Global Policy Forum

By Richard Holbrooke

It would be a mistake to see the tragedy of Sierra Leone as a metaphor for all of Africa or for the failure of all United Nations peacekeeping. Parts of Africa, including some of the largest countries, have continued to show progress. South Africa, Niger-ia, Botswana, Mozambique, Ghana, Mali and even Algeria are in better shape than they used to be.

But, just as we have seen in Europe and Southeast Asia, a crisis in Africa has emerged out of the vacuum of power in countries whose geographic and ethnic boundaries are in conflict - particularly when vast riches are at stake, as they are in Angola, the Congo and Sierra Leone. These wars, while in part a legacy of the past, must be recognized as resulting to a considerable degree from the behavior of demagogues who represent the forces of greed and darkness. In the case of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, we are talking about genuinely evil people. The tragedy there is immense.

In this sense, I find the situation in the Congo and Sierra Leone very similar to the situation in the Balkans. The Europeans are not a good example for the Africans. They have torn themselves apart over ethnicity and borders time and again during the last century.

The noose is tightening around the necks of those in Africa, like Charles Taylor in Liberia and Foday Sankoh in Sierra Leone, whose activities are beyond the civilized realm. The diamond industry is among the most mysterious and least understood on earth. I cannot guarantee that the UN embargo on diamonds from Sierra Leone will work. If it doesn't, the United Nations, in conjunction with the African states, will have to go further, perhaps imposing sanctions and travel bans.

I have no doubt that additional steps will be considered against Liberia and other countries that flout the goals of stability in Africa. President Bill Clinton will be discussing this with President Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria this weekend.The United States has announced plans to train Nigerian troops for peacekeeping in Sierra Leone. There are two goals here. One is to have some units available for deployment in the UN force in Sierra Leone. But this program is not solely for Sierra Leone. It is for strengthening of democracy and a professional army in Nigeria.

The United Nations' peacekeeping efforts have been lamentable in their implementation. The world, therefore, has two fundamental choices. We can give up on the United Nations, in which case situations like Sierra Leone will get worse, spiral out of control and drag in other countries. Or we can try to make the United Nations better.

The American view is clear: We want to reform the United Nations in order to save it. We want to fix it, not abandon it. We need to invest more so that it can succeed, but we need to hold it to much higher standards of performance. The United Nations may be flawed, but it is indispensable. In no part of the world is this clearer than in Africa.

Mr. Holbrooke is the U.S. representative to the United Nations. This comment has been adapted by the International Herald Tribune from an interview distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.