News
Monday, July 19, 2010
Pakistan lauds African leadership for promoting peace, security* Haroon says world should emulate role of Africa’s leadership
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has paid tributes to the African leadership for addressing the challenges of peace, security and nation building across the continent.
“I am proud to say that the Africa of today is leading the way with so many practical examples that we indeed can learn from you,” Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon told the UN Security Council.
Speaking during a day-long debate on “Optimising the use of preventive diplomacy tools: prospects and challenges in Africa”, he underscored the African Union’s role in providing strategic coherence, leadership and on-ground management in nearly all conflicts in the continent. The rest of the world would do well to emulate Africa, he said. “In the first half of the twentieth century, the independent movements in the Subcontinent and the freedom struggle against colonialism in Africa were mutually inspiring,” he said.
Haroon pointed out that 8,700 of the nearly 11,000 Pakistani peacekeepers in United Nations missions were in Africa, which had installed a solid peace and security with built-in conflict-prevention and mediation mechanisms.
The United Nations had some success in using preventive diplomacy to solve conflicts in Africa and elsewhere, he noted. However, more must be done to strengthen and make full use of the comparative advantages of regional, national and local capacities in mediation, conflict prevention, reconciliation and dialogue, he said.
The Security Council must make wider and more effective use of the procedures and means for the peaceful settlement of disputes envisaged in Articles 33 to 38 of the Charter, he said. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk