PANA Libyan Generosity Gives Vote Rights To Sanctioned Countries Panafrican News Agency (Dakar) February 26, 2001 Posted to the web February 26, 2001 Sidy Gaye Tripoli In an expression of his characteristic generosity, the leader of the Libyan revolution Monday cancelled "30 percent of the arrears of contributions of 10 OAU member countries currently under sanctions by the continental body". Announcing the news on the last day of the Council of Ministers meeting, the Secretary General of the OAU said he had received from the host country a cheque "temporarily and exceptionally bailing out 10 sanctioned countries." As a result those countries will be able to take part fully in the next deliberations of the Syrte II extraordinary Summit. Salim Ahmed Salim said that the special dispensation is permitted by OAU regulation for "any member country owing contribution arrears" and which, in one way or another, "manages to pay up at least 30 percent of the amount owed". Apart from Chad which paid up its areas on the same day, the dispensation will benefit the ten countries "until the opening of the next session to be held in July in Lusaka, Zambia", Salim said. Countries which have benefited from the Libyan leader's generosity are Burundi, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles and Sierra Leone. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Sierra Leone and Chad, which had all benefited from an earlier special dispensation, did not meet the payment deadlines negotiated with the OAU contributions committee. The five countries consequently suffered the same fate as the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Federal and Islamic Republic of Comoros, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe and Seychelles. This is the second time that Libya has taken such a measure. The first time it bailed out defaulting countries was in 1999 at the Syrte I summit. The summit ended with the adoption of the Syrte Declaration which calls for the urgent creation of the African Union. Such measures give a few months' respite to sanctioned countries and offer them the opportunity to "fully take part in these historic moments of pan-African renewal", Salim said. However, they will never make up for the lack of political will on the part of such an oil-producing country as Equatorial Guinea which has had to accumulate contribution arrears over five years, amounting to around one million dollars. Yet it is one of the rare African countries with a two-digit economic growth rate, obsevers note. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
