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2. Demilitarization for Democracy: The Africa Center for Security Studies

Sun, 18 Jul 1999 11:45:17 +0100

"serv. informazioni Congosol" <congosol@neomedia.it>

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Please respond directly to Clarissa Kayosa with any reflections.

Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 12:06:15 -0400
From: Demilitarization for Democracy <pdd@clark.net>

Subject: The Africa Center for Security Studies

Dear Friend,

On behalf of Demilitarization for Democracy (DFD), I am writing to
solicit your opinions and suggestions on an issue of great importance
for Africa and for organizations working on African issues. Any
thoughts, ideas comments you might have would be extremely valuable and
we ask you to share this with your colleagues in the other
non-governmental organizations and the media, and send your comment back
to us.

Background
The United States of America has in the past years transferred billions
of dollars worth of arms and military training to developing countries.
A recent report by DFD called Arms Un-control (available upon request)
reveals that the Clinton Administration hit a record high of $21.3
dollars in arms transfers worldwide, $8.3 billion of which was sent to
non-democratic nations.

Of the 53 African nations 43 were provided with US military training,
and 26 of these were non-democratic. Of the 11 nations intervening in
the civil war in the Congo in 1998, nine received U.S. arms and training
in1997.

At the beginning of this year, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD.)
invited top military personnel to attend a consultative meeting on a
proposed curriculum for an African Center for Security Studies. In
November DOD, under this new center, will start its first military
training in Dakar, Senegal. As the permanent headquarters have not been
finalized yet, the Center will be administered from Washington DC and
the two week seminars will rotate around Africa. With a budget of 42
million over 5 years, the Center is supposed to focus on civil military
relations and national security management. Human rights and
humanitarian law courses are on the curriculum and US officials claim
that civilians will be invited through the participating governments.
However the invitations will be transmitted through the US ambassador in
your country to your government and each country will only have two
slots per seminar. As the term "civilians" is so broad, participation by
non-governmental organizations could run in to difficulties.

The Center will be managed by Military Professional Resources
Incorporated (MPRI) which has faced questions about its human rights
practices in the past. There is also a stated commitment to having an
international faculty. Another area of concern is that unlike other US
military training programs that have good human rights records as part
of their criteria for participation, ACSS will be open to all militaries
in Africa not under UN sanctions.

While many Africa focused organizations in the United States agree on
the need for a professional, law abiding, rights respecting, civilian
controlled, armed forces corps, US military training in other parts of
the world, including Africa, has mixed results at best. For example in
Latin America, the School of the Americas, another facility to train
military personnel produced dictators like General Manuel Noriega of
Panama and Raul Cedras of Haiti, among others.

This is another decision African governments are committing the
continent to without consultation amongst their people. Africa is in a
state of collapse now and what it needs is not more military assistance
but development assistance. In 1998, US humanitarian assistance to
Africa was drastically cut but yet the same government continues to
support military activities. What is America's interest in military
professionalism and not human development? Is it not more important for
Africa that America gives aid for education for the young generation,
health and food? What are Africa's priorities now?

As an African, I feel we have to think seriously about the implications
of such a school for Africa. None of the US military activities to
Africa have been successful so why would this be any different? Please
let us know what you think. Given the opportunity, what would you change
or want to see regarding the center's operations? Do you think it is a
good idea or not? What would you rather see done? Please respond as soon
as possible, your input is very important at this point.

Sincerely Yours,

Clarissa Kayosa
Campaign Coordinator (Year 2000 to Redirect World Military Spending to
Human Development)

The material contained in this communication may not be taken always to
reflect the views of the Service.
Willing to offer you these informations quickly, the Service makes the
choice of being not always able to verify them, and couldn't be held
responsible for the accuracy of the original sources.
We apologize to those who already received this document.

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