African Union leaders on Monday called on their fellow African nations to present a united front in their dealings with the rest of the world, and exhorted the rich nations of the planet to make good on their promises to help the world’s least-developed continent climb out of poverty.
”Today there is a worldwide trend in Africa’s favour. It’s not just a flash in the pan, it’s sincere,” AU President Alpha Oumar Konare told the several dozen African heads of state gathered in the Libyan town of Sirte for the pan-African body’s fifth heads-of-state summit.
Referring to the forthcoming summit of the Group of Eight (G8) richest nations, set to open Wednesday in Gleneagles, Scotland, and to the meeting scheduled for September in New York on the reform of the United Nations, Konare said in his opening address: ”Africa will participate in these meetings, proud, united and showing solidarity. This is an Africa that handles its own problems and respects its principles.”
He also called on rich nations to help, saying: ”Too many promises have been made to us in the course of too many meetings, but none has ever been honoured.”
The call for Africa to present a united front in its dealings with other economic blocks and international bodies refers to the need for the continent to find, and stick with, a common position on the proposed reform of the UN Security Council, one subject topping the agenda.
The leaders are expected to ratify a declaration on African representation on the UN Security Council, drawn up by their foreign ministers and calling for the allocation of ”two permanent seats with full privileges including veto rights … and five non-permanent seats on the Security Council”.
Eight countries have officially declared themselves candidates for the two Security Council seats that Africa may or may not get in the framework of a broader reform of the UN. This summit is expected to steer clear of the thorny issue of who fills the two potential African seats, for fear of igniting regional rivalries.
Africa is the only continent to have become poorer over the past 25 years, according to the UN, with about 300-million people living on less than $1 a day.
Africa’s relations with the G8 developed nations has crept on to the agenda because the event comes just two days ahead of the G8 summit in Scotland and because a handful of African leaders, among them Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, current chair of the pan-African body, will attend the Scotland summit.
Ghana’s President John Kufuor said he hopes the G8 will result in an extension of the debt-relief package announced in June to all African nations ”across the board”, to enhanced aid, fair trade and a new resolution on the part of the G8 nations ”to keep their promises”.
Other heads of state or government who assembled in this town 450km east of Tripoli for the summit, the fifth since the AU was launched in 2002 to succeed the Organisation of African Unity, included Jose Edouardo dos Santos of Angola, Benin’s Mathieu Kerekou, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic, Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire and Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso both addressed the summit. Barroso announced a meeting will be organised in Lisbon to agree on a new Euro-Africa pact, the aim of which is to turn the current partnership between Africa and Europe into ”a solid coalition for a stronger and more stable multilateral world”.
Annan officially announced the setting up of a Democracy Fund, aimed notably at helping countries prepare and hold elections.
”I am pleased to announce the creation of the UN Democracy Fund, which will provide assistance to countries seeking to establish or strengthen their democracy. A number of member states have already indicated their intention to contribute. I hope more will follow that example,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, already criticised in the West for his democratic record, has come under fire for his policy of demolishing unauthorised housing and businesses, which has made tens of thousands homeless.
The AU, which has been criticised notably by Britain and the United States for not intervening, sent a special rights investigator to Zimbabwe just as Mugabe left for Libya.
Mugabe said his country is coming under unfair pressure and blamed this on Britain.
”This is our summit. People are talking about Zimbabwe just because of Britain. But Zimbabwe is a sovereign country, free, no longer a colony of Britain. And we will resist any kind of unfair pressures,” he said.
First climate change, then poverty
The G8 summit in Scotland will focus on Thursday on economic questions and global warming before turning to poverty in Africa on Friday, a British official said on Monday.
The heads of seven African countries — South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, and Algeria — and the leaders of four emerging states — China, Mexico, Brazil and India — will join the G8 summit, he said.
The G8 comprises the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia. South Africa counts as both an African and an emerging country.
Following is an agenda of discussions:
- On Wednesday, delegations arrive at the Gleneagles golf resort near Edinburgh. Queen Elizabeth II hosts a dinner for the G8 leaders.
- On Thursday, discussions will be on the world economy and climate change during the day, with a working breakfast involving the G8 leaders and the leaders of India, China, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil. In the late afternoon, talks will centre on foreign policy, especially efforts to end the Arab-Israeli East.
- On Friday, talks will centre on Africa, with a first session involving the G8 leaders alone before they are joined by the heads of state or government of the seven African countries. Host Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain is scheduled to give a closing press conference at 2pm local time.
The pressing needs of protest
Meanwhile, sitting atop the fence that rings the home of Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet, Johnny Barton learned there can be more important things that outrage against the world’s deadliest weapons, reports reports Robert MacPherson
Like answering the call of nature.
”Does anybody know a discreet way of having a pee up here?” cried Barton (33) to the boisterous crowd of fellow protesters below him at the Faslane naval base, after a couple of uncomfortable hours on his awkward perch.
More than 700 people virtually shut down the base — home of the deep-sea subs that carry Britain’s nuclear Trident missiles — as part of a series of protests ahead of the G8 summit.
Solutions for Barton’s predicament, steeped in laughter, were quick to be heard, together with a lively debate on the legality of urinating onto the military side of the fence, or on to the civilian sidewalk outside.
Option two posed the distinct risk of giving a golden shower to the poker-faced police officers who stood between the chain-link fence and the 250-odd demonstrators at Faslane’s oil depot.
Ingenuity finally prevailed, as Barton, from Aberdeen on Scotland’s east coast, careful not to cut himself on the barbed wire atop the 3m fence, covered his modesty with a tartan wool jacket.
With a demonstrator adding extra privacy with a US flag defaced with the words ”Make imperialism history”, Barton made best use of a couple of paper cups, then discretely emptied the contents on the inside of the fence.
”This is street theatre at his best,” he declared, to cheers all around.
In an impromptu interview with news agency AFP as the protesters took a break from drumming and dancing, Barton — sporting a three-day beard, jeans and maroon sweater — spoke for many when he expressed his disgust at nuclear weapons.
”The reason I’m doing this is to raise awareness about the scandalous spending at this time every year on Trident nuclear weapons,” he said, noting that Britain spends £1,5-billion (R18,06-billion) a year on the sea-going missiles.
Such spending is ludicrous in the context of the G8 leaders discussing ways to deal with climate change and poverty in Africa at their three-day summit that begins on Wednesday, he said.
”I’m not affiliated with any group or organisation,” said Barton, who did, however, become a card-carrying member of the Scottish Green Party while literally sitting on the fence.
”I’m a British citizen. I’m one of many opposed to nuclear weapons. They cost too much. They’re too dangerous. And they are illegal.”
Over at Faslane’s main north gate, a morning of almost non-stop drumming and freestyle dancing was interrupted at midday by the saying of mass by David Platt, a retired vicar and longtime Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activist.
”We pray for those [Royal Navy sailors] on the other side of the fence … May God’s light shine upon them and give them peace and understanding in their hearts,” he said, before leading a solemn recital of the Lord’s Prayer. — Sapa-AFP