Leaders and officials from more than 50 African states convened a summit on Friday aimed to discuss security strategies for a trouble-plagued continent, with Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi urging Africans to unite if they want to be strong and influential in the world.
At the two-day African Union summit, members are expected to finalise a “peace and security protocol” that would allow for an exchange of information and strategies to combat criminal activity and political instability on the continent.
“There should be no place for weakness so that force cannot be imposed on us,” Gadaffi said in his opening address to African leaders meeting in this Libyan city on the Mediterranean.
“We have the capabilities that would allow us to be as strong as the United States and the European Union, and this is a good thing, so there could be balance in the world. When there is no balance there are wars and conflicts,” he said.
As the summit opened, a group of about 60 students in the hall waving small flags shouted “Africa, Africa. United, United”. Gadaffi’s speech was free of the anti-Western rhetoric that marked most of his 35 years in power.
Libya’s relations with the US and Britain have dramatically improved in recent months after Gadaffi pledged to give up Tripoli’s quest for weapons of mass destruction. The US on Thursday lifted a long-standing ban on travel to Libya.
Gadaffi did not address the developments in his speech on Friday.
He recalled the past of Africa when it was colonised and its people sold as slaves.
“They hunted us in the forests like animals, put us on ships and sold us for cheap … They used us as mercenaries to fight for their colonising empires,” Gadhafi said.
“We hope the humanitarian tragedy will not be repeated … But if we are not strong, they could be tempted again,” he said.
European Commission President Romano Prodi attended the opening session.
Gadaffi said there was a new European and American mentality that drew on lessons from the past.
The only compensation for Africa for the past to is through African “efforts and sweat, blood and tears for the sake of liberating and uniting the continent and building its capabilities”, he said.
Africa is one of the most troubled regions in the world.
Devastating local wars, including those in Sudan, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, fuelled the idea of having some kind of regional security force that could stay aloof from internal wars and help bring peace.
Gadaffi’s idea of creating a single African army to defend the continent was discussed by foreign ministers of the African states in a meeting on Thursday.
Libyan officials have touted the proposal of a single African army as “a progressive idea”, but delegates from other nations cautioned that it needed a lot of research. They questioned how the continent could unite militarily if it cannot unite politically.
The idea of forming a single African army was broached in July 2002 during the first summit of the African Union, which replaced the 39-year-old Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The OAU was widely criticised for doing little to prevent African despots from
plundering their countries and oppressing their people.
The young African Union aspires to be more effective, but it labours under financial constraints, including a $40-million debt inherited from the OAU.
Gadaffi first proposed the single continental army at the 2002 summit in Durban, South Africa. He renewed his proposal three days ago at a meeting of African defence ministers.
The Libyan Foreign Minister, Abdel Rahman Shalqam, took up the cause on Thursday on the sidelines of preparatory meetings for the two-day summit.
“This is a progressive idea,” Shalqam said. “If we had said in the past that we are going to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea [by digging] the Suez Canal, nobody would have believed us. But big ideas start like that.”
A senior African diplomat, speaking on condition neither he nor his country was identified, said on Thursday the formation of a united army is a long-term project and requires more cooperation than currently exists on the continent.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said a united African army was “a worthy cause”. But he cautioned it would “take a lot of research and time and we shouldn’t rush things”. — Sapa-AP
Cold water on Gadaffi’s big idea