The world is having to come to terms rapidly with the developing crisis in Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi after a prolonged period of shameful neglect. Once again a combination of grave and spreading political, instability and humanitarian catastrophe has brought the region to international attention. While it is important not to rush to judgment, given the complexity of the circumstances and the relative neglect of the issues involved there can be no denying the urgency of tackling both the political and humanitarian dimensions of the crisis.
Some things have moved forward in the Great Lakes region since the disastrous genocide in Rwanda two years ago and the flight of one million people in its wake. The most important development has been the growth of activity in African regional diplomacy and its readiness to tackle elements of this dangerous, destabilising situation. In recent months much of their effort has been concentrated on containing the military seizure of power in Burundi by various means, including economic sanctions. The diplomatic process spearheaded by Mr Julius Nyerere, the former president of Tanzania, has managed to draw in most of the regional states and to relate more effectively to the Organisation of African Unity. It has benefitted from greater confidence which has flowed from the political, transition in South Africa.
This self reliance is a new and welcome element in the regional political equation. It can be seen in the calling of a regional summit in Arusha, Tanzania, tomorrow, which will be attended by presidents and foreign ministers of Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. They will consider a proposal for a multinational African force with logistical and financial support from the European Union which could police humanitarian corridors and oversee a ceasefire between the many parties to the fighting, prior to an overall negotiation. The EU, under its Irish presidency and through its regional envoy, Mr Aldo Ajello, has been much more active in this crisis than the United Nations. The Security Council has been hamstrung by conflicting views among permanent members and by the uncertainty surrounding the Secretary General's position. African diplomacy must bed backed up decisively by international resources and determination to tackle what is shaping up to be one of the most destabilising crises to have affected the continent this century. The EU and UN are the better means of doing so rather than unilateral action by former colonial rulers.
It is not surprising in this perspective, to discover how prominently the artificial boundaries drawn by three imperial powers Belgium, Germany and Britain figure in the current conflict. They divided ethnic communities, notably the Tutsis, between what was later to become the three states of Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi, and this has led to the ethnic cleansing exercises that have sparked the remarkable Banyamulenge revolt against Zairean troops and their Kwandan Hutu extremist allies. In the process the very stability of Zaire is called into question, a potential political explosion with continental, even global consequences. Common humanity demands that the rest of the world enters constructively and urgently into the effort to contain and resolve these conflicts, rather than see them play out destructively within the region.