Issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs
13 July 2001
Chairperson
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
I would like to thank the convenors of this important gathering, the International Association of Refugee Law Judges, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the South African Department of Home Affairs, for inviting me to address you.
It is an honour to be given the opportunity to share some thoughts with you on the significance of preventive diplomacy to South Africa and our Continent. The need for conflict prevention is not new. It is the primary reason that the United Nations was established. Yet, despite our best efforts, it is no exaggeration to say that the challenge of preventing conflict remains one of the foremost priorities for the African Continent, and indeed the wider world, in the twenty-first Century.
Given the context that we meet here today, the 50th Anniversary of the UNHCR, it is distressing to note that UNHCR statistics show that last year there were an estimated 50 million refugees and internally displaced persons in the world who have been uprooted by conflict. Of this figure over one third, that is 15 - 17 million people, are to be found in Africa. Of these, half are children and the majority of the remainder are women.
At this juncture, let me add that the South African Government is extremely appreciative of the work of the UNHCR and will continue to provide as much support to the UNHCR in its valuable work.
The magnitude of the problem stems from many factors. One is that the nature of conflicts in Africa, and elsewhere around our globe, has changed over the past decade. The majority of conflicts are now drawn-out, intra-state conflicts, in which civilians are persistently and directly targeted, where massive internal displacements of people and flight across international boundaries takes place, and where what little infrastructure and wealth people have, is either continually degraded or totally destroyed.
It has become increasingly clear that wherever conflicts are accompanied by the mass displacement of people, cultural and social infrastructure collapses, economic growth is paralysed and poverty increases.
At the same time, the States' abilities to provide or extend even the most elementary social services to their people is severely curtailed in times of conflict. In addition, conflicts place huge economic, environmental, and political stresses on neighbours who must host long-term refugee populations. Conflicts are also a primary vector for the rapid spread of communicable diseases such as HIV/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Long-term conflicts lead to further disinvestment and the curtailment of development assistance.
The terrible effects and the enormous costs of these conflicts are duplicated across Africa in places like Angola, Burundi, the DRC, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Somalia. Millions have been killed and mutilated. Millions have become internal and external refugees. Millions are suffering from hunger and starvation.
The situations of displaced people and refugees in these conflicts, whether in Africa or in the Balkans, is almost identical. They are all in need of protection against violations of their human and developmental rights. They all need protection against threats to their physical safety and health, and protection from extreme socio-economic deprivation and poverty.
Chairperson
African leaders are giving the highest priority to conflict prevention because we have reached a common understanding that Africa must prevent and resolve armed conflicts as part of a wider strategy to promote and foster democracy and respect for human rights, and social progress and economic development.
One of the principal aims of preventive diplomacy is to mobilise national, regional and international resources to assist in the identification of the root causes of conflict, and to mobilise adequate resources to address the socio-economic, cultural, environmental, institutional and infrastructural causes of conflict.
The alternative to conflict prevention is costly, and the effects of our past collective failures to prevent and address conflicts at an early stage are plainly evident for all to see.
The clear connection between the absence of peace and stability on the one hand, and the absence of economic development and socio-economic security on the other, is the reason that conflict prevention remains one of the foremost challenge facing the world today.
In Africa the root causes of most conflicts lie in poverty and underdevelopment.
African conflicts are further exacerbated by political and economic mismanagement, lack of democratic institutions, ethic and racial hatred, corruption and unequal distribution of resources.
Africa is faced with the stark reality that despite our enormous riches and potential, the greatest number of least developed countries are found in Africa (33 out of 48)
According to latest UN statistics, of the 5 sub-regions in Africa, only 2 accounting for only 25% of the Continent's population enjoyed a positive growth performance. Growth decelerated in the remaining 3 sub-regions negatively impacting on 75% of Africa's population.
Africa has lost half its share of the world markets since 1970 - equal to $70 billion a year.
Many of our countries are saddled with severe debt problems. Outstanding external debts in many African countries exceed entire GDP and debt service requirements exceed 25 per cent of their total export earnings.
Official development assistance has declined by almost a 1/5th in real terms since 1992.
Africa has failed to attract substantive foreign direct investment. Although many African countries have taken measures to create a climate conducive to Foreign Direct Investment, which includes trade liberalisation, the strengthening of the rule of law, improvements in legal and other instruments as well as greater investment in infrastructure, privatisation, greater accountability and transparency, greater degree of financial and budgetary discipline and the creation and consolidation of multi-party democracies.
The dire consequences is that sub-Saharan Africa is the world's poorest region; with about half the population living on less than $1 a day. Average income is lower that in 1970. Savings are close to zero. Diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/Aids are rampant. Electrical power consumption per person is the lowest in the world; Africa has 14 telephone lines per 100 and less than half of 1 percent of all Africans have used the Internet.
This provides a fertile environment for instability and conflict.
The vicious cycle of ongoing civil and regional conflicts, the displacements of people, and the disruption of practically every aspect of social and economic life has contributed significantly toward ensuring that poverty on the Continent remains structurally entrenched.
For South Africans this truth is self-evident because the effects of Apartheid were practically identical. The majority of our people endured long-term conflict, internal displacement or exile, the disruption of all social and economic life, a complete lack of democracy, and an environment of structurally entrenched and deepening poverty. The reversal and eventual eradication of this legacy of poverty, the creation of a just society founded on the rule of law, and the achievement of sustained economic growth and equitable socio-economic development are our most important national objectives.
In this respect, South Africa's foreign policy objectives of promoting a wider agenda for African renewal and development are firmly rooted in our own domestic policies. They also stem from the understanding that South Africa's own economic growth and social development is intrinsically linked to that of the rest of the Continent.
The overall articulation of our conflict prevention agenda has taken shape through the concept of the African Renaissance and the new African Initiative (the Africa Recovery Plan) adopted by the recent OAU Summit in Lusaka aims to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment by establishing a new partnership between African States, and between Africa and the wider international community. Central to this approach is the recognition and understanding that Africa must strengthen mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution at the regional and continental levels and ensure that these mechanisms are used to restore and maintain peace.
This will include a focus on strengthening existing continental and regional institutions, in four key areas:
a.. Prevention, management and resolution of conflict;
b.. Peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace enforcement;
c.. Post-conflict reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction;
d.. Combating the illicit proliferation of small arms, light weapons and landmines.
In addition to this emphasis on strengthening mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution, the Africa Recovery Plan includes a simultaneous focus on the following key elements:
Some of the key conflict prevention-initiatives that South Africa is supporting hand-in-hand with preventive diplomacy include:
The campaign against illicit Small Arms
The Small Arms Survey has shown that the use of small arms and light weapons is responsible for the deaths of well over a thousand people a day - the vast majority of whom are women and children. It is the weapon of choice in 46 out of the 49 conflicts since 1990.
The current conference at the U.N. must end with agreement on concrete measures to stem the treat of uncontrolled proliferation of illegal trade in small weapons.
For its part, South Africa is continuing to participate in programmes to destroy confiscated and redundant firearms and ammunition. In terms of the latest agreement, in partnership with Norway, over 800 000 additional firearms will be destroyed, with more than 826 000 rounds of ammunition.
South Africa is supporting the reform process to improve and strengthen the UN's capacity in peace operations through:
a.. Improving the UN's capacity to deploy peacekeepers more rapidly;
b.. Obtaining adequate funding and resources for peace operations;
c.. Better coordination and planning of UN peacekeeping including the roles played by UN Agencies and Funds in peace missions and peacebuilding;
d.. Integrating infra-structural and developmental projects within peace operations; and
e.. Strengthening the management and number of staff serving in the UN Secretariat in peacekeeping roles.
South Africa's priorities in reforming the UN's peacekeeping capacity are:
a.. The implementation of new and/or reformed UN policies and practices that will make meaningful contributions to the prevention, management and sustainable resolution of conflicts in Africa;
b.. The allocation of sufficient international resources to address African conflicts in a sustainable manner;
c.. Improved co-operation and co-ordination between the UN and African organisations such as the OAU, SADC and ECOWAS.
Strengthening institutional capacity to effectively deal with conflict prevention and conflict resolution.
SADC Organs
The establishment of a common foreign and security policy within the recently re-structured Organ on Politics, Defence and Security. The Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation and the proposed SADC Mutual Defence Pact will provide SADC with effective mechanisms to tackle the challenge of conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace making. A further significant development is the transformation of the OAU into the African Union (AU). It is envisaged that the AU will incorporate and build on the important start already made in the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, and in the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (CSSDCA). The focus here will remain on the peaceful resolution of conflicts, the building of effective regional and sub-regional early warning systems, and on measures to enhance intra-regional cooperation, and cooperation between the AU and the UN. A particular focus is being applied to the questions of refugees, impunity, and crimes against humanity, child soldiers and drug addiction, landmines and the proliferation and illicit trafficking in small arms.
Mr. Chairman,
As the UN Secretary General said in Lusaka a week ago in his address to the OAU:
"Africa must reject the ways of the past, and commit itself to building a future of democratic governance subject to the rule of law.
Such a future is within our reach, I m convinced. But only on one condition: that we end Africa's conflicts, without which no amount of aid or trade, assistance or advice, will make the difference. At the OAU Summit in Algiers two years ago, you pledged to make the year 2000 the "year of peace" in Africa. When I issued my own report on Africa three years ago, I said the "for too long, conflict in Africa has been seen as inevitable or intractable, or both. It is neither. Conflict in Africa, as everywhere, is caused by human action, and can be ended by human action". This is no less true today, and yet Africa's wars continue to fester and spread instability.
We owe it to humanity to ensure that Africa's wars do not continue "to fester and spread" instability and underdevelopment.
The South African Government remains committed to supporting regional and international efforts to prevent conflict, and to mobilising, together with our international partners, the necessary resources to address conflicts in a sustainable manner.
In this regard, we will continue work with civil society and with international partners such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other UN Funds and Agencies.
Partnership between Government and the Civil Society is essential if our objective of an African renewal is to become a reality. Through our joint actions we must turn words into deeds.
I thank you.