BUILDING PEACE IN THE MANO RIVER UNION STATES OF WEST AFRICA PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES
Date: 2004-04-15 to Invalid date
Presented by the
Despite progress made over the last two years towards restoration of peace in the Mano River Union sub-region, guarantees of stability are still heavily dependent on overcoming a number of challenges. After a decade of interconnected armed conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and to a lesser extent Guinea, comprehensive demilitarization remains a challenge not only for the states involved, but also for West Africa and the wider international community. Given that the easy back-and-forth movement of freelance fighters across the common borders was, and still is, largely responsible for the proliferation of arms in all three countries, the key to long-term security is effective policing of those borders in ways that would also ensure free movement of law-abiding citizens across the sub-region.
Drawing from insights gained during a recent month-long research trip to the sub-region, this presentation reviews prospects and obstacles to peacebuilding in one of the world’s most troubled sub-regions. The deployment of more than half of the 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Liberia over the last six months, coupled with the formal conclusion of the Sierra Leone war in 2002, will be weighed against the backdrop of growing fear in the sub-region that Guinea may slide into chaos in the event that President Lansana Cont é ’s ailing health fails him. Issues of accountability for past atrocities will also be analyzed within the framework of the transitional justice mechanisms. In the case of Sierra Leone, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Special Court, while in Liberia a TRC was established to deal with the problem. The impact of these institutions on peacebuilding will be addressed, as will the role of civil society in these processes.
Speaker: Abdul Lamin, Ph.D, CAIR, Wits University
Parking is available at Brooklyn Mall & ABSA parkades at your own cost.
This seminar is made possible by the generous funding of the Department for International Development, UK.
