ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts MAP SHOWING ECOWAS MEMBER STATES
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Isiaka Alani Badmus* WP/CEAUP #2009/01 Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts MAP SHOWING ECOWAS MEMBER STATES Courtesy: Berman, G. Eric and Nicholas Florquin, “Aims and Aimless”, proposal for ECOWAS, 2005 © CEAUP | Isiaka Alani Badmus, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts | WP/CEAUP #2009/01 | www.africanos.eu (No abstract) © CEAUP | Isiaka Alani Badmus, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts | WP/CEAUP #2009/01 | www.africanos.eu Contents List of Acronyms and Abbreviations IN LIEU OF AN INTRODUCTION ECOWAS: SOME BACKGROUND ISSUES ECOWAS AND THE SUB-REGIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY ISSUES - The ECOWAS Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security. ECOWAS, SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS PROLIFERATION AND THE WEST AFRICAN CIVIL CONFLICTS 1. The Genesis 2. The ECOWAS Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of SALW 3. Other African and Global Control Initiatives. [A]. The OAU/AU’s Bamako Declaration [B]. The United Nations Firearms Protocol. [C]. The United Nations Programme of Action [UNPoA] 4. The ECOWAS Moratorium and Institutional Arrangements. [A]. Programme for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development [PCASED] [B]. The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa [UNREC]. 5. The Imperatives of Civil Society Organisations in Combating SALW Proliferation. [A]. The West African Action Network on Small Arms [WAANSA] Box 2: Extracts from the Final Communiqué of the WAANSA Foundation Conference [B]. Civil Society Consultation on the Review of the ECOWAS Moratorium and the Evolution of a Draft Supplementary Protocol [The Dakar Process] 6. ECOWAS CONVENTION ON SMALL ARMS AND ECOSAP MANAGING ARMS IN PEACE PROCESSES: ECOWAS AND THE WEST AFRICAN CIVIL CONFLICTS • Liberia • Sierra Leone • Guinea Conakry. • Niger • Mali ECOWAS AND THE CHALLEGES OF REGIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY CONCLUSION AND PROGNOSIS © CEAUP | Isiaka Alani Badmus, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts | WP/CEAUP #2009/01 | www.africanos.eu List of Tables Table 1: ECOWAS Signatories to the UN Fire- arms Protocol as of 23 January 2003. Table 2: Liberia: Disarmament Statistics as at 31 January 1997. Table 3: Ceremonial Arms Destruction in Niger, 2000-2003 Table 4: Sources of Weapons in Niger Table 5: Mali: Demobilisation, Weapons Col- lected and Destruction. List of Boxes. Box 1: Chronology of Events Relating to the ECOWAS Moratorium. Box 2:Extract from the Final Communiqué of the WAANSA Foundation Conference © CEAUP | Isiaka Alani Badmus, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts | WP/CEAUP #2009/01 | www.africanos.eu List of Acronyms and Abbreviations © CEAUP | Isiaka Alani Badmus, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts | WP/CEAUP #2009/01 | www.africanos.eu List of Acronyms and Abbreviations chanism. FODSA Foundation for Security and Develop- AAFC Allied Armed Forces of the Community ment in Africa [ECOWAS] GoNU Government of National Unity ACP Arms Collection Programme GNP Gross National Product AFL Armed Forces of Liberia IANSA International Action Network on Small AFRC Armed Forces Revolutionary Council Arms ANAD Accord de Non-Aggression et INPFL Independent National Patriotic Front d’Assistance en Matiere de Defence of Liberia APRM African Peer Review Mechanism LDCs Less Developed Countries. AWMD African Weapons of Mass Destruction LPC Liberia Peace Council CACDPA Community Arms Collection and MAD Protocol Relating to Mutual Assistance Destruction Programme on Defence CBOs Community Based Organisations MALAO Mouvement contre les Armes Legeres CEDE Centre for Democratic Empowerment en Afrique de l’Ouest CDD Centre for Democracy and Development. MFUA Mouvements et Fronts Unifies de CRRP Community Reintegration and Rehabi- l’Azaouad litation Project NGOs Non Governmental Organisations DDR Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re- NISAT Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms integration Programme Transfers DOPHA Department of Operations, Peaceke- NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia eping and Humanitarian Affairs OAU/AU Bamako Declaration OAU/AU Ba- DPAS Department of Political Affairs and Se- mako Declaration on an African Common Posi- curity tion on the Illicit Proliferation, Circulation and ECOWAS Economic Community of West Afri- Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons. can States OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humani- ECOMOG ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring tarian Affairs Group OMC Observation and Monitoring Centre ECOSAP ECOWAS Regional Small Arms Con- PCASED Programme for Coordination and As- trol Programme sistance on Security and Development ECOWAS Convention ECOWAS Convention RSLMF Republic of Sierra Leonean Military on Small Arms, Light Weapons, their Ammuni- Forces tion and other associated material RUF Revolutionary United Front ECOWAS Moratorium Declaration of a Mora- SALW Small Arms and Light Weapons torium on Importation, Exportation and Ma- SAPs Structural Adjustment Programmes nufacture of Light Weapons in West Africa SMC ECOWAS Standing Mediation Commit- ECOWAS Mechanism ECOWAS Mechanism tee for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolu- SSR Security Sector Reform tion, Peacekeeping and Security. TEP Training and Employment Programme ESF ECOWAS Standby Force The Dakar Process Civil Society Consultation EU European Union on the Review of the ECOWAS Moratorium ERSF Economic Recovery Support Fund and the Evolution of a Draft Supplementary EWER Early Warning and Early Response Me- Protocol © CEAUP | Isiaka Alani Badmus, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts | WP/CEAUP #2009/01 | www.africanos.eu ULIMO--J a Krahn-based United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy ULIMO—K a Mandingo-based United Libera- tion Movement of Liberia for Democracy UN(O) United Nations (Organisation) UNAMSIL United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone UNDDA United Nations Department of Disar- mament Affairs UNDP United Nations Development Program- me UNOMIL United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia UN Firearms Protocol United Nations Proto- col against the Illicit Manufacture of and Traffi- cking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components And Ammunition, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Or- ganised Crime UNREC United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa UNDPA United Nations Department for Poli- tical Affairs UNOPS United Nations Office for Project Ser- vices UNPoA United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit Tra- de in Small Arms and Light weapons in All Its Aspects UNDPKO United Nations Department of Pea- cekeeping Operations UNDESA United Nations Department of Eco- nomic and Social Affairs UNIDIR United Nations Institute for Disarma- ment Research WAANSA West African Action Network on Small Arms © CEAUP | Isiaka Alani Badmus, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts | WP/CEAUP #2009/01 | www.africanos.eu Article © CEAUP | Isiaka Alani Badmus, Managing Arms in Peace Processes: ECOWAS and the West African Civil Conflicts | WP/CEAUP #2009/01 | www.africanos.eu IN LIEU OF AN INTRODUCTION torium represent an ordinary paper or a legally binding document? Second, why is it that the signatories to this Moratorium, more often The article entitled Small Arms and Light Wea- than not, do not abide by the provisions of the pons Proliferation and Conflicts: Three African Case control instrument? Third, why is it always di- Studies which appeared in the Nigerian Jour- fficult to control SALW during peace support nal of International Affairs, vol. 31, no. 2, 2005, operations and peace processes, especially was my first major study on the issue of Small in West Africa? Fourth, what are the ECOWAS Arms and Light Weapons [hereinafter refer to strategies for regional integration, security, as SALW] proliferation and African conflicts. good governance and human rights? These are Ever since, I have closely been following the some the vital questions addressed in this stu- West African politico-military landscape with dy. reference to SALW proliferation—an interest I intend not to detail my discussions on the that was further sharpened by my invitation meaning of SALW. Instead, a comprehensive to the Economic Community of West African analysis of the roles of ECOWAS as a sub-regio- States [ECOWAS] Executive Secretariat1 in nal organisation in maintaining regional pea- Abuja, Nigeria for an interview into its newly ce and security become imperative, and the pa- initiated Regional Small Arms Control Pro- per is also interested in looking, albeit briefly, gramme [ECOSAP]. At this juncture, I consider at the processes leading to the formation, and it pertinent to advance a very fundamental dynamics of ECOWAS. This is very fundamen- conundrum, viz, why such upswelling interest tal because the insights from such retrospecti- in SALW proliferation and the West African se- ve exercise will help us immensely to really fa- curity landscape? The answer to this question thom the transcendence of ECOWAS beyond its is very simple and simultaneously complex. I original mandate, i.e., economic development. noticed the seriousness of the distinguished In addendum, relying on Article 52 of the United West African officials presented at the panel on Nations [UN] Charter, regional organisations the issue and their eagerness and