{"id":7731,"date":"2012-03-12T16:04:26","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T16:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=7731"},"modified":"2012-03-12T16:04:26","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T16:04:26","slug":"huge-challenge-for-african-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/03\/12\/huge-challenge-for-african-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge challenge for African Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It will not be easy to achieve the African Union’s goals of economic progress and good governance, United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, has warned.<\/p>\n

He was speaking at the last summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in the South African port city of Durban.<\/p>\n

OAU-AU
\nHelped end white rule
\nSeen as dictators’ club
\nNew focus: economic progress, good governance
\nOn Tuesday, the OAU will be relaunched as the African Union (AU), which is supposed to be more people-orientated, in contrast to the “dictators’ club” of the OAU.<\/p>\n

Leaders from across Africa have gathered for the twin summits in the South African port city of Durban.<\/p>\n

The new 53-member AU is loosely modelled on the European Union and will have the right to intervene in the affairs of its member states, in cases of genocide and war crimes.<\/p>\n

The union is the brainchild of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who was keen to host its headquarters, but Mr Mbeki will be the AU’s first chairman.<\/p>\n

‘Not children’<\/p>\n

Mr Annan said that integration was the way to develop Africa’s economy but said that its poor infrastructure, debt burden and many conflicts were sizeable challenges.<\/p>\n

“To build a successful union in such conditions will require great stamina and iron political will,” said Mr Annan.<\/p>\n

He said that Africa must solve its problems before expecting Western leaders to increase its aid or forgive debts.<\/p>\n

Kofi Annan<\/p>\n

This is the gist of Africa’s latest development plan – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).<\/p>\n

“They will respect us even more when they see us actually resolve the conflicts that disfigure our continent. And I do mean, resolve them. Managing them is not enough,” he said.<\/p>\n

But Colonel Gaddafi was not asking for Western aid:<\/p>\n

“Those who want to assist us, we welcome. Those who want to impose conditions on use, we don’t want them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are not children who need to be taught.”<\/p>\n

‘Old men’s club’<\/p>\n

But a wrangle over where the AU should be based looks set to get it off on the wrong footing.<\/p>\n

Colonel Gaddafi wants the AU headquarters to be in Libya but it seems likely to be in Addis Ababa – like the OAU.<\/p>\n

According to its charter, the AU will be very different from the OAU:<\/p>\n

The AU will have a peacekeeping force, whereas the OAU stressed non-interference in the internal affairs of member-states.<\/p>\n

It will also have its own central bank and court of justice and will work towards creating a single currency.<\/p>\n

It will also have close relations with Nepad – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development – which pledges improved economic and political governance for the people of Africa.<\/p>\n

Outgoing OAU chairman, Levy Mwanawasa defended the decision not to invite Madagascar’s leader, Marc Ravalomanana,<\/p>\n

After a seven month power struggle, he has been recognised as head of state by the US, France, Germany and other western nations.<\/p>\n

Robert Mugabe
\nAfrican leaders have backed Mugabe’s re-election<\/p>\n

“The decision … is a matter of principle and is a reaffirmation of our commitment to the ideals of governance that we, as the OAU, have made,” said Mr Mwanawasa.<\/p>\n

He pointed to recent elections in Sierra Leone, Mali, Lesotho and even Robert Mugabe’s controversial re-election in Zimbabwe as success stories.<\/p>\n

Such statements have revived criticisms in some quarters that the organisation remains little more than an old dictators club. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It will not be easy to achieve the African Union’s goals of economic progress and good governance, United Nations secretary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1496,300,1784,911,1034,258],"class_list":["post-7731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-au","tag-bingu-wa-mutharika","tag-kofi-annan","tag-mugabe","tag-mutharika","tag-malawi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}