The Foreign Service Journal - December 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2017 35 Supporting the Casamance Peace Initiative Senegal 2012 • By James R. Bullington In 2012, one of the candidates in Senegal’s presidential elec- tion, Macky Sall, campaigned on a promise to end a secession- ist insurgency that had persisted in the southern part of the country, the Casamance, for 30 years. It had resulted in hun- dreds of deaths, thousands of refugees, a crippled economy and a politically unstable region increasingly vulnerable to Islamist extremism and international narcotics trafficking. When Sall won and indicated he would welcome inter- national assistance in implementing his campaign promise, Rebecca Wall, a member of a small team of election observers sent by the newly created State Department Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, saw an opportunity to promote our interests and those of one of our most important African allies. Peace in the Casamance, she and her colleagues reasoned, would eliminate a source of political instability, encourage eco- nomic development and free up Senegalese military resources for participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations and countering Islamist extremism in West Africa. CSO sold this idea to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visited Dakar in July 2012 and offered our help to President Sall. He accepted. I had been in touch with Rebecca and CSO for several months in an effort to find a job that would alleviate my grow- ing boredom in retirement. My qualifications—fluent French, ambassadorial rank and lots of experience in Africa and in conflict situations, including Vietnam, Chad and Burundi—fit their needs for the Casamance project. I began work as a re-employed annuitant and, after several days of consul- tations in Washington, arrived in Dakar in mid-October. My welcome by the Senegalese government and peo- ple was enthusiastic, not because of any personal merit, but because of what my appointment represented—the official engagement of the U.S. government to support the Casamance peace initiative. This illustrates an important point: American participation is vital to address many global issues, as other governments and people often look to Uncle Sam for leadership and backing. Over the next two years, this U.S. engagement in sup- port of Senegal’s effort to end the Casamance conflict was instrumental in mobilizing international reconstruction and development aid for the region; facilitating negotia- tions between the government and the rebels; launching a disarmament, demobilization and re-insertion program for rebel fighters; and beginning the resettlement of refu- gees who had been displaced by the conflict. The CSO Casamance project was highly cost-effective. It consisted of me, a part- time deputy (retired FSO Sue Ford Patrick) whom I recruited in Dakar and one officer (Rebecca) to sup- port us in Washington, D.C., plus $1 million in Defense Department funds that were made available to State. This illustrates another important point: diplomacy is almost At top, James Bullington (right) meets with leaders of the Mine Victims Association in Ziguinchor, capital of the Casamance region, in 2013. Opposite, Bullington (fourth from right) and U.S. Ambassador to The Gambia Ned Alford (third from right) meet with refugees from the Casamance in The Gambia. PHOTOSCOURTESYOFJAMESR.BULLINGTON