Annan calls for promoting humanitarianism to stop conflict

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for promoting human security and human development in a bid to stop conflict in Africa. In a progress report to the Security Council on Sunday, Annan said ensuring that the abuse of humanitarian assistance did not prolong conflict was one of the greatest challenges facing humanitarian actors in today's conflicts. "Relief efforts must be a step towards development, and must be delivered in ways that promote, rather than compromise, long-term development objectives," he warned. Furthermore, in many African countries, painful structural adjustment programmes had led to a significant reduction in social spending. This, coupled with the perception that certain groups were not receiving a fair share of diminishing resources, demonstrated the potential for conflict. The goal of publicly identifying international arms merchants and their activities had proved elusive, he said, but "perhaps no other single initiative" would do more to help combat the flow of illicit arms to Africa. On UN peacekeeping, he said the international community had shown great reluctance in recent years to assume the political and financial exposure with deploying peacekeeping operations. "This reluctance appears to go well beyond the lessons Somalia offers, and it has had a particularly harsh impact upon Africa," Annan noted. "In addition to the terrible price paid in Rwanda, the broader costs of paralysis can be seen in the reaction by some African governments, especially in the Great Lakes region, to marginalise the United Nations from further political involvement in the region's affairs." On arms and arms trafficking, the Secretary-General's recommended urgent consideration by the Security Council on how the UN might help compile, track and publicise information on arms trafficking. UN member states should also pass laws enabling prosecution in national courts of violations of Security Council embargoes and African governments should reduce arms purchases to 1.5 percent of GDP. On sanctions, he said too often they were a blunt instrument and should be better targeted by freezing the assets of decision-makers. On refugees, an international mechanism should be set up to help host governments maintain the neutrality and security of refugee camps which should be located away from borders.