be actively supported by the provision of the needed resources by the international community. A case in point is that of the Liberian conflict where there is an urgent need for the international community to assist in the realization of the peace process following the Abuja Agreement.

In principle, conflict management, like conflict prevention, must be truly a complementary effort by the Africans and the international partners. This requires close collaboration among various parties to conflict management, in particular, between the United Nations and the OAU. The OAU and the UN should discuss establishing formal modalities of collaboration in order to share operational responsibilities for addressing conflicts in Africa under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter. The Global Coalition for Africa (GCA) is to convene a workshop to discuss this issue. It is expected that practical recommendations would emerge from their deliberation, taking into account the conclusion of the present statement.

In this joint effort, hope and emphasis must be placed on strengthening the OAU's ability in conflict management in areas such as building the necessary data base, analytical capacity, communication facilities, and maintaining a network of national mediators and other conflict managers at the country level. The OAU Mechanism for the Prevention, Management, and Resolution of Conflict has made a slow but credible beginning in the development of operational capacity to address conflicts. The international community should continue and expand its assistance to the OAU, both financial and technical, as it builds up this capacity in conflict management.

The UN's experience with rapid military intervention would advise caution in providing similar capacity for peace operations by the OAU. Furthermore, a number of unanswered questions need to be addressed, including designation of appropriate African military establishments, the decision making authority for the deployment of military units, their command and control, financing and logistics, the degree to which African countries are willing to yield sovereignty, etc. before such an option can be operationalizad. While in searching for answers to these imponderables such ideas as establishing an African Security Council, or a mechanism similar to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) could be explored, the Central Organ of the OAU could be used to authorize and take the necessary actions in order to manage specific violent conflicts. The emphasis of the OAU under these actions should be on political rather than military aspects of conflict management, and on "light duty" responsibilities such as the stationing of observers, leaving the "heavy duty" peace-keeping missions to the UN. Sub-regional and non-governmental organizations have a potentially positive role to play and should be called upon to participate in both conflict prevention activity and maintaining sub-regional security arrangements; regional and sub-regional bodies are closer to the conflict situation and should be at the front line of conflict management.

Arms flows into conflict situations are seen to be a major factor in escalating conflicts. Generally, these flows have to transit through neighboring countries and African countries are urged to discourage such transition of arms through their territories as no cause is worth the risk of provoking a major humanitarian disaster anywhere. In the absence of an inter-African agreement to prevent cross-border shipment of arms, individual African countries should consider bilateral accords among neighboring countries.

Some cautious optimism can be expressed that Africa will experience less and less violent conflicts in its midst. There are signs to support this optimism: the end of the Cold War, the realization of the disastrous consequences of similar conflicts in the past, the creation of more open political societies in Africa, reduction in arms purchases by African countries, and the general emergence of a normative culture against violent conflicts.

V. Conclusion

The Statement elucidates the causes behind political conflicts in Africa, emphasizes the primary role of the African states in the resolution and prevention of these conflicts, and highlights the supportive role the international community should undertake. Certain specific remedial actions at the national and international level are also articulated. Thus the diagnosis and the remedies concerning the conflict malaise are now well clarified. What is needed is the will and resources to attack that malaise. The responsibility for exercising that will should be with the African states, singly and collectively, while the capacity to provide the resources rests mainly with the international community: combining will and resources can be the true manifestation of cooperation between Africa and its international partners.

Tokyo, 12 October 1995