By IPS Correspondents
MAPUTO, Jul 10 2003 (IPS)

African leaders are becoming increasingly determined to crack-down on the rebel groups and errant governments whose relentless conflicts are hampering the development of the continent.

"The general feeling is that we cannot allow governments and groups to break ceasefires and agreements that they are a part of," explained an African Union (AU) official, who asked not to be named for diplomatic reasons, shortly before the official opening of the AU summit, being held in Maputo, Mozambique, from Jul. 10 to Jul. 12.

The list of civil conflicts, which will be discussed by the heads of state and government attending the summit, is long. Eleven wars, including those in Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Burundi and Cote d’ Ivoire, are on the agenda.

In many of these conflicts, ceasefires painfully negotiated by AU members have repeatedly collapsed into bloodshed and slaughter.

The latest is Liberia where government and rebel troops have violated cease-fire agreements, resulting in the death of over 400 people and the displacement of 250,000 others in the capital, Monrovia, two weeks ago.

But, "the mood is optimistic", said the AU diplomat, "slowly but surely we are coming to grips with African problems. There’s progress, even though we expect there to be setbacks."

The biggest problem facing African peacekeeping initiatives is a lack of financial and logistical resources for soldiers.

Efforts to put African peacekeepers in Burundi, where a tenuous ceasefire between the government and rebel groups is tethering, have faltered. Ethiopia and Mozambique – who are contributing troops to the force – do not have the ability to get their peacekeepers to the war ravaged country.

The United States and Britain, who were supposed to assist the African peacekeepers to get into Burundi, have not yet provided the necessary support. As a result, a small South African military contingent of 908 soldiers is the only one that has been deployed in Burundi.

The conflict in Burundi heightened soon after the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, the country’s first Hutu president, by renegade Tutsi soldiers, in Oct. 1993. Since then more than 250,000 people have been killed in Burundi, according to aid agencies operating in the tiny central African nation.

Tutsis, who dominate the army, make up about 15 percent of Burundi’s about seven million people.

In the case of Liberia, the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is encouraging the United States to take the lead in a peace-keeping mission to that country. ECOWAS, which is planning to dispatch 1,000 troops to Liberia within two weeks, says it needs the financial and logistical support of the superpower to deploy and maintain African troops on the ground. It has asked Washington for 1,500 troops.

Washington is waiting for the 32-member U.S.-team which arrived in Monrovia on Monday to assess security conditions and humanitarian needs of Liberia’s 3.5 million people.

But U.S. legislators appear to be wary of a new commitment of U.S. forces, given increasing deaths among American troops in Iraq. Besides, the United States feels already overstretched; it has around 8,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, about 150,000 in Iraq and 25,000 in Kosovo.

More than 104 million U.S. dollars will be required by West African troops to enforce the peace in Liberia for six months, according to a statement by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

A robust force of more than 5,000 is being proposed for the operation because of the nature of the terrain and the tasks expected to be performed in Liberia.

But Nigeria, too, is wary of the cost of deploying troops in Liberia. It spent over 350 million U.S. dollars in peacekeeping operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the past decade, according to official statistics.

The European Union (EU) Commissioner for Development, Poul Nielsen, who is at the AU summit in Maputo, has committed the European Union to support African peacekeeping initiatives. However, it appears that the 250 million Euros (about 420 million U.S. dollars), which Brussels has earmarked for this assistance, appears to be caught up in a political dispute between Europe and Africa over Zimbabwe.

The European Union is refusing to meet with any representatives of the government of Zimbabwe – which they believe held onto power in the country’s last general election through intimidation and by rigging the poll. The African Union, however, has declared the election to be legitimate.

Despite extensive negotiations between the two organisations, the stalemate remains.

Zimbabwe’s ever growing political and economic crises are not officially on the agenda of the AU summit, despite recent calls by the United States and the European Union for fresh elections in the country.

The African Union views the growing instability in Zimbabwe as an internal matter, although it will be discussed privately by African leaders at the summit, according to remarks attributed to the incoming AU chairperson, Joaquim Chissano, the president of Mozambique.

Besides the financial and logistical problems, African countries have also been slow to ratify the Peace and Security Protocol of the African Union which will improve the Union’s ability to undertake peacekeeping operations. The protocol will clear the way for the creation of an African Standby Force (ASF) which will be made up of five regional brigades.

Once created, the ASF should be able to carry out observer and conflict prevention missions.

Ahead of the AU summit, only 14 countries had ratified the Peace and Security Protocol. At least 27 countries – out of 53 AU members – must commit to the protocol before it can come into effect.

African diplomats say the ratification process has been slow, not because of political objections to the protocol, but because countries are working through the process of seeing how it will impact on their sovereignty and national laws.

As of Jul, Africa has 30,000 peacekeepers, of which 10,000-12,000 are African, according to the African Union.

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