Ambitious and ground-breaking plans for a continent-wide defence policy and a permanent military rapid reaction force will be one of the hottest topics at this week's meeting of African presidents in Libya.
These African Union (AU) projects reflect the continent's growing tendency to try to resolve its own security problems rather than relying on the United Nations which did nothing, for example, to halt Rwanda's genocide in 1994.
Detailed proposals for an African Standby Force (ASF) and for a Common African Defence and Security Policy (CADSP) have been fine-tuned over the last two years at meetings of top army brass and defence ministers.
Continues Below ↓
A prototype AU mission has already been deployed to support the peace process in war-ravaged Burundi.
When operational, the standby force will be expected to carry out numerous roles including advising political missions, deploying military observers alongside a UN mission as well as being stand-alone peacekeepers. - Sapa-AFP
-
This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Argus on February 25, 2004
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
