Museveni urges on Africa military force

President Museveni has underscored the importance of an African standby force capable of responding to crises on the continent.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Monday, Museveni called for the expediting of the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC) initiative.

Museveni, who was contributing to the high- level thematic debate on "strengthening co-operation between the United Nations and regional and sub-regional organizations" in New York, said the current UN Security Council framework is not practical, particularly in situations of a human catastrophe.

"The crucial decisions of international peace and security, within the Security Council, are mostly taken by the veto-wielding members. This is a big mistake and has already caused a lot of harm to Africa," Museveni said as he outlined some of the shortcomings of the current arrangement.

Museveni argued that the UN Security Council takes long to make decisions even in situations that require immediate response.

"The process from initial consultations...to a final resolution authorizing any form of action can take agonizingly long to come through. That is if one or more of the permanent members with veto power does not use it to block the process," the president said, giving the example of South Sudan, which required immediate response in December 2013 and yet the UN Security Council is still debating the issue.

Museveni said a regional arrangement was utilized to calm the situation that was on the verge of becoming genocide.

"What we need in Africa is support from the international community in terms of funding and equipment so that we can do the job ourselves," he said, giving the example of the UN deployment in eastern DRC.

He said in DRC, with the internationally-supported intervention brigade of African states, the results have been promising. Support for an African rapid response force would go a long way in strengthening co-operation between the UN, regional and sub-regional organizations, he said.

Museveni further argued that in order to have a worthwhile mechanism that achieves international peace and security, there is need to strengthen co-operation between the UN, regional and sub-regional organizations, as opposed to the practice where regional mechanisms are ignored in favor of international actions.

"Like in the case of Libya where Africa's opinion was ignored; hence the present massive human hemorrhage in that area...If the Security Council members that took military action in Libya had listened to the voice of Africa, the present chaos in Libya, Nigeria, Mali, the people who are dying in the Mediterranean sea from the African shores trying to get to Europe, could have been avoided," he said.

The debate on the creation of ACIRC has been around for some years. However, some international law scholars think that the initiative could lead to decentralization of military intervention and water down article 2(4) of the UN Charter that requires UN member states to refrain from the threat or use of force against other states.

Dr Busingye Kabumba, a lecturer of international law at Makerere University, said in an interview yesterday that a regional arrangement would still have to work within the broader framework of the UN Security Council.

"So, what President Museveni and his colleagues should argue for is to have more democracy in the Security Council and also to argue for the expansion of the Security Council to be more representative of the realities of the world," Dr Kabumba said.