Navika Seunarine
Senior Seminar
Introduction
Following years of inhumaneness and instability since gaining independence in 1960, the Central African Republic (CAR) remains to be one of the least developed countries in the world as the current civil war continues to transpire. The CAR has endured several coups sequentially in the past few decades, but all efforts made in stabilizing the country were lost as the Séléka captured the capital, Bangui, and overthrew the government in March 2013, ultimately exiling President Francois Bozize.
The CAR has essentially descended into an ethnic and sectarian state of violence with relentless failure to alleviate the sadistic turmoil civilians are forced to endure daily. Consequently, the United Nations has initiated the deployment of foreign troops in April 2014 with a peacekeeping operation mandate, The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilized Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), in efforts to help stabilize the country once again. Concerned with the security, humanitarian needs, human rights and the political crisis the CAR is undergoing, MINUSCA’s utmost priority resumes to be the protection and safety of the innocent civilians.
The CAR’s sectarian civil war is amongst two opposing actors—the Séléka rebels, predominantly consisting of armed, Muslim groups, and “anti-balaka” militias, coalitions of Christian fighters formed in response to the Séléka brutality. The primary focus of this paper will be a comparative study of the different peace initiatives taken by the United Nations and other international players thus far, in addition to analyzing the escalation of the crisis and formerly unsuccessful mandates.
Review of Literature
Liberated from the Cold...
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... (Karlsrud, 2015). Despite the UN’s involvement in peacekeeping and mediation, the concept of stabilization is actually conflicting to what the UN peacekeeping operations are intended to accomplish. In most cases, these UN missions were not given a specific mandate endowed with peace-enforcement, but rather a general mission to ‘neutralize’ the intended state, and protect the civilians using all indispensable means.
Hypothesis
The constant inhumaneness the CAR continues to endure repeatedly for decades is due to failure in which are unknown. The UN has taken several measures to restore peace and stability to the country, but primarily through the use of force paradigm. If the UN modifies its approach to the conflict with a peaceful paradigm, such as the use of law or communications, then the conflict could theoretically cease after decades of relentless violence.
The analysis of the genocides that took place both in Rwanda and Sudan’s Darfur region exhibit some similarities as well as differences. The character of violence was similar in both cases, but in Rwanda the violence was more intense, participatory, and extraordinary. The violence in these two places took place in an environment that had experienced civil wars. It was a period of political transition which was further aggravated by ethnic nationalism and a conflict of ethnic populations that were living in close proximity. However, in the Rwandan genocide, the state is more centralized, compact, and effective. This is what explains the intensity and variation. The international response to these genocides through observers emphasized on using the genocide label to create domestic constituencies especially in the Rwandan case.
"Crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo."Responsibilitytoprotect.org. International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect, 2011. Web. 19 Feb 2014.
Since Congo’s independence in 1960, its history has been marked by a series of political conflicts. The economy of Congo, a nation endowed with resources of vast potential wealth has declined drastically since the mid-1980s. The two political conflicts (first and second Congo wars), which began in 1996, have dramatically reduced national output and government revenue, have increased external debt, and have resulted in deaths of more than one million people.
The “Trojan Horse” exists in humanitarian intervention as it is mixed with considerations of national interest, such as state influence, national power, prestige and access to potential oil supplies. For example, in Syria and Sri Lanka, the responsibility to protect norm has not done very little to protect populations within states. The author notes that the international community's feeble responsibility on the Darfur’s crisis has failed to recognize the role of the “responsibility to protect.” The West’s disinclination to intervene in Darfur raises skepticism about the West’s humanitarian intervention techniques, especially after the invasion of Iraq and western strategic interests in Sudan. Nevertheless, the notion of the responsibility to protect is important in the protection of human rights as it seeks to confront atrocity committed by states through prevention, protection or
...are committed by the regime in opponents to its civiliansthis situation where the internal violence of regimes cannot handle all the severe condition then the mandatory power like United Nations security Council may give permission of military interventions to intervene on those areas where the situation needs to be intervened or where the treat of aggression, violence appear and danger to international peace and stability. Security Council can only allow the use of force or military intervention for the goals of peace and stability to stop violence. Humanitarian intervention is the biggest threat to human security. There are a huge amount of mass atrocities occurred due to humanitarian intervention. There are a lot of human rights violations like women rights violation, dozens of causalities as well as destruction of infrastructure occurred by these interventions.
Mali, a landlocked country in Northwest Africa, is currently one of the poorest countries in the world. In the 1990’s, Mali’s fortune was looking up as the country had rapid economic growth and a democracy that flourished along with social stability. The state had control of the north and a military coup that ousted the president due to his failure to protect the soldiers. Soldiers returning from Libya who had equipped themselves with weapons from Libya’s armories started the coup. Soldiers were tired of being under-equipped to fight the Tuaregs (NOSSITER). The French intervened with military action against the Islamic fighters threatening to advance to the south. Civilian rule was re-established in 2013 (Brice, Mali country profile - Overview).
Today, many African countries harbour very tense political climates. Ethnic and religious issues are the main causes for many of the political problems that arise in African nations. The fight for power and say in the government between religious and ethnic groups has undermined and divided many African political systems. For example, the country of Sudan had been experiencing much segregation between religious groups for decades and had finally split into Sudan and South Sudan in 2011 because of the political problems the religious tensions caused(). Other African countries are also divided religiously and ethnically and this separation causes problems for their political systems. Corrupt and inadequate leaders have caused the lack in government stability that can an be seen in African countries today. Just years ago in Egypt, the 30 year dictatorial reign...
Principally composed of weak or unstable governments; external and internal predators maximize self-interests to the detriment of the people of the continent. These forces provide breeding grounds for entities with ends inimical to the United States, our Allies and our partners; and in the worst case, provide safe havens to enable violent extremists to thrive and target our Homeland and global interests. More recently, some states have taken advantage of these instabilities to sow the seeds of interstate tensions that could cross borders and lead to tremendous loss of life. Security, stability, rule of law, and international aid will provide governments the tools to counter outside aggression and instability.? Keeping defense of the homeland as our priority; aiding the countering of aggressions and external negative actors will provide regional governments the room to build viable institutions while military assistance and cooperation enhance unified efforts.?The entire theatre requires a robust investment of time, energy and resolve; with short, medium and long term goals to guide us to our desired end state: USEASTCOM assisting the transition of African problems into African
The circumstances of Congo's citizens are no longer safe. Their lives have completely turned into hell, especially the women. The ongoing civil war, rebellions and the different ethnic groups forced the country to remain underdeveloped; in spite of, the natural resources. In addition, different political views caused more conflicts within the country. With the absence of the government too many different parties were created, till this...
Consequences of intervention can include the loss of lives from an otherwise uninvolved country, the spread of violence, and the possibility of inciting conflict over new problems, just to name a few (Lecture, 11/15/16). For example, John Mueller considers the potential negative consequences of intervention prove that they are insignificant to the cause of humanitarian intervention as a whole. Moreover, with intervention into ethnic conflicts, the outcome, no matter how positive, is overshadowed by a gross exaggeration of negative consequences (Mueller). In both Yugoslavia and Rwanda the solution, to Mueller appeared simple, a well ordered and structured militarized presence was all that was required to end the conflict (Mueller). If this is the case, when discussing whether or not intervention is necessary the political elite must not over-exaggerate the difficulty.
The complex issue of humanitarian intervention is widely argued and inherently controversial. Humanitarian intervention involves the coercive action of states intervening in areas for the sole purpose of preventing or halting the killing or suffering of the people there. (1, 9, 5) It is an issue argued fervently amongst restrictionists and counter-restrictionists, who debate over whether humanitarian intervention is a breach of international law or a moral requirement. (10) Restrictionists argue that Articles 2 (7) and 2 (4) of the United Nations (UN) Charter render forcible humanitarian intervention illegal. The only legitimate exception to this, they claim, is the right to self defence, as enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter. (1-472) This position is contested by counter-restrictionists, who insist that any and all nations have the right, and the responsibility, to prevent humanitarian disasters. (8-5) Despite the declaration of a ‘new world order’, the post-Cold war world has not been a more peaceful one: regional and ethnic conflicts have, in fact, proliferated. Between 1989 and 1993, for example, thirteen new peacekeeping operations were launched by th...
"Major Problems Facing Cameroon Today." AFRICAW: Africa and the World. N.p., 9 Sept. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Civil conflict has been a focal point of the world’s attention in the post-Cold War Era, with news coverage of human rights violations, poverty, and casualties. This era has brought a systemic change from interstate wars to intra state wars. Civil conflicts may be arguably more severe than interstate wars because of the use of rebels, the lack of organized forces, and issues of sovereignty. The specific topic of this research is conflict and in particular, the causes of civil conflict.
UN. Department of Public Information (1995). United Nations peace-keeping: Information notes. Update, December 1994. Retrieved from UN website: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unikom/background.html
The propensity for states to wage civil wars is something that isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Regions yet to stabilize will continue intrastate carnage until regional power is established. How then, is that power best established? De-escalation and negotiations are naturally the preferred method of resolution, but some scholars such as Luttwak and Toft pose what many criticize as radical and inconsiderate of human life. Regrettably, the proposition of letting civil wars and other localized conflicts take their natural path is one that may lead to better outcome, and not only theoretically.