§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance Her Majesty's Government have offered the Organisation of African Unity to carry out peace-keeping and peace-making activities. [47329]
203W
§ Mr. Tony LloydThe UK is committed to helping the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) build its capacity for peacekeeping and conflict prevention. We have been working with other donors, particularly France and the US, to co-ordinate more closely our peace-keeping training. In March 1996 the UK and the OAU jointly organised a conflict management seminar in Addis Ababa. In April 1997 the UK funded the attendance of four participants from the OAU at a role playing peacekeeping seminar, with a conflict prevention element, in Camberley. The UK is planning a Command Post Exercise in the Conflict Management Division of the OAU designed to follow-up a US-run exercise held earlier this year. In Addis Ababa a British Military Liaison Officer works with the OAU on conflict prevention and peacekeeping. In addition, the UK contributed to an EU project worth ecu 860,000 designed to improve communications between the OAU's Centre for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in Addis Ababa and its offices in the field.