AP News, August 29th, 2007
The United Nations spent $18 billion on peacekeeping missions around the globe in the past five years _ mainly in Africa _ but not enough on preventing conflicts from erupting in the first place.
That was a key conclusion of a daylong meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday which called for stepped up efforts to address the root causes of conflict. The open meeting, organized by the Republic of Congo, which hold the council presidency this month, focused especially on conflicts in Africa.
Namibia's U.N. deputy ambassdor Frieda Ithete said "about half of the world's armed conflicts and some three-quarters of the U.N. peacekeepers are in Africa."
"As we speak," she said, "there are over 6 million displaced people in the world, out of which approximately 3 million are in Africa."
Itheke underscored the need for greater investment in conflict prevention and establishment of an early warning system that would be "cost effective in saving lives and financial resources."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the meeting that there has been a 40 percent decline in armed conflict around the world since the 1990s by some estimates, with recent research crediting U.N. peacemaking, peacekeeping and conflict prevention as a major factor, "but it is not good enough."
"Violent conflicts continue to inflict immense suffering on countless people, mostly civilians, around the world," he said, adding that more "investment in prevention could save us considerable pain and expense _ in Darfur, in Somalia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in northern Uganda, in Western Sahara and elsewhere."
He called for improved mediation, a new focus on achieving political settlements, and new approaches to addressing the underlying causes of conflict.
But Ban also said the complexity of many of today's conflicts require that "prevention must go beyond mere diplomacy" to promoting tolerance of diversity within societies. This can require promoting human rights and the rule of law, helping organize elections and building democratic institutions, among other steps, he said.
China's deputy U.N. ambassador Liu Zhenmin noted that while the Security Council has often underscored its determination to prevent armed conflicts, its progress has been "less than satisfactory."
"In the past five years, the United Nations has spent more than $18 billion on peacekeeping operations," he said. "If more effective efforts had been carried out in the area of conflict prevention, much less would have been spent, and many more lives would have been saved from the scourge of conflicts."
Tanzania's U.N. Ambassador Augustine Mahiga called on the Security Council and the secretary-general to launch an initiative on conflict prevention in partnership with regional organizations that would be similar to the new U.N. Peacebuilding Commission.
World leaders decided to establish the commission at a summit in September 2005 to bring together key international players involved in ending conflicts and promoting reconstruction of countries ravaged by war.
Mahiga said a comprehensive conflict prevention strategy would bring together the "fragmented and under-resourced" initiatives by governments and non-governmental organizations.
