Unpacking the Mystery of Mediation in African Peace ... - Swisspeace

Central African Republic, Inclusive Political Dialog (Pre-talks only)
Firstly, there was the lack of continuity in the
process once the CPDPI’s and HD’s mandate
had ended, with no implementation scale for the
resulting recommendations.
Secondly, Bozizé owned the process and made it
difficult to shape it according to the parties’ perceptions.
The question of ownership was itself an
issue of the talks.
Thirdly, the supposed inclusiveness of the process
must be questioned, as 80 per cent of the participants
were more or less closely affiliated with the
ruling party.
These questions must be addressed by the mediation
team of the actual talks; otherwise, it is likely
that the dialog will become a mere windowdressing
exercise of the CAR’s government.
Agreement
The agenda for the negotiation phase, which is
part of the recommendations of the CPDPI, is
overloaded. With a timeframe of only 17 days
and 150 participants, it is hardly possible to cover
23 agenda points ranging from socio-economic
development, security, and disarmament to political
and economic governance, elections, and
many more topics. In fact, the non-participating
political opposition has asked that the content of
the talks be limited to security and governance,
fearing that the dialog would lead to superficial
and non-binding recommendations.
Context
The pre-talks to the DPI are not due to the specific
situation in the conflict between the main
armed groups and the government: In fact, the
military situation has not changed much for the
past ten years, with the government controlling
only little state territory outside Bangui. While
there might be some sort of stalemate in the
armed conflict, due to the weakness of all armed
factions, it does not seem to be hurting, as the
government shows little interest in the northern
part of its country. The criterion of ‘ripeness’ is
therefore not applicable to this mediation attempt.
61 The request from President Bozizé to the
third parties to facilitate a preparatory committee
61 For a definition of ‘ripeness’ see: Zartman, William I.: “Ripe for
Resolution”, New York: Oxford University Press (1989), p. 10.
for an inclusive dialog is rather the consequence
of external pressure from the EU, which was worried
about the security situation in one of
EUFOR’s destination countries.
Outlook
The implementation of any outcome needs to be
followed very closely by BONUCA. In this regard,
the inclusion of the CAR in the UN Peacebuilding
Commission’s agenda on 12 June 2008
is a positive message to Bozizé, indicating that the
post-dialog phase should not be treated as business
as usual.
BONUCA still lacks resources, staff, and capabilities.
It needs support from the UN Mediation
Support Unit (MSU) as well as other external actors.
The regional organization, the Economic
Community of Central African States (ECCAS),
provides the Mission de consolidation de la paix
en Centrafrique (MICOPAX) peacekeeping force.
However, ECCAS lacks peacebuilding and mediation
capacities. The current attempt to improve
the organization’s capacities is crucial in facilitating
effective cooperation between
BONUCA, MSU, ECCAS, and other actors.
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