The 11th African Union Summit has officially ended on the 1st of July in Egypt with some new conlusions on Zimbabwe, the AU Government and the AU Audit.
The Executive Council (EC) that was to take major decisions ‘to breath fresh life into several organs of the continental body, and remove doubts over its efficiency’. According to the PRC Chairman, Tanzanian Ambassador Mohamed Maundi, the PRC meeting accepted 19 recommendations on the Audit reported, rejected 22 recommendations and referred 52 of them to the AU Commission. The President of the AU Commission, Jean Ping, expressing himself at the opening of the Assembly of heads of state and government, outlined major reforms he intends to undertake to improve his institution. He mentioned the importance of taking into consideration the recommendations suggested in the AU Audit report and giving priority to the values of competence, experience, efficiency and justice, as well as devotion to the AU.
In addition, he revealed that he had started a certain number of reforms to improve AU performance and strengthen initiative and execution capacity. The Chairperson of the AU Commission also wants to promote team spirit, corporate governance and smooth information flow. “It will be a question of optimising the operation of the different structures of the commission and strengthen the measures aimed at making more credible and transparent the management of the precious financial and material resources put at our disposal,” Ping commented.
The Peace and Security Council (PSC) presented their report on the security situation in Africa to the Assembly. Within the report were mixed findings on the progress of peace and security on the continent: countries like Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic and Comoros showing improvements and, yet, new tensions arising in countries such Sudan, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with ‘persistent deadlock’ being recorded between Ethiopia and Eritrea. ‘On Kenya, the report said the post-election crisis in the country was overcome with the signing, on 28 February, of the national accord and the reconciliation law.’
The 11th Au Summit was also overshadowed by the presence of the reelected Zimbabwian President Robert Mugabe. African leaders were divided on Zimbabwe and refrained from criticising Mugabe outrightly. Nevertheless, some leaders openly criticised Mugabe, such as Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, and Vice President Mompati Merafhe of Botswana who said that allowing him to participate in the AU summit gave “unqualified legitimacy to a process which cannot be considered legitimate.” Others such as South African President Thabo Mbeki opted for continued dialogue. The AU eventually reached a compromise decision calling on Zimbabwe’s political parties to initiate a dialogue aimed at establishing a government of national unity.
The debate on the establishment of the AU Government begun since Accra, but on whether or not to form a continental government, as first stage towards United States of Africa, could not end at Sharm El-Cheikh in Egypt. Heads of state attending the summit have decided to postpone the question to their next summit in January 2009 in Addis.
As the organisation of the July AU Summits seems to cause some problems, Libya has offered to host AU July sessions until 2010. This Libyan proposal has been registered on the draft agenda of the 16th session of the Permanent Representative Committee (PRC). This report notes that various states apologized for being unable to host the sessions due to “special circumstances”. Thus, the Tripoli offer ensures the holding of the July sessions in Sirte until 2010 with all related conveniences, a Francophone African diplomat told news agency APA on the sidelines of the meeting of the permanent representatives from the 53 member states. Also Uganda has submitted a bid to host the July 2010 ordinary session of the African Union summit, a reliable source told APA here on Wednesday. The bid, submitted in already May 2008, is under consideration by the Permanent Representatives Committee (PCR) meeting behind closed doors to discuss a series of political, diplomatic, cultural, humanitarian, and environmental issues. A decision who will host the summit will be expected at the next summit.
Additionally, newspapers have commented that Morocco is still appearing in the accounting books of the African Union despite its withdrawal from the continental body in 1984. The reason is that even though Morocco quit the organization it still owes contribution arrears, a source close to the AU contribution sub-committee said. If the Morocco returns to the organization, it will be required to pay the arrears. According to the commission, writing off Morocco’s arrears would give the false or undesirable impression that “Rabat was no longer a member of the African Organization”. In 1984, Rabat froze its activities in the bodies of the Organization for African Unity (now the African Union) following the recognition by the organization of the Polisario Front, which claims sovereignty over Western Sahara, which Morocco regards as part of its territory.
Finally, it was decided that a special summit of African heads of state and governments on refugees is scheduled for November due to “some new and worrying tendencies are developing with forced displacement of people”. The special summit will consider the fate of repatriated and displaced people who face the worst living conditions in their “precarious and risky” settlement areas. The note notes that displaced and repatriated people continue to face security issues apart from climate change and a food crisis. These negative factors, the document adds, “affect the African continent and overshadow the progress achieved in many countries”, giving the examples of Burundi, Cote-d’Ivoire and Kenya. There are about 15 million displaced people and three million refugees in Africa.
