PANA
OAU Council Of Ministers Off To Sirte
Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)
February 27, 2001
Posted to the web February 27, 2001
Sidy Gaye
Tripoli, Libya
The just-ended three-day 73rd extraordinary session of OAU Council of
foreign ministers wound up early Tuesday with the adoption of some 20
decisions on administrative, financial and budgetary matters.
The decisions include the restructuring of the OAU General Secretariat at
both its headquarters and regional offices.
The ministers also requested the organisation's Secretary general, Salim
Ahmed Salim, to propose a new status and career plan for staff, as well as a
revised salary and remuneration scale.
In addition to the adoption of the annual budget of 31 million dollars for
the 2001-2002 financial year, the Council commended South Africa, Botswana,
Ethiopia, Lesotho, Libya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Senegal, Swaziland and Togo
for having paid their contributions for the current financial year.
The body also expressed concern over the OAU Fund for peace and launched an
appeal to member states and to partners to support the humanitarian
endeavour in a bid to foster peace and security on the continent.
The ministers also urged member countries to massively attend the next
constitutive conference of the African Energy Commission slated for 9 to 14
May, and instructed the Geneva- African group to fully support Tunisia's
request to host the World summit on Information slated for 2003.
After several hours in search of consensus, the ministers decided to discuss
the thorny issue of the Pan-African parliament provided for in both the
Abuja and African Union treaties.
On the basis of an open report that was submitted to them for review,
opinion was divided among them on the mode of representation at the
parliament of member states and peoples.
Whereas some were in favour of the "simple parity" in the representation of
the different member states, others argued in favour of the "proportional
representation" based on the population of each county.
A third group advocated "the combination of the two systems, for an initial
five-year transitional phase".
Meanwhile, the ministers and a multitude of reporters and other participants
have left by bus and plane for Sirte, 450 kilometres east of Tripoli.
In Sirte, the African ministers and other delegations are expected to hold
another extraordinary session, ahead of the Sirte II summit of the Heads of
state and government.
The latter would take part in the proceedings of the OAU extraordinary
summit on the African Union slated for 1 and 2 M
****
Made In Libya (part ii)
Daily Monitor
February 26, 2001
Posted to the web February 27, 2001
Ayenew Haileselassie
Addis Ababa
African trade unions have discredited the OAU through their endorsement of
the USA plan. The trade unions have indirectly expressed their belief that
the OAU was not upto the challenges - the pressures of globalization,
international organizations and western governments.
The South African Economist-president, Thabo Mbeki, determined to outshine
his predecessor, Nelson Mandela, was eager to show himself as one of the new
age leaders of Africa. He preached African renaissance. When the imposing
Libyan leader came up with his plan for the U.S. of Africa, Mbeki, loathe to
end up a follower to the imperious personality of Gadaffi, retreated out of
the limelight on this issue, and embarked on another campaign of attention
seeking by messing up the facts on HIV. The document that held Gadaffi's
plan was presented in the Lome summit and signed by few and ratified by even
fewer countries. To be implemented it will have to be ratified by two thirds
of OAU member states.
Waiting for all those African states to ratify the document would probably
take many years. So the colonel embarked on a campaign to dismantle the OAU
and erect on its grave the US of Africa. As part of that campaign, trade
union leaders met in Addis Ababa, a meeting that succeeded to the point that
the trade union leaders promised to pressure their leaders to ratify the
document. What the trade union leaders apparently missed was that the most
important issues they discussed were to be found in the original charter of
the OAU.
In September 1999, at a meeting of the African heads of state in Sirte,
Libya, the birth place of Gadaffi, the Colonel made a morally uplifting
speech that was meant to show us Africans our "true worth". The African, he
had said, was greater than the Russian, the French or the British who held
veto powers at the Security Council. Africa should not continue to be
useless, and powerless at the General Assembly while it represented one
third of the U.N. members. The colonialists should not only say sorry for
all the harm they caused Africa, but they should also pay for everything.
Months later Kofi Annan would make a rather humbling remark at the Lome
summit. Africans, he said, had done very little towards the promotion of
development and the preservation of peace, and as a result, they were
suffering. Both in Sirte in 1999 and Lome in 2000, Africans cautiously and
politely put aside Gadaffi's proposal for the formation of the United States
of Africa (USA), even if they were promised that the African Union would
protect the continent on land, sea and air and that the African Congress
would settle disputes between member states.
The African leaders agreed that Africa was being nudged out of the new
market system, that it needed to talk and act more cohesively. They also
knew that matters of sovereignty would make it impossible for African
countries to be lorded over by a single body, like the EU does in Europe.
Besides, many countries are becoming increasingly more interested in
regional organizations that are more effective. But to keep themselves true
to the promise they made in Sirte about a pan-African parliament, 200
parliamentarians from 41 countries would meet later on and adopt a draft
treaty which unfortunately was ratified by only Libya and three other
countries.
Assuming it is all part of an effort to form a pan-African body that
imitates the European Union, however long it may take, it is all a
worthwhile effort try. But if not, who knows what may be in the back of the
mind of the man who, with his bodyguards, once militantly walked away from
an OAU meeting?
Colonel Gadaffi has a grudge against the west for obvious reasons. The Arabs
have simply defeated his expectations by not standing with him against his
western enemies. African countries not only gave him the pleasure of hosting
a summit in his home town, but also avenged him by rejecting the U.N. air
embargo on Libya. (Egypt would only fly to Libya only after it got
permission from the U.N.).
Gadaffi expressed his new-found love for Sub Saharan Africa as early as 1998
by changing the name of the Libyan external radio from Voice of the Greater
Arab Homeland to Voice of Africa.
When black African immigrant workers were killed in Libya, the leader
pointed his finger at forces opposed to his idea of the Untied States of
Africa.
If two thirds of OAU member countries ratified his plan, he would probably
have the immense pleasure of seeing a strong, albeit poor, U.S.A bravely
facing a bullying and threatening, rich and powerful U.S.A. But that will
not happen in 2001 as he had wished.
****
Libya News and Views
Wednesday, 28 February, 2001: France's top public prosecutor urged its
highest court Tuesday to protect Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi from
prosecution for the 1989 bombing of a French DC-10 airliner over Niger.
Advocate General Jean-Yves Launay told the court that diplomatic practice
required that France reject a bid by one of its own investigating
magistrates to bring Qadhafi to trial for ''complicity in murder in relation
to a terrorist act.'' In a landmark decision, a French appeals court last
October rejected an argument from state prosecutors that Qadhafi enjoyed
immunity as a serving head of state and could not be tried in France for the
bombing. But in a final appeals hearing before the Cour de Cassation, Launay
warned that trying Qadhafi would open a Pandora's box of possible suits
against France. The court, which usually follows the advice of the advocate
general, said it would announce its decision on March 13. [Reuters]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 28 February, 2001: The three-day 73rd extraordinary session of
OAU Council of foreign ministers wound up in Tripoli early Tuesday with the
adoption of some 20 decisions on administrative, financial and budgetary
matters. The ministers and a multitude of reporters and other participants
have left by bus and plane for Sirte, 450 kilometres east of Tripoli. In
Sirte, the ministers and other delegations are expected to hold another
session, ahead of the Sirte II summit of the Heads of state and government.
The latter would take part in the proceedings of the OAU extraordinary
summit on the African Union slated for 1 and 2 March. [PANA]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 28 February, 2001: Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is
expected to embark on a two-day visit to Libya on Thursday, the Punch
newspaper reported on Tuesday. Obasanjo is expected to hold bilateral talks
with his Libyan counterpart Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi on the issue of the African
Union, a statement issued by the Nigerian State House was quoted as saying.
The Union project, for which the Libyan leader sponsored a special summit
last year, will be submitted to the various African countries to approve.
Qadhafi, who was scheduled to visit Nigeria on February 14 this year, had to
cancel his tour. [Xinhua]
_________________________________________________
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]
__________________________________________________
