ECOWAS Defence Chiefs endorse Code

Accra, Nov. 1, GNA - A two-day meeting of the Chiefs of Defence Staff of ECOWAS ended on Tuesday in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso with the endorsement of the Code of Conduct for the Armed Forces and Security Services of the region.

The draft Code of Conduct was jointly prepared by ECOWAS, in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.

A statement issued by the ECOWAS Secretariat on Wednesday and made available to the Ghana News Agency said the Chiefs of Defence Staff recommended that the Code's implementation be experimented in four Member States - Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Togo. At their 12th meeting held in April 2005 in Niamey, the Defence and Security Commission (DSC) mandated the drafting of the code as a way of improving civil-military relations and relations among the military and security services.

Subsequently, a preparatory meeting was held in Accra in October 2005 and another for experts from Member States in Lom=E9 in April this year as part of the consultative process for the preparation of the draft Code of Conduct.

The statement said with its endorsement by the Commission, the document would now be processed through the ECOWAS decision-making process for approval and implementation.

The meeting also endorsed the logo for the 6,500-strong ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF). The logo, a dove bearing a kola nut leaf over the map of West Africa against a yellow background, is proposed to be worn on the right arm by troops deployed for peace support operations under the ESF.

The logo will thereafter be presented through the regional decision-making process for concurrence and implementation. The meeting of the Defence and Security Commission (DSC) also recommended that the ECOWAS Executive Secretariat undertake a study on the most efficient and cost effective means of providing logistic support for the force whose task force component is scheduled to become operational by 2008.

The main Brigade, comprising 5,000 troops, will become operational by 2010.

The statement said the meeting expressed satisfaction with the security situation in the region and challenged the parties in Cote d'Ivoire to continue to work tirelessly for the restoration of durable peace.

It also called for international financial support for Guinea Bissau to enable the country pursue post-conflict development that would help preserve the peace attained by the country.

During the meeting, the defence chiefs were briefed on the regional peace fund, the status of implementation of the regional standby force, military exercises to improve the capacity of the force, the logistic depot for peace support operations in Freetown, and the operations of the Core Task Force with its Headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.

The Core Task Force has already visited six Member States to assess troops pledged to the ECOWAS Standby Force.

The statement said the meeting was also briefed on the Legal Aspects of the International Cooperation against Terrorism after which it urged Member States that have not done so to ratify and domesticate existing international instruments in this respect.

The Defence chiefs at the opening of the meeting on Monday observed a minute's silence for the 13 senior Nigerian military officers who died in a plane crash on September 17, this year.