MFI/Radio France Internationale (Paris)
Marie Joannidis
3 July 2002
analysis
Durban, South Africa — Organizing a Union For Africa - Durban 2002 (2 of 11)
Good political and economic governance will be at the heart of the debates at the first summit of the new African Union in Durban, South Africa, this July, with efforts to restore peace, notably in the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere in the continent.
The Africans have themselves used the principle of good governance as a basis for the new initiative to kick-start the continent's economy within the framework of NEPAD. But they will have more difficulty talking politics despite real progress made towards ending some conflicts. "The causes of deadlock are multiple and run from an obsession with security in Rwanda concerning the DRC to the stubbornness of the Malagasy protagonists or the Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, and the toughening of Guinea's attitude towards the conflicts in Sierra Leone and in Liberia", says a well-informed diplomatic observer. Regional and internal conflicts will in any case be on the summit's menu, as will questions linked to the New Economic Partnership for African Development such as debt, official development aid and steps to reinforce the private sector, without forgetting the fight against AIDS.
Conflicts in the process of being resolved...
The African Union will be able to congratulate itself on the end of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, even if problems still exist on the borders laid out in mid-April by the International Border Commission meeting in The Hague. The Peace Accords brokered by the OAU signed in Algiers in 2000 allowed the deployment of some 4,200 peacekeepers within the framework of the United Nations Mission for Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNIMEE) along the nearly 1,000 kilometre border between the two neighbours. The two-year war, which took more than 70,000 lives, began in 1998 near the border village of Badme whose control is still disputed.
The conflict in the Comoros archipelago, sparked by the secession of the island of Anjouan, was resolved in February 2001 through a National Reconciliation Accord established under the auspices of the International Organization of Francophone Countries (OIF). A constitution establishing the new Union of the Comoros was adopted at the end of 2001, granting each island large autonomy. However, presidential elections in mid-April were marred by scattered incidents. As for the conflict in Burundi, it was practically resolved thanks in large part to the efforts of the former South African Head of State Nelson Mandela with the backing of the OAU.
The leaders meeting in Durban will also be able to welcome the end of the Civil War in Angola. But peace only came with the death in combat in February 2002 of Jonas Savimbi, historical leader of the Unita rebel movement, and the military victory by government forces. Years of efforts by the OAU and the UN had failed to settle this conflict, which killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than four million, a full third of the Angolan population.
The bloody war in Sierra Leone meanwhile officially ended last January thanks to the efforts of several protagonists, first of all the British, who sent troops to protect the government, and UN and ECOWAS soldiers who put pressure on the RUF rebels and their allies in Liberia. The international campaign against "dirty" diamonds from Angola and Sierra Leone backed by UN sanctions against Liberia also bore fruit.
...and others still awaiting a solution
Other conflicts are still awaiting a solution despite efforts undertaken by the OAU and the international community and will be amid the "hot" items discussed at the summit.
The mediator named by the Pan-African organization to encourage inter-Congolese dialogue in the DRC, Botswana's former president Ketumile Masire, with the backing notably of South African President Thabo Mbeki, is still having a hard time persuading Rwanda and its Congolese allies of the RCD to accept a global settlement. Mbeki is considered an ally of Rwanda, which is slowly losing support in the international community, although British Secretary for Overseas Development Clare Short continues to support Kigali. Angola and Zimbabwe are still major allies of President Joseph Kabila. A partial solution was achieved in April with the power-sharing deal concluded between Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Uganda-backed MLC rebels. The forces of these two sides control over 70% of the country's territory.
Another delicate subject is Zimbabwe with the controversial re-election of Robert Mugabe as President, a man accused by his opponents of using political violence. Thabo Mbeki is in a tight spot in this regard. After keeping silent for a long period on the violence in neighbouring Zimbabwe, condemned by the international community, he finally reacted at the same time as Nigeria's President Obasanjo : the two African leaders and the Australian Prime Minister made up the Commonwealth troika which decided to suspend Zimbabwe's membership in the organization for a year.
Contradictory feelings
African hesitations concerning Mugabe reflect the contradictory feelings between, on the one hand, a declared attachment to democracy and to good governance - which generates development aid - and, on the other hand, the desire to free oneself of the hold by donors who are, for some of them, the former colonial powers. Mugabe has constantly played on the anti-colonialist fibre to justify violence against white farmers who still own a great share of the productive lands in the country. He also used the same arguments to reject accusations of electoral fraud vigorously denounced by foreign observers, but minimized by some of their African colleagues, including the South Africans. Countries like South Africa fear, according to observers, a demagogic spill over, as the question of white owned farmland is a potentially explosive subject.
The OAU with the help of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has also tried to unwind the knotted issue of the Malagasy presidential elections where outgoing President Didier Ratsiraka and his rival Marc Ravalomanana both claim victory in last December's ballot. Despite the attention the summit pays to these political questions, a good share of the debates will undoubtedly focus on economic questions vital for the continent's future, especially concerning the role of the African Union in the implementation of NEPAD. They know that economic development, peace and good political governance go hand in hand.
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