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African summit seeks new drive for peace

By Gumisai Mutume

Alarmed by the many wars on their continent, African leaders recently met for the first extraordinary summit of heads of state of the newly constituted African Union (AU), to give fresh impetus to their search for peace.

The 28 heads of state and six prime ministers, who met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the first week of February, agreed that they must ratify, as soon as possible, a protocol to create a Peace and Security Council within the African Union. More immediately, they decided to send a peace mission to Burundi, embroiled in a decade-long civil war, under the terms of a December 2002 ceasefire agreement between the government and rebel forces. South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique pledged to contribute troops to the mission.

Photo : ©UNMEE / Jorge Aramburu (UN #207019)

Soon after the summit, the interim chairman of the AU Commission, Mr. Amara Essy, appointed Mr. Sadok Fayala of Tunisia as special envoy to the Central African Republic to enhance efforts to bring peace to that country. The envoy will work closely with the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States, which is deploying a peacekeeping force to the republic.

In Addis Ababa, leader after leader stressed the need for reinvigorated efforts to end conflicts in Africa, which Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi described as "a veritable life and death struggle." He and other leaders noted that far too many conflicts are ravaging Africa, from Côte d'Ivoire to the Democratic Republic of Congo to Liberia.

Stressing the importance of strengthening the AU's ability to respond to such crises, South African President Thabo Mbeki urged his compatriots to ratify the protocol to set up the Peace and Security Council by July, when they meet again in Mozambique for their annual meeting.

Once set up, the Council would have powers to mediate conflicts and "institute sanctions whenever an unconstitutional change of government takes place," notes the protocol. Often referred to as the African equivalent of the UN Security Council, the Council is to be made up of 15 countries elected in rotation and would be able to draw on a stand-by African military force. An early warning mechanism would help the Council to anticipate and prevent conflicts before they become full-blown wars, and the Council would be authorized to help in post-war reconstruction.

Although the full impact of the Council's authority is not yet clear, AU officials say its creation would give the Union significantly more powers than the former Organization of African Unity (OAU), which was often criticized as too bureaucratic and ineffective in resolving and preventing wars. The AU officially replaced the OAU at a summit of heads of state in Durban, South Africa, last July. The African Union "has been strengthened and has been given more powers," Mr. Ben Kioko, an AU legal counsellor, told journalists after the summit. "The council will be able to take decisions and implement those decisions."

However, as the African Union attempts to distinguish itself from its predecessor, it has to confront a challenge that perennially dogged the OAU: shortage of money and a failure by many member states to meet their financial obligations. No official figures have been issued on how much will be needed to run the organization, but it is currently strapped for cash, with 10 members facing the threat of sanctions for not paying their dues. The African Union, says South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, "may need more resources."

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