UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday criticized power-grabs in Africa in a speech to the continent’s leaders as Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi reluctantly handed over the presidency of the African Union (AU) to Malawi.
Build-up to the three-day summit in Addis Ababa was dominated by expectation that Qaddafi would try to extend his 12-month tenure as head of the AU.
Soon after Ban’s opening address, which urged leaders of the 53-member body to stick to good governance rules, Qaddafi announced an accord for Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika to take the helm for the coming year.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“I accept this responsibility with a lot of humility,” said Mutharika who was the candidate of the bloc of southern African nations.
Qaddafi’s presidency of the body was marked by his efforts to promote his vision of a “United States of Africa” — a project that made little progress during his 12 months in charge.
It also prompted awkward questions about the continent’s commitment to democracy, given the absence of free elections in Libya ever since Qaddafi took power in a bloodless coup in 1969.
In his opening address, Ban voiced concern about what he called a recent resurgence of “unconstitutional” power changes in Africa and rapped attempts by incumbents to change the law in order to help them stay in office.
“The resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government in Africa is a matter of serious concern,” the UN secretary-general said. “We must also guard against the manipulation of established processes to retain power.”
African efforts to uphold democratic government suffered a string of setbacks last year, including in Madagascar where President Marc Ravalomanana was toppled in an army-backed coup in March, and in Guinea where a junta that seized power in December 2008 was accused of massacring opposition followers.
Other recent trouble-spots include Niger where the president has brushed aside international criticism to allow himself another term in office and Mauritania where the country’s first democratically elected leader was toppled by the army in August 2008.
In his acceptance speech, Mutharika said it was time for Africa to fulfill its promise, saying “the time has come for Africa to develop Africa.”
“Africa is not a poor continent, but the African populations are poor when we have actually a lot of natural resources,” he told his peers. “We have many scientists, engineers, artists, sports champion who are now in Western countries contributing to the development of these countries.”
Qaddafi, meanwhile, said he would continue to push his dream of a fully integrated continent.
“There is no need for any title, I’ll remain in the front struggling,” Qaddafi said. “If we have one African voice, one African foreign policy in the international arena, then we’ll be heard. If we don’t unite, we’ll be colonized again.”
The summit’s official theme is information technology, but leaders barely touched on the subject on Sunday.
In a pre-summit interview, Ban put special emphasis on the fate of Sudan, where tension has been mounting in the run-up to a referendum next year in which the south is widely expected to choose independence from Khartoum, only six years after signing a peace deal.
He told African leaders that the situation in the war-torn western Sudanese province of Darfur “reflects and exposes our limitations.”
A special meeting early on Sunday about Sudan produced a “consensus on several key issues,” Ban later told reporters.
Also on Ethiopia’s doorstep is the conflict in Somalia, where AU peacekeepers have so far failed to stem the killing and which world powers fear is becoming a haven for al-Qaeda militants.
“The time has come for the international community to look at Somalia in the same way as the approach towards Afghanistan,” AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra told reporters.
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