Ghana
Annan says Africa needs good peacekeepers

afrol.com, 3 August - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, himself a Ghanaian, yesterday spoke at the commissioning and sod-cutting of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Teshie, Ghana. 

The meeting was organized at Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, which includes the headquarters of the new Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. Annan spoke to an audience mostly familiar to him when expressing his gratitude to the Ghanaian commitment to the UN peacekeeping operations and the UN visions for future operations in Africa.

- The United Nations is deeply grateful to the Government of Ghana and its Armed Forces and Police for their four-decade-long commitment to United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world, Annan said. This commitment was vividly illustrated in the exhibition that the Minister referred to, "United Nations Peacekeeping: A Half Century of experience", which, as he indicated, I had the pleasure of opening with His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings, on the 7th of July, he continued. 

The record of service and achievement has laid the foundation for the commission of the International Peacekeeping Training Centre that was marked yesterday in Teshie. The Ghana Armed Forces' remarkable knowledge base, expertise and experience must be placed at the disposal of as many national armed forces - subregionally and continent-wide - as possible, Annan said. 

Annan was pleased to note that the inaugural meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Defence and Security Commission, held in Accra on 19 July, designated the Ghana Centre as one of the two training establishments in the subregion for the now-permanent Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) Standby Units for member countries in this region. 

- Africa needs well-trained and well-equipped peacekeepers to meet the challenge of the crisis facing our continent. Other governments are increasingly reluctant to solve our problems for us. Instead, they have sought to explore ways to help Africans to improve their peacekeeping capacity. 

Annan believed this Centre could play an important role in facilitating such assistance. I trust that representatives of donor countries here present will seize this opportunity to provide the necessary support so that Ghana's vast experience in peacekeeping is used to the benefit of Africa and, ultimately, to the cause of world peace, he stated. 

The UN Security Council only last week decided to establish a UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea consisting of up to 100 military observers and the necessary civilian support staff in anticipation of a peacekeeping operation subject to future authorization. 

Source: Based on United Nations

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