The Role Of International Organisation In Regional Conflict Resolution

This thesis is an important analysis of the role United Nations plays in resolving conflicts in various conflicting nations; the case study is Sudanese fi rst civil war. The study investigates the role of the United Nations in the peace initiatives of the conflict in Sudan that caused millions of peoples life from decades of deadly civil revolt from 1955-1972. The Sudan confl ict is one of the wors e tragedies that has ever befallen mankind, the conflict brought great disrupt to the system of government of the country placed their natural and human resources at the brim of extinction alongside the ethnic, religion as well as finance all of which had enormous consequence on the neighbors of the country;The civil war began in 1955 before the Sudan became officially independent, while the transfer of power from the British to the Northern administrators was still in transit due to the political uncertainty. Because the British government was in a hurry to vacate their office in Sudan t hat they fail ed to properly put in place an acceptable system of government thus the people from the southern part of Sudan felt neglected and so began to revolt and seek there lace in the decision making of the country, the leadership had been relinquished to the northern part and ev ery other part of the country was made to follow their leadership even though the country had varied culture and ethnic believes. When the power was given to the north despite the rebellious acts by the south, they went on to increase and demonstrate their disagreement with the way the country is being ran by the north thus a group was formed.The Southern insurgents from the Equator ial Corps(from the South) rebelled at Torit(a district in East Equator), this rebellious act led to the formation of the separatist movement, Land Freedom Army better known as the Anya-Anya(AN) guerrilla movement in 1963 which later formed the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement/Army SSLM/A(Poggo, 2009). The AN b egan to bur n and destroy villages and properties, torturing the Northern administrators in the South, as a symbol of increased opposition to the GOS(government of Sudan), Israel provided weapons for them via Uganda and Ethiopia.500,000 people, of which only 1 in 5 was con sidered an armed combatant, were killed in the 17 years of war and hundreds of thousands more were forced to leave their homes. the 1964 change portrayed the start of the civil war as General Ibrahim Abbud an Arab and Muslim military man, became Sudan's first official president and in his attempt to unify the country, he decided that the best way to do that is to eliminate every other culture and believe so everyone will have to believe and practice the same religion. As a reflection of his religious passion, he began to pursue programs of Islamization and Arabicization in the South, as part of his policy on the belief that as a complete Muslim country it would ensure national unity.The move however resulted in an open revolts in the South, because the north is made of Christian blacks,this move by the president st imulated the AN into more effective organization thus the formation of the SSLM/A led under General Joseph Lagu at the time, which continued to fi ght the GOS until the war came to an end after the signing of Addis Ababa Peace treaty in 1972 with the he lp of th e united nations and various other NGOs. This agreement granted autonomy to the Southern provinces. But because the root cause of the problem was not properly dealt with, the tension between the two sides remained and after a few y ears they went back into the second civil war. The agreement failed to c ompletely dispel the tensions that had originally caused it, leading to a reigniting of the north-south conflict during the Second Sudanese Civil War, which lasted from 1983 to 2005.This thesis therefore aims to show the UN's role in settling the conflict in Sudan. The research will also be exploring the question of Why the UN resolve conflict without knowing the root cause of the conflict? And why the UN's intervention in Sudan's conflict did not bring a lasting solution?This thesis argues that the United Nations mission while successful is usually not permanent and the reason is because the method used in resolving these conflict does not tackle the main cause of the pr oblem and so gives chance for reoccurrence of the same already tackled conflict over and over, which is why in the case of Sudan, the rise of the second civil war which also saw a second UN mission.This paper highlights the reform strategies of the united nations and shows an analysis that these reform exercises are still not enough to prevent future conflicts from reoccurring, regardless of the temporary peace achievements tackling issues that is most crucial and at the rig ht time with every available method and with enough personnel could potentially decrease the chances of any civil war. The united nations is more focused on the positive light while ignoring the most important factor when it comes to settling dispute which is making sure that it doesn't occur again, forgetting that when a peace treaty is drawn and the underlining cause is ignored,the conflict is bound to restart all over again. This paper intends to shine light on that aspect.In Chapter 1, the thesis gives detailed explanation of the background which talks about the Sudanese independence; the early signs of potential conflict and the reason behind it. Moving down to the significance of the research, which is showcasing how relevant the United Nations intervention really is in the Sudan confl ict and the reason behind its outcome with the hope that corrections will be applied for future purposes. Next is the research methodology and question on why the UN does not bother to find out the root cause of conflicts before resolving it?Chapter 2, in this chapter the thesis explains the history of Sudanese conflict starting from when the country of Sudan got its independence, their religion and ethnicity, the national resources and the crisis which came on because power relocated and remained in the north after the ind ependence, while the southern part of the country suffered from neglect and poor allocation of revenue, pushing the southerners into revolting for change.Chapter 3, within this chapter the thesis continues explaining the evolution and purpose of the formation of United Nation, this chapter went further to give an insight on the United Nations peace keeping and peace building in China in which various NGOs were involved in the provision of necessary amenities for the affected citizens of Sudan after the co ld war also explaining its post cold war reform ation,this chapter also explained the united nations peacekeeping and conflict prevention mechanisms, peace building, the united nations humanitarian aid in Sudan, which showed the amount of support that was provided by the UN to Sudan, post the civil war. UN's supp ort ranged from the provision of shelter to the health supervision and provision of medication to the sick persons and deployment of military force to protect and fight against any group of people committing crimes against humanity, conducting a peaceful referendum that granted autonomy to the southern Sudanese and the signing of the peace treaty that ended the first civil strife.Chapter 4, under this chapter the main focus is placed on UN's intervention through organizations like WHO(world health organization) FAO( food and agricultural organization) UNFPA( UN population fund) UNICEF(UN children's fund) UNMAS(UN emergency mine action program in Sudan) WFP(world food program) The chapter explains these organizations and their involvement based on their objectives and missions in Sudan. The United Nations mission in Sudan was carried out with the help of these organizations, focusing on the various areas that needs urgent intervention respectively and in full force for a better outcome and impact.Chapter 5 explains the United Nations task towards resolving the conflict in Sudan; started with the proposed mission shading light on the situation moving on to explain the process of the development of UNMIS. The deployment and the conclusion of UNMIS, this chapter also talked about the United Nations advanced mission in Sudan and new UN mission in south Sudan, highlighting the Faults in of the UN first mission in Sudan. UN was tasked with keeping peace and maintaining other in Sudan but most importantly return the state to its peaceful status, which meant finding out the problem and resolving it,but because the task was not properly carried out and the problem was not rooted out and resolved,the tension remained after the treaty and with a few years the t wo conflicting side fell back into chaos that saw to the rise of the second civil war.The sixth chapter gives a concise conclusion of the paper. this thesis contributes and highlights the reform role of th e united nations and goes ahead to explain that these reform exercises are not enoug h to prevent future conflict despite the temporary peace; this research hopes to unearth id eas on what needs to happen i n the future to ensure a more improved and successful mission and a lso identify the key failures in the UN's method of rendering assistance to conflicted nation. Had the UN done a tho rough investigation and resolve the cause of the conflict,there wouldn't have been need for a second mission and the many lives lost wouldn't have been the case, the country needed a constitution on how to gover n themselves and after the e mancipation of the sout hern Sudan there were no visible demarcation of arrangement on how the national resources would be handled between the two sides, and land demarcation and other things that kept causing problem, I believe that it was th e responsibility of the united nation to seek out the problem and resolve it. the UN played a b ig crucial role in resolving the conflict in Sudan for six years and had a successful outcome but having neglected the most important aspect of peace keeping which is bui lding peace, the success didn't last for long before the country returned to war for the second time and the UN was y et again faced with a second mission, all of which would have been avoided in the first place.