TANZANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SEES ROLE FOR MILITARIES IN AFRICA

[USIA]

USIS Washington File

16 January 1998

TANZANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SEES ROLE FOR MILITARIES IN AFRICA

(Colonel Kikwete praises ACRI at CSIS meeting) (890)
By Jim Fisher-Thompson
USIA Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Militaries have a role to play in resolving conflicts in
Africa, says visiting Tanzanian Foreign Minister Jakaya Mrisho
Kikwete, but not as a political force of their own or by supporting
one faction over another.

Kikwete, a retired Army colonel, made that point January 15 during a
briefing he gave to Africanists on the crisis-ridden Great Lakes
region. The meeting was sponsored by the Africa Studies Program at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The Tanzanian minister said he was generally positive about the
prospects for peace in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DROC). He was especially optimistic about the situation in DROC, he
pointed out, because its people no longer view the "national army as
an enemy." The former Zairian army, under President Mobutu Sese Seko,
was noted for "pillaging and plundering" its own people, he said.

Under President Laurent Kabila, Kikwete explained, "the security
situation has improved considerably" and the army has gained the trust
of the people. He cautioned, however, that the potential for violence
remains, because "Mobutu's forces are still in the country," and some
of them are aiding Rwandan extremists who continue to cause problems
in Rwanda and eastern DROC.

Regarding the conflict in Burundi, which has claimed 150,000 lives in
the past four years, Kikwete said he was less hopeful about
negotiations leading to a peaceful resolution any time soon. One of
the reasons he gave for failure to reach a political settlement has
been the improper "conduct of the military," which, the official said,
"became one of the factions in the conflict."

Kikwete explained that since the 1996 coup in Burundi, which brought
Major Pierre Buyoya to power, peace efforts by Special United Nations
Facilitator and former President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere and
regional heads of state have been stymied because of the military
regime's reluctance to negotiate with other political factions in
Burundi.

But even before that, Kikwete emphasized, "the way the Burundian
military conducted itself in 1993," when President Melchoir Ndadaye
was assassinated during an attempted coup, left "much to be desired."

"Violent conflict still rages in Burundi," the diplomat said, in part
because its army has chosen to back one side in a conflict among
people who "speak the same language and share the same houses and
villages." The crisis is a political conflict, not an ethnic one,
Kikwete insisted -- and when the military made a political decision to
back one side, it ceased to be a national army and became a player in
the conflict.

To support his contention, Kikwete related that "when we were in
Bujumbura and had discussions with the [Burundi] leadership, one of
our questions was: 'Why is the army being perceived as not being
national in character, but rather ethnic?' One of the [Burundi]
leaders responded: 'What do you expect? Here is a soldier who finds
his family killed -- naturally his reaction would be to seek revenge!'

"We acknowledged that reply," the Tanzanian said, but also explained
that "the military is an instrument of last resort. Where there is a
conflict and civil authorities fail, then you bring in the military."

As a model of how militaries should behave in a crisis, Nyerere, who
attended the Bujumbura meeting, "then brought up the example of India
and the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her
Sikh bodyguards," Kikwete recalled.

According to Nyerere, he said, the Indian Army intervened after Hindus
began killing Sikhs in revenge for Gandhi's death. "But they
intervened to separate the factions -- and, as you know, the Indian
Army is predominantly Sikh historically," he added.

While less hopeful about prospects in Burundi, Kikwete emphasized that
he and his colleagues in the region would continue to press for a
peaceful resolution to the conflict because "we believe strongly that
there is no substitute to negotiations -- the alternative is
catastrophe."

Asked to comment on the recent U.S. government effort to help Africans
enhance their African peacekeeping capabilities, called the "African
Crisis Response Initiative" (ACRI), Kikwete said, "We think it is a
good idea."

Despite "certain questions we have over the 'ownership' of the force
and the command and control function," Kikwete said, the initiative
deserves attention, "especially if it is coordinated through the
Organization of African Unity (OAU)." If some kind of "common position
or African approach" could be developed toward ACRI and an initiative
proposed by the OAU, then "I think we could go along," he added.

Ambassador Marshall McCallie, coordinator of the U.S. government's
ACRI Interagency Working Group, told Congress last October that "the
goal of the African Crisis Response Initiative is to enhance the
capacity of African nations to respond to humanitarian crises and
peacekeeping challenges in a timely and effective manner. Our
objective is to generate rapidly deployable, interoperable units from
stable, democratic countries that can work together to maintain peace
on a continent which has too often been torn by civil strife. It is
not to create a standing African army."

In the past year, military units from Senegal, Uganda, and Malawi have
undergone ACRI training as part of a phase I program for which the
Clinton administration earmarked $35 million.