SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS GENUINE AND LASTING CONFLICT PREVENTION VITAL FOR ENSURING HUMAN SECURITY, UNITED NATIONS' CARDINAL MISSION
Press Release
SG/SM/6534
SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS GENUINE AND LASTING CONFLICT PREVENTION VITAL FOR ENSURING HUMAN SECURITY, UNITED NATIONS' CARDINAL MISSION
19980422 Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's keynote address to the Conference on Preventing Deadly Conflict among Nations in the Twenty-first Century, at the University of California at Los Angeles today:Thank you for those kind and generous words. I am deeply grateful to be receiving the UCLA medal, and wish to thank you for honouring not only me, but the entire United Nations, with this award. I am very pleased to join you today for this important conference on an issue that is central to the mission of the United Nations: preventing deadly conflict in the twenty-first century.
In an era when violent conflicts too often are ignored and too readily accepted, at a time when people would rather look away than look ahead, the members of the Carnegie Commission have called the world to action. By publishing the report, Preventing Deadly Conflict and hosting a number of meetings and conferences devoted to this subject, they have put prevention at the top of the international agenda. They have reminded us that prevention is always better than cure. And they have detailed, as never before, the means, the uses and the promise of prevention. We are in their debt.
For the United Nations, there is no higher goal, no deeper commitment and no greater ambition than preventing armed conflict so that people everywhere may find peace and prosperity.
The prevention of conflict begins and ends with the protection of human life and the promotion of human development. Ensuring human security is, in the broadest sense, the United Nations' cardinal mission. Genuine and lasting prevention is the means to achieve that mission.
Throughout the world today, intra-State wars are the face of modern conflict. In these wars, the destruction not just of armies, but of civilians and entire ethnic groups is increasingly the main aim. Preventing these wars is no longer a matter of defending interests or promoting allies. It is matter of defending humanity itself.
And yet we seem never to learn.
Time and again differences are allowed to develop into disputes and disputes allowed to develop into deadly conflicts. Time and again, warning signs are ignored and pleas for help overlooked. Only after the deaths and the destruction do we intervene at a far higher human and material cost and with far fewer lives to save. Only when it is too late do we value prevention.
There is perhaps no part of the world where the role of prevention has been more neglected or holds more promise than Africa. Let me therefore take this opportunity to explore the lessons we have drawn from the past decades' conflict in Africa, and how we propose to help prevent and ultimately resolve them.
For too long, conflict in Africa has been seen as inevitable or intractable, or both. It is neither. It is preventable. Conflict in Africa, as everywhere, is caused by human action and can be ended by human action. That is the essence of the message that I delivered to the Security Council last week in my report on conflict in Africa.
Of course, not all of Africa is in crisis; not all of Africa is facing conflict. Indeed Africa itself has begun to make significant economic and social progress in recent years. But for too many men, women and children throughout the continent, conflict remains a real and dangerous threat.
Since 1970, Africa has had more than 30 wars fought on its territory, the vast majority of which have been intra-State in origin. Fourteen of Africa's 53 countries were afflicted by armed conflicts in 1996 alone. These accounted for more than half of all war-related deaths worldwide, resulting in more than 8 million refugees, returnees and displaced persons. The consequences of these conflicts have seriously undermined Africa's efforts to ensure long-term stability, prosperity and peace for its peoples.
No one -- not the United Nations, not the international community, not Africa's leaders -- can escape responsibility for the persistence of these conflicts. Indeed, colossal human tragedies have taken place in Africa over the last decade -- tragedies that could and should have been prevented.
Not enough was done to address the causes of conflict. Not enough was done to ensure a lasting peace. Not enough was done to create the conditions for sustainable development. This is the reality of Africa's recent past. It is a reality that must be confronted honestly and constructively by all concerned if the people of Africa are to enjoy the human security and economic opportunities they seek and deserve.
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What the past decades have taught us is that with political will, the rhetoric of prevention can truly be transformed into the reality of peace. Without it, not even the noblest sentiments will have a chance of success. With sufficient political will -- on the part of Africa and on the part of the international community -- peace and development in Africa can be given a new momentum.
Political will is also needed from the international community to make prevention matter for those who need it most -- the weak, the poor, the threatened, the peoples of Africa and the world for whom the United Nations exists. Where the international community is committed to making a difference, it has proven that significant and rapid transformation can be achieved. With respect to Africa, the international community must now summon the will to intervene where it can have an impact, and invest where resources are needed.
In every diplomatic mission and development project that we pursue, the United Nations is doing the work of prevention. The Secretary-General's own good offices in preventive diplomacy have been exercised with success over the years.
It was in that capacity that I went to Baghdad, to secure the compliance of the Iraqi Government with the demands of the Security Council that will enable the completion of the disarmament process in Iraq.
The United Nations operational prevention strategy further involves four fundamental activities -- early warning, preventive diplomacy, preventive deployment and early humanitarian action. The United Nations structural prevention strategy involves three additional activities -- preventive disarmament, development and peace-building.
Guiding and infusing all these efforts is the promotion of human rights, democratization and good governance as the foundations of peace.
Preventive deployment, in one particular example, has already had a remarkable effect. Such a force is only a "thin blue line". But the role of the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force in The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia suggests that preventive deployment, adequately mandated and supported, can make the difference between war and peace.
Building on that success, the Security Council last month authorized a preventive deployment force in the Central African Republic. All parties within the country and all countries in the region are agreed that without a credible external force violence will return. By providing a reassuring presence, such a deployment can prevent the kinds of mistakes and miscalculations that lead to violent conflict.
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It can allow time for grievances to be settled through political channels and enable the strengthening of peace-building institutions -- all vital conditions for a permanent peace.
The establishment of this force will send an unmistakable message to Africa as a whole that the United Nations is serious about prevention, and serious about peace. Beyond Africa, it sends the signal that the United Nations is learning from its past; is drawing the right lessons about the value of prevention; and is showing by deeds and not just declarations that we are willing to pay the price for peace.
A Chinese proverb holds that it is difficult to find money for medicine, but easy to find it for a coffin.
With the lessons of the last decade behind us, with the price of our inaction so evident, is it not time to think anew? Is it not time to provide the medicine of prevention so that the peace and prosperity that we have the power to produce may come to pass? Is it not time to pay the price for peace? I believe it is. For Africa. For the world.
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