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151. Darfur and the Arab League

Author:
Robert O. Collins
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On August 20, 2006, the Arab League committee on Sudan backed Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir's refusal of a UN peacekeeping force in the war-wracked Darfur region. At the UN Security Council, the only open critic of the proposal to send such a force is Qatar, the only Arab member of the Council. Within the week, President Bush responded by sending Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Fraser to Khartoum as his special envoy carrying a personal letter to al-Bashir urging him to permit the presence of a robust UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. This decision by the Arab League has been a discouraging development, given that in June, Arab League secretary-general Amr Musa had urged Sudan to accept UN peacekeepers to replace the fragile 7,000-person African Union (AU) African Mission in the Sudan (AMIS). The Arab League's position represents a stark about-face. In the past, the Arab League had supported Sudan's refusal to agree to a UN peacekeeping force. The change of heart exposed the ambiguities that have long characterized relations between Sudan and the Arab League—particularly Sudan's neighbors Libya, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Topic:
Peace Studies and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa, Sudan, Libya, Arabia, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt

152. The United Nations and Western Sahara: A Never-ending Affair

Author:
Anna Theofilopoulou
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
This study examines the efforts of the United Nations (UN) to resolve the dispute over Western Sahara from August 1988, when Secretary-general Pérez de Cuellar submitted the settlement proposals to the two parties—the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario—until June 2004, when James A. Baker III, the secretary-general's personal envoy on Western Sahara, resigned. The settlement proposals were to lead to the holding of a referendum on self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, offering a choice between integration with Morocco or independence. A crucial element in the implementation of the plan was the identification of voters for the referendum, which both sides considered the key to producing an outcome in their favor. The Polisario had a restricted view, expecting the 1974 Spanish census of the territory to be the framework for the identification, while Morocco took an expansive view by trying to include tens of thousands of applicants of Saharan origin now living in Morocco. Both parties found reasons to interrupt the identification process. Throughout the process, the UN tried to break the impasses created by the parties through technical solutions that addressed the problem at hand without addressing the underlying political problem, which was the determination by both sides to win the referendum. After six years of trying to move forward the identification process, Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked James Baker to become his personal envoy in order to steer the parties toward a political solution and away from the “winner-take-all” approach of the referendum. However, because both parties insisted that they wanted to proceed with the plan, Baker helped them negotiate the Houston Agreements, which allowed for the completion of the identification process. In September 2000, seeing that the referendum was not likely to work in its favor, Morocco offered to discuss a political solution aiming at autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. The Polisario, which until the conclusion of the identification had been interested in meeting directly with Morocco, now believed that it could win the referendum and therefore said it would talk only about the settlement plan. After two more years of trying to get the parties to agree to a political solution, Baker informed the Security Council that a consensual approach would not work and requested that the Council ask the parties to choose one of four options, none of which would require the parties' consent, to resolve the conflict. The Security Council was unable to agree on any of the four options and asked Baker to prepare another political proposal that would include self-determination for the people of Western Sahara. Baker's final attempt was the Peace Plan for Self- Determination of the People of Western Sahara, which provided for a period of autonomy followed by a referendum on self-determination. Morocco rejected the plan and refused to accept a referendum in which the independence of Western Sahara would even appear as an option. The Security Council, while having expressed support for Baker's efforts in its resolutions, proved unwilling to ask the parties to make the difficult decisions required to solve the conflict. When Morocco rejected the peace plan, the Council, despite having unanimously supported it, did nothing. The study concludes that Western Sahara will remain on the UN agenda for many years to come and offers a number of lessons learned from this failed mediation effort.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Politics, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa and Morocco

153. Africa Action Talking Points on How to Stop Genocide in Darfur

Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
The legal definition of GENOCIDE: The international legal definition of the crime of genocide is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Article II describes the two elements that constitute the crime of genocide: The mental element , meaning the " intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such", and The physical element , which includes five types of violence described in sections [a] though [e] as follows: [a] Killing members of the group; [b] Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; [c] Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; [d] Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [e] Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Topic:
Genocide, Human Welfare, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa

154. United Nations Resolutions and the Struggle to Curb the Illicit Trade in Conflict Diamonds in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:
Mungabalemwa Koyame
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
This article examines the extent to which revenues from the trade in rough diamonds have funded civil war in African countries and the difficulties encountered by the United Nations in putting an end to it. As case studies, the article considers the conflicts in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone where the illicit trade in rough diamonds, also referred to as "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds," provided most of the funds used by rebel groups in their war efforts. The article further examines the role played by the diamond industry, the international community and diamond importing countries such as the United States and Belgium in the trade of conflict diamonds. The article concludes that several resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council concerning "conflict diamonds" were at times not successful because of indifference on the part of the international community.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

155. Zimbabwe's Operation Murambatsvina: The Tipping Point?

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order) cost some 700,000 Zimbabweans their homes or livelihoods or both and otherwise affected nearly a fifth of the troubled country's population. Its impact, as documented in a scathing UN report, has produced a political shock that has returned Zimbabwe to the international spotlight and made the quality of its governance almost impossible for its regional neighbours to ignore, however difficult they find it to be overtly critical. While an immediate requirement is to reverse as thoroughly as possible the disastrous humanitarian effect s of the operation, action is urgently needed to address Zimbabwe's larger governance problem. This will require effort s on three parallel tracks -- the maintenance of overt international pressure, support for building internal political capacity and, above all, active regional diplomacy to facilitate political transition.
Topic:
Government, Human Rights, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa and Zimbabwe

156. The AU's Mission in Darfur: Bridging the Gaps

Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The international community is failing in its responsibility to protect the inhabitants of Darfur, many of whom are still dying or face indefinite displacement from their homes. New thinking and bold action are urgently needed. The consensus to support a rough doubling of the African Union (AU) force to 7,731 troops by the end of September 2005 under the existing mandate is an inadequate response to the crisis. The mandate must be strengthened to prioritise civilian protection, and a force level of at least 12,000 to 15,000 is needed urgently now, not in nearly a year as currently envisaged.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa

157. The United Nations as a Security Political Actor - with a Special Focus on Africa

Author:
Bjørn Møller
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The report analysis the UN's role in the provision of four different forms of security – national, societal, human and environmental security – both in general terms and with regard to Africa. It also contacins brief surveys of the UN's collaboration with regional and subregional organisations and of envisaged UN reforms.
Topic:
Security, Politics, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa

158. Strategic Moral Diplomacy: Mandela, Qaddafi and the Lockerbie Negotiations

Author:
Lyn Boyd Judson
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for International Studies, University of Southern California
Abstract:
On October 29, 1997, South African President Nelson Mandela arrived in Libya to award Colonel Muammar Qaddafi the Good Hope Medal. The Medal, also referred to as the Order of Good Hope, is the highest honor that South Africa can bestow upon a citizen of another country--it would be given a year later to US President Bill Clinton. At the time, Colonel Qaddafi was a pariah in the international community. Libya had been under United Nations sanctions since 1992 for its refusal to hand over the two indicted suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, Government, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, Libya, United Nations, and Scotland

159. Darfur Rising: Sudan's New Crisis

Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Sudan, where prospects for peace had looked so promising for much of 2003, has become a potential horror story in 2004. The rapid onset of war in its western region of Darfur has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises -- thousands dead and some 830,000 uprooted from homes. Meanwhile, the IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority for Development) peace talks in Naivasha, Kenya between the government and the insurgent Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA) threaten to deadlock. It is urgent that these talks succeed and that, simultaneously, a parallel process begins to address both the humanitarian and political crises in Darfur.
Topic:
Civil War, Human Rights, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, and Sudan

160. Strengthening African Security Capacities

Author:
Lousie Mørup
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
In preparation for the expected Danish membership of the UN Security Council in 2005 DIIS organised a conference to discuss how to strengthen African conflict prevention and management capacities and make the most of Denmark's Africa Programme for Peace. This brief sums up some of the main ideas which were presented at the conference. The discussion bore witness to the complexity of the issue and the tremendous tasks ahead facing the African regional organisations, and made it clear to this author that Denmark has to prioritise its efforts to a few areas where it can make a difference in the two years of its expected UN Security Council membership.
Topic:
Security, Peace Studies, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa