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Africa: AU - Part of the Problems on Continent
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Shabait.com (Asmara)
OPINION
5 February 2008
Posted to the web 6 February 2008
Asmara
Considering the objectives and principles outlined in its Charter upon establishment on 25 May 1963, the OAU, or currently the AU, has failed completely to live up to any of its founding objectives. Either deliberately or due to lack of judgment, the AU has entirely deviated from its objectives and has been reduced to being merely a tool at the hands of certain regional and international powers. The major objectives of the organization during its establishment include:
To liberate the African people who were till then under colonial rule. (There were certain nations which had not achieved independence at that time)
To strengthen the unity of all African peoples
Achieve economic development through joint cooperation.
Secure the protection of the rights of all Africans.
Refrain from interfering in the international affairs of member states, respect their territorial integrity and sovereignty, and ensure the respect of colonial boundaries in the interest of continental peace and stability.
To participate as a neutral mediator in a peaceful and legal manner in case of conflict between member states.
The aforementioned objectives being the primary and basic principles of the organization, a number of other principles not listed here, which could have played a great role in establishing peace and stability in Africa, are also listed in the AU Charter. Thus, the establishment of an organization with such objectives and principles was, at the time, an optimistic development and a turning point in the history of Africans. Yet, almost half a century later, the organization's failure to live up to even a single one of its objectives is one of the tragic realities in Africa. To look at the current reality in the continent in comparison with the objectives of the organization brings into light the AU's failure:
Entire African unity not withstanding, the present reality of the continent is synonymous with hell, where every day strategic mistakes disrupt the unity of one nation and ethnic and political clashes erupt one after the other everywhere. This fact is a clear indication of the AU's utter failure.
Another indication is the continent's inability to feed itself. Far removed from participation in global politics and economic systems, Africa is dependent on foreign aid for food and its people die everyday from starvation. Its people are dying in the thousands due to poverty and ensuring diseases as a result of corruption and inept administration; Africa has become the world's open wound.
Far from becoming a continent where citizens' rights are respected, as can be seen from the Rwandan experience in the past and the current war crimes and gross human rights violations taking place in Somalia and Kenya, Africa has still not managed to break free from the laws of the jungle and the African people have yet to be freed from slavery. Fleeing from the flames of war and ethnic clashes at home, African refugees have become pillars of the Western economy selling cheaply their labor and knowledge.
Moreover, this international organization has yet to successfully play a constructive role n resolving a conflict within a member nation. It is a pathetic organization that sits idly while colonial boundaries are violated and genocides unfold in different parts of the continent. It took no measure to protect the rights of the more than 70,000 Eritreans when they were stripped of their possessions and departed, and was not even able to protect those few individuals that were employed within the organization.
This shameful history is not the cumulative result of the mistakes of a few African leaders only. In addition, to the despotic political rulers in different African countries, the primary reason behind the problems in Africa is because the AU disregarded its founding objectives and principles and chose to become a tool in securing the narrow interests of others. Taking its disloyalty to the protection of the rights of African people one step further, the organization even gave the green light to the invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia in clear violation of the UN Security Council Resolution that precluded external intervention in Somalia. It short, the African Union is a criminally inept and entirely pointless organization.
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Hence, in totally disregarding its responsibilities and even going further to being involved in the genocides, war crimes and invasions taking place all over the continent, the AU is not only incapable of resolving problems but it is itself part of the major problems in Africa.
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