Global Policy Forum

by Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-Taylor

Can the West Really Police the World? Britain must learn from the lessons of Rwanda and help to bring peace to war zones Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-TaylorGuardian Wednesday October 3, 2001 Tony Blair set an ambitious goal for Britain and the international community to act as a policeman in the host of wars being fought in Africa, some of them only small-scale, others among the bloodiest in the world. He signalled that he was ready to send British troops in to help restore peace.

In case anyone was left in any doubt about the scale of intervention he had in mind, Mr Blair told the Labour conference: "And I tell you if Rwanda happened again today as it did in 1993, when a million people were slaughtered in cold blood, we would have a moral duty to act there also." The failure of the United Nations to intervene in Rwanda was one of the biggest failures of the world body in the last decade.

As an example of the kind of successful operation that Britain was capable of mounting, Mr Blair said: "We were there in Sierra Leone when a murderous group of gangsters threatened its democratically elected government and people." British soldiers were sent at short notice to Sierra Leone after UN forces were taken hostage. The British presence helped stabilise the situation.

No limits

The prime minister set no limits on the African troublespots he said should be dealt with, from north Africa - where there is strife in Algeria, and Sudan - to the southern states, such as Zimbabwe, where the president, Robert Mugabe, has taken the country close to ruin, and, ugliest of all, the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr Blair has become increasingly concerned about the catastrophic extent to which Africa has fallen behind the rest of the world. Earlier this year, he asked the international development secretary, Clare Short, to chair a Cabinet sub-committee on ways to help Africa .

At the summit of the G8, the wealthiest nations, in Genoa this summer, he persuaded other leaders to make Africa a priority. The test of the G8 commitment will come next year when they are asked to stump up money.

Two weeks ago, he held a meeting at Chequers for leaders of various African nations. Mr Blair said yesterday: "The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world. But if the world as a community focused on it, we could heal it. And if we don't, it will become deeper and angrier."

He warned that if the developed world chose to ignore the suffering of African nations, such as the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo, it would breed anger and frustration which would threaten global stability. The events of September 11 had shown how conflict and unrest in one part of the world could spill out to destroy the lives of people thousands of miles away, he said. "Today the threat is chaos," said Mr Blair.

Deal

He offered a deal in which the west would provide aid, write off debt, practise free trade and train soldiers - with the blessing of the UN - in conflict resolution.

"But it's a deal," he said. "On the African side - true democracy, no more excuses for dictatorship, abuses of human rights; no tolerance of bad governance, from the endemic corruption of some states to the activities of Mr Mugabe's henchmen in Zimbabwe; proper commercial, legal and financial system; the will, with our help, to broker agreements for peace and provide troops to police them."

It will be difficult to match Mr Blair's rhetoric with reality. Repeated attempts to resolve the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo have ended in failure. When the UN discussed sending peacekeepers earlier this year, there was scorn at the suggestion that even a force of 50,000 would make much difference.

Ministry of Defence sources last night played down the significance for British military commitments of Mr Blair's appeal for intervention in Africa. Though conflict prevention, peace keeping and humanitarian intervention have been strong themes running through defence policy statements over the past few years, black Africa was not mentioned at all in two key documents published by the MoD earlier this year - the Future Strategic Context for Defence and Defence Policy 2001.

Coalition

Though Britain has intervened alone in Sierra Leone, Rwanda presents, and the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to present, much greater problems and dangers. Defence sources made clear yesterday that Britain would not act alone in a future major crisis in Africa, but nor would it simply await decisions by the UN. Britain would form part of a "coalition of the willing", sources said. However, they warned of the problems of being overstretched. Another serious conflict in the Balkans or the Gulf involving British troops would leave few available to intervene elsewhere.

A new review announced at the Labour conference yesterday by the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, could, however, give British forces more room for manoeuvre. Mr Hoon said it would increase the post-cold war emphasis in the 1988 strategic defence review on "rapidly deployable, flexible forces" able to deal with a crisis anywhere in the world.

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