Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

getting it done 253peace agreements may provide an opportunity to use such measures.Analogous to the process of demobilization of soldiers and monitoringof elections attendant to most peace processes, a war economy couldbe “demobilized” and “monitored” by economic supervision. Too frequently,these periods of uncertainty and hope are used as mere breathingspaces for military reorganization and rearmament. The economicaspects of peace processes are generally neglected and too often placedunder the initiative of belligerents jockeying for key economic positionswithin the new authority or simply embezzling funds to rearm.For example, the RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, either ignored the mineralcommission he chaired following the Lomé agreement or used its legitimacyto advance his personal interests and to rearm his movement. 38Similarly, while UNITA handed over to the government the control ofits main diamond areas in late 1997, the rebel movement continuedmining and purchasing weapons.Beyond sanctions and global regulatory measures, it is thus imperativeto set up practical regulatory frameworks that deprive belligerentsof revenues that would allow them to follow a double agenda ofpeace transition and rearmament, as happened repeatedly in Angola,Cambodia, Colombia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Sri Lanka. Althougheconomic activities, even illicit ones, often contribute to social peaceby improving the well-being of the population and changing the focusof groups in conflict, they run the risk of fueling the continuation ofwar or future tensions.Trade in conflict resources can at least be limited through internationallysupervised tax collection and budgetary allocation using escrowfunds (see figure 6.1), even if resources, like diamonds found in alluvialdeposits, remain difficult to control.Figure 6.1 Economic Supervision Scheme during Peace ProcessesPriority publicexpendituresBudgetary commission• Demobilization• Security sector reform• Institutional capacitybuilding• Public services• EconomicdevelopmentAuditBudget• United Nations• Domestic government• Opposition movement• Civil societyrepresentatives• International financialinstitutions and donorsTaxesLicense tooperate backedby audit andsanctions (UNSecurity Councilresolution)EscrowaccountResourcebusinessesSource: Author.