Press Release No. 17/1997

ECA Chief Calls for Stronger Coalition Between Political and Development Communities in Promoting Peace

Harare, 28 May 1997: Stressing that the battle against poverty is a battle for peace, a senior UN official today called for increased collaboration between the development and the political communities in facilitating African countries' transition from crisis to steady development.

Addressing the opening ceremony of a 3-day Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Council of Ministers meeting convened here to prepare for next week's 33rd Assembly of Heads of State and Government, K.Y. Amoako -- UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) -- told ministers from 53 African countries:

"The development community is at a loss to suggest how best to either avoid situations, such as occured in Rwanda, or to advise on how best to shift from such crises to more normal development. I would like to suggest that it is time for the political and developmental

communities to collaborate much more."

Listing ways in which the two communities could step up their cooperation, Amoako urged that the international community should make more assertive investments in the peace process. "We must be allies in your peace building, your peace-making, and your conflict prevention work," he said.

Amoako pointed to the ongoing cooperation between the ECA and OAU, who with the African Development Bank constitute the tripartite secretariat responsible for actualising the goals of the 1991 Abuja Treaty that established the African Economic Community.

"We should be learning more about the lessons within Africa on preserving development during crises and recovery of development after crises," said Amoako.

The ECA chief highlighted the role of poverty and extreme inequality in incubating conflict, and stressed the importance of "anti-poverty and pro-people" policies in education, health and social security as steps towards peace.

Amoako further concretised the link between peace and economic development when he told delegates that African countries have a political stake in promoting better trade, monetary, transport and communications links. "These linkages will help us help each other when destabilizing natural crises occur," he added.

OAU Secretary-General, Salim Ahmed Salim, echoed Amoako's sentiments when, referring to the building of the African Economic Community as the OAU's "main agenda", he stressed that attention should continue to be given to "the issue of much needed peace, security and stability in our continent".

This year's gathering of African leaders will once again be preoccupied with Africa's rash of largely internal conflicts.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Zimbabwe's foreign minister Stan Mudenge set the tone with a strong declamation of last weekend's ouster by junior soldiers of democratically-elected Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah -- who is expected in Harare to appeal for assistance from the OAU in returning to power.

The OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution had earlier in the week issued a statement unequivocally condemning the coup and calling on the international community to ostracise the new military regime.

Other issues to be prepared for the Head of State meeting, which runs from 2-4 June, include: other African trouble spots; the situation in the Middle East and Palestine; the embargo on Libya; the situation of refugees, returnees and displaced persons; the international campaign to ban

landmines; and the establishment of an African Human Rights Court to give teeth to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

Africa's external debt and the Fifth African-Caribbean and Pacific/European Union relationship under the Lome Convention will also come under scrutiny during the ministerial meeting and head of state summit.

Official sources say some 44 heads of state are confirmed to attend next week's summit -- one of the highest attendance figures in the history of the organisation. Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe is to succeed Cameroon's Paul Biya as OAU chairman.