Civil/military collaboration key to conflict resolution(page 19)

Story: Michael Donkor & Edward Turkson
A former Diplomat, Ambassador Jimmy Aggrey-Orleans, has called for an effective collaboration between civilians and the military to address the conflict situation in the West African sub-region.
He said conflicts in West Africa could not be solved through a military strategy alone but in a civil-military partnership.
Ambassador Aggrey-Orleans made the call at a 10-day Civil-Military Operation Course at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre at Teshie near Accra on Wednesday.
The course seeks to improve civil-military co-ordination at the middle management level of African military officers and civilian authorities.
About 30 participants from Ghana, Nigeria and Chad are attending the course.
The participants would be briefed on the roles of various organisations in providing security and stability to improve the harmonisation between military and civilian authorities.
Ambassador Aggrey-Orleans, who is now a consultant, said instability in the sub-region had contributed to the under-development of the region and called on the military to subject themselves to civilian rule.
He said a country was ruled by a government and since the civil populace outnumbered that of the military it was appropriate that civilians rule.
He said the destiny of Africa had launched it through various military stages that the military and the civil should work together towards the development of the continent.
Ambassador Aggrey-Orleans called for the military to be brought from the barracks to the people for the public to know that soldiers were as human as civilians.
He called on Africans to put their act together before entering into any partnerships.
Ambassador Aggrey-Orleans said “we cannot walk like sheep into any development partnership without taking intelligent steps towards that”.
He said the days of the cold war where countries aligned themselves to an ideology was no more and urged Africans to see themselves as part of a globalised world and be themselves.
He said the security environment was just like a globalised world which involved Africans and that it was important to take intelligent approach towards it.
The Commandant of the Kofi International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Major-Gen John Attipoe, said civil-military co-operation was key to the achievement of humanitarian objectives, as well as the fulfilment of the mandate of peace support operations.