African Security Review - Volume 13, Issue 4, January 2004

In recent years there have been growing reports of UN peacekeepers committing severe crimes against the people they are meant to protect, while on peacekeeping duties. These crimes often take the form of gender-based violence and abuse. This paper examines the nature and extent of the problem, the accountability of the peacekeeping troops, the role and the extent of the involvement of International Criminal Law, and the newly introduced International Criminal Court as well as the role of the national criminal courts. Can the ICC prosecute bad elements among the UN peacekeepers or is this the responsibility of the national criminal court of the peacekeeper concerned? Should the ICC be prosecuting such cases in the first place? How far does the principle of 'complementarity' limit the ICC in its attempts to prosecute those who commit crimes against humanity? In other words, 'Who guards the guards?'.

The statute of the International Criminal Court is now in force and the court has begun its first investigations. Other conflicts and more investigations are being considered. The first investigations in the DRC and Uganda are based on these states referring crimes committed on their own territory to the court, an unexpected development. Such a move has been encouraged by the court's prosecutor, hoping that this will enhance the state's crucially needed cooperation in the investigations. The prosecutor has announced some core policies: a positive approach to cooperation, a focused prosecutorial strategy aimed at the perpetrators who are most responsible, and a limited number of cases. Other preparations for the investigations have been made. This paper provides an update on recent developments regarding the court and points out some challenges, including the operations of the court vis-à-vis other peace efforts.

This paper considers the effectiveness of Angolan government and United Nations (UN) and non-governmental attempts to protect human rights in Angola from early 1998 to date, during and in the immediate aftermath of the recent conflict. Angola has suffered from one of the longest-running conflicts in Africa. The country was originally a battleground for a proxy war between the Cold War superpowers, but the conflict developed its own self-sustaining dynamic in the 1990s, fuelled by revenue from oil and diamonds. The impact of the war on the Angolan people was severe - at its height in early 2002 over four million were internally displaced and around 450 000 lived in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Increasing violence caused by rebel attacks and government counter-insurgency activities fuelled forced displacement and created one of the largest humanitarian crises of the 1990s. The international community responded with UN Security Council-mandated sanctions against UNITA, extensive humanitarian activities, and attempts at promotion and protection of human rights. However, the effectiveness of human rights activities was impeded by weak political support from donor nations, the nature of the governing regime, and humanitarian imperatives. Despite some minor successes, with respect to human rights Angola is a case study of failure: the failure of the international community and the Angolan government to adequately protect its citizens from gross and systematic human rights abuses during a brutal civil war.

Guinea-Bissau is currently living through a decisive period in its political history. Marked by governmental instability, particularly since 1998, the country suffered another coup d'état in September 2003. Since then a transitional period has led up to the March 2004 legislative elections. It is hoped this transitional arrangement will end after the presidential elections scheduled for March 2005. This commentary analyses recent political developments and current political and military dynamics in the context of the many political and economic challenges facing Guinea-Bissau. It also discusses the possible outcomes of the transition and outlines the main challenges facing the country's government in the near future.

Founded on the basis of the 1991 Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community that came into force in May 1994, the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was inaugurated in Addis Ababa on 18 March 2004. The inauguration followed the ratification by a majority of the 53 African Union (AU) member states of the PAP Protocol that had come into force on 14 December 2003. While it is suggested that the PAP will oversee the AU Executive once the continental parliament has been given legislative power in its second term, the debate on the role that the PAP should play continues to rage. This article enters the debate by giving an overview of the workings of the PAP and makes some concrete proposals on ways in which the continental parliament can contribute to the continent. The article underlines the need for the PAP to develop or seek the capacity to conduct or commission research on pertinent issues for further recommendation to the assembly. It proposes that the continental parliament should send observer missions to countries holding elections on the continent so that it may contribute to the entrenchment of democracy on the continent. The article also identifies some of the challenges that lie ahead of the continental body, including funding as well as the challenge of maximising the participation of ordinary Africans.

When Botswana arrived at independence in 1966, it had no army, depending instead on a police force with deep roots in the colonial era. The country waited another eleven years before creating a military and within a quarter of a century had seen it develop into a capable, well-educated and self-disciplined force that was attracting some of the nation's most talented young people. It had also become the government's institution of choice for addressing the country's most pressing security dilemmas, whether environmental catastrophe or serious crime, and had performed sterling service in regional peace operations. To its members and external observers, it emphasised its professionalism and service, enjoying a high level of respect in the nation as a whole. Given the generally poor reputation of armies in Africa, this qualifies as a notable achievement.

South Africa and Kenya experienced various forms of conflict and gross human rights abuse between 1948-1994 and 1963-2002 respectively. In both situations, the conflicts were motivated by various factors; these included unequal distribution of socio-economic resources and skewed political relationships. The centrality of human rights abuse and political violence to both situations places similar issues on the agenda for analysis. In both cases opposition to regimes was justified on the basis that the political systems were constructed in such a way that limited alternative conceptions and prevented democratic freedom (until 19921 in Kenya and 1994 in South Africa). After undergoing transition to democratic rule in 1994, South Africa engaged the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission as an instrument for dealing with its past conflicts. The South African case animated widespread international interest and after an electoral victory in 2002, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government in Kenya mooted the same idea. By the end of 2004 however the NARC government seems to have lost interest in the truth commission concept; this paper probes the question why? Broadly there is room for alternative interpretations both within and between the two cases on how conflicts were perpetuated and the potency of a truth and reconciliation commission as a viable alternative for dealing with past conflicts. This paper broadly aims to offer a clearer account of conflicts and mechanisms for dealing with them from the conceptual lenses of conflict management theory.