Prospects for African conflict resolution in the next millennium: South Africa’s view

Abstract

The tragic events in Liberia (1990), Somalia (1992) and Rwanda (1994) evoked a rethinking on the pivotal role assigned to the United Nations and the international community in African conflict resolution. Subsequently, there emerged clarion calls for African solutions to African conflicts, with foreign intervention only playing a complementary role. This unfolding of events put a democratic South Africa, a former pariah state, in a good stead to take this initiative in sub-Saharan Africa. So far, South Africa s circumspect role has elicited mixed reactions from concerned parties within and outside her territorial boundaries. In this paper, the nature of South Africa s involvement in subsequent conflicts is discussed. The main objective is to highlight factors which have moulded South Africa s intervention, and their impact on her perceptions about prospects for future African initiatives in the twenty-first century.