FORMER senator George Mitchell, chairman of the International Body on Arms Decommissioning in Northern Ireland, has become chairman of a new international body dedicated to resolving world disputes.
"We want to head off crises before they develop, rather than reacting to crises after they happen," Mr Mitchell told reporters in New York at the start of the first board meeting of the International Crisis Group.
The group, whose members include the former prime minister of France, Mr Michael Rocard, the former prime minister of Australia, Mr Malcolm Fraser and the former US congressman, Mr Steve Solarz, has already sent a fact finding mission to Sierra Leone and will send a mission to Nigeria.
The ICG will try to persuade the world to intervene in crisis situations if it is warranted, whether by mediation teams or through peacekeeping troops, Mr Nicholas Hinton, the ICG president and former head of the UK Save the Children Fund, told the Christian Science Monitor.
"We believe that, more than anything, there is a lack of collective political will which prevented more timely action from been taken in Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda and elsewhere," said Mr Mitchell, the former Majority Leader in the Senate.
The private non governmental group has been promised $2 million from governments and businesses. It will have a New York office.