Accra, Oct. 11, GNA – Selected security officers from the West African sub-region Monday began a training programme in Accra to enhance their capacity in the protection of civilians during conflict.
The two-week programme, which is a blend of scenarios, discussions and lectures, is intended to equip participants with needed know-how on how to protect citizens in the region.
Major General Francis Ofori, the Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, speaking at the opening, said millions of civilian victims of violence and war were subjected to unacceptable conditions, including displacement, rape, torture and massacres.
Funded by the Switzerland Government, the training assembled personnel from Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone to receive tuition from both Swiss and Ghanaian instructors.
He noted that during conflicts, defenceless civilians became victims of serious violations of international humanitarian, human rights and refugee laws.
“The Rwandan genocide in the 1990s and the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 in the full glare of the United Nation military contingents were defining moment for a review of mandate for peacekeepers,” he said.
Maj. Ofori said at those incidents peacekeepers came face-to-face with systematic attacks on civilians but were ill-prepared to address them.
In 2000, he recalled that the UN first incorporated the protection of vulnerable population as a key objective core task mandate.
Maj. Ofori said the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations underscored the fact that protecting civilians was a core obligation of the whole UN, not only peacekeeping.
Mr Philip Stalder, the Swiss Ambassador to Ghana, said his country attached great importance to the protection of civilians and that the support was part of its contribution towards security architecture in Africa.
“Today, conflicts differ fundamentally from those in the past. Classical warfare involving the armed forces of two or more states has become rare, giving way to non-international armed conflicts in which the official armed forces of state confront non-state armed group,” he noted.
“In those contemporary conflicts there are no defined front zones of control and the line between civilians and combatants is often blurry. Current situations are more complex and intractable than ever before.”
The training, he said, was a good opportunity to better prepare actors in peacekeeping operations to deal with the daunting tasks of protecting civilians.
GNA