UN "Month of Africa": A Push for Actual Peace Efforts or a Fig Leaf on the DRC?

• NCJ Number: 185775
• Author(s): Mark Malan
• Date Published: February 2000
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Institute for Security Studies
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: South Africa
• Note: ISS Paper 44

Annotation

This document examines the "UN Month of Africa" and its objectives with regard to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Abstract

In January 2000, the UN Security Council's "Month of Africa" debate reached its climax with a day-long meeting on the situation in the DRC. The document states that, in the DRC, the UN, along with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) did too much too early in the area of peacekeeping, while the enforcement action by "SADC allied forces" lacked the support of the international community and the subregional body. The "peace makers" and the "peace enforcers" have thus been at odds from the outset, creating a very shaky foundation for the final layer of international response to the conflict - the deployment of UN peace keepers. The document concludes that "the UN is being dragged into a peace mission without any positive preceding enforcement action, without any clear demonstration of a will for peace by the belligerent parties, and without a clue about the eventual endstate of UN engagement." Figures, notes, appendix