Ambassadors from all 15 members of the United Nations Security Council embark on a peace offensive next week in what is arguably Africa’s most troubled region.
In eight days the New York-based envoys, headed by Britain’s Sir Jeremy Greenstock, will swing through Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone. This field trip is reminiscent of the visit by Security Council ambassadors to the Great Lakes region last year.
African observers remain sceptical about the effectiveness of such gestures. Council members, however, recall the tough stance taken by their ambassadors against rebel movements in Burundi.
You have a transition process in place, the rebels were told. Join it now and be seen as part of the solution. Otherwise you will be identified as part of the problem.
The council members believe this contributed to the largest group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), signing a ceasefire at the end of last year.
The argument that the UN should be sending men in uniform rather than men in suits to African trouble spots is supported by the fact that only three weeks ago the FDD was still shelling the capital, Bujumbura.
The visit to Nigeria, at the start of the envoys’ tour, is a nod to the largest country on the continent.
President Olusegun Obasanjo will tell the ambassadors, as he told his compatriots this week, that his election victory is a fait accompli, various complaints about the fairness of the process notwithstanding.
”Once the results of an election have been decided, it is decided. It happened elsewhere, including the United States, and the matter was even decided in the courts,” Obasanjo said this week.
The hot spots are expected to be Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone. The other stops on the tour are designed to examine the effects of the economic hardship and refugee influx caused by fighting in the region.
In Abidjan this week the UN appealed for $85,8-million in emergency aid for close to three million West Africans who have become victims of civil war in Côte d’Ivoire.
The envoys are prepared for tough talk from the Liberian government after the council this week extended two-year-old sanctions against it for another year and banned timber exports.
The council judged that Liberia had not complied with demands that it cease supporting the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone and other rebel groups in the region.
The UN sanctions ban the sale of weapons to Liberia and the export of rough diamonds — used by the Liberian government to buy weapons — unless their origin is certified.
The timber export ban follows UN intelligence that Serbian arms dealers were supplying arms for money raised from hardwood sales.
Liberian Information Minister Reginald Goodridge said this week that Liberia had been unfairly singled out. He charged that both Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire were supporting Liberian rebel groups.
”Talk of timber supporting wars is bullshit,” said the minister.
The envoys will be urging all groups in Liberia, including the government, to stop fighting immediately so that humanitarian aid can be distributed by relief agencies currently unable to reach three-quarters of the country.
A fresh ceasefire has been negotiated in Côte d’Ivoire. The government and rebels are scheduled to meet in the rebel capital of Bouake while the envoys are in the region.
Sierra Leone is leaning heavily on Monrovia to provide proof that rebel leader Sam Bockarie was killed while Liberian authorities were trying to arrest him, and to return his body.
If nothing else, the visit to this complex and troubled region will incline the UN envoys to support the speediest implementation of the proposed African Union Security Council.