Addis Ababa — The Africa Union is hoping to make a breakthrough on the Cote d'Ivoire crisis during its upcoming AU summit at the end of this month.
United Nations Secretary General Ban- ki Moon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and a host of African heads of states are expected at the meeting.
The African Union Peace and Security Council decided Thursday to discuss the Cote d'Ivoire crisis in the upcoming summit.
According to AU sources Ban-Ki Moon is scheduled to meet influential African leaders to discuss the crisis.
AU peace and Security Council commissioner Ramate Lamamran told reporters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that the peaceful effort to resolve the crisis is going in a right direction and a peaceful solution will be found soon.
Ambassador Lamamran said AU prefers to exhaust all peaceful ways to end the crisis, however, he hinted that a military option was on the table if talks fail.
Asked about the role of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is the AU mediator, Mr Lamamran said the summit will discuss the next role he would play.
Cote d'Ivoire incumbent President Laurant Gbagbo has asked AU to replace Mr Odinga as a mediator arguing that they did not want him.
Mr Gbagbo's Foreign Affairs minister Alcide Djedje announced that Mr Odinga was no longer wanted in the West African country.
Efforts by Mr Odinga to convince Mr Gbagbo and Mr Mr Alassane Ouattara to find a peaceful means to end the crisis has failed.
In the elections, Mr Ouattara was announced the winner but Mr Gbagbo refused to hand over power.
The United Nations, the European Union, the AU, the United States and other foreign countries recognise Mr Ouattara as the legitimate president.
According to the AU Security Council, Mr Odinga will prepare a report which the Summit shall consider before deciding his next role in the crisis.
"We felt that we should take the advantage of Mr Odinga's availability for this mission and that is why we asked him to mediate," Lamamran added.
He said AU recognised and appreciated the role of Mr Odinga played in his two round missions to Cote d'Ivoire but if the parties want to have another mediator, then his mediation effort will be assessed.
"This is not Mr Odinga's full time job and we know he is not a professional mediator and he is a Prime Minister of his country. He does not intend to work permanently."
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Kenya Prime minister Odinga is just communicating the AU position to Gbagbo which is that Gbagbo lost the elections and needs to cede power immediately.How many more talks the AU wants if Gbagbo is hell-bent on not ceding power. Mr. Odinga is the third mediator of AU after M'beki and Jean Ping and Gbagbo's position has not changed.At which point the AU will undrstand that only force can move the pugnacious Gbagbo, not a change of mediator.Gbagbo has to be removed quickly before other continental elections start.The AU cannot afford to mediate 18 elections (which are in the offing in Africa this year) if they all end up like Ivory Coast where the incumbent president with the support of a foolhardy miltary and the Angolan dictator Dos Santos subvert democracy.Since the beginning, the AU and ECOWAS are dead set against power-sharing like in Zimbabwe or Kenya and rightfully so because then defeated candidates and dictators will see no incentive to leave power after losing elections. Besides, Ivory Coast has had a power-sharing since 2002 .Faillure to remove Gbagbo will tarnish the AU and ECOWAS image and set Africa backwards. Indeed, Africa within the last decade has made tremendous progresses in strenghtening the institutions of democracy and in holding elections.Gbagbo by clinging to power using violence will squander all of these democratic progresses made in Africa and bring back the dark chapter of military coups as Mr. Odinga warned.Serious pressure has to be brought on Gbagbo and mainly on his Angolan backer Dos Santos who send him weapons, mercenaries and fighter jets to kill and rape innocent citizens.Dos Santos can save Ivory Coast the sad plight of Angola 27 civil war and his 35 year dictorial rule.Dos Santos has to follow the lead of ECOWAS and the AU which is for Gbagbo to step down immediately.Changing mediator is not going to make Gbagbo step down, Only force will. And it is highly to do so.
" ..Odinga is just communicating the AU position .."
1) "just"? Can't that paid creep of an AU leader, Ping, communicate it himself? Is he too busy to be bothered by this trifling Ivorian/UN affair - or does he suffer credibility problems?
2) We suspect that Odinga was NOT fully briefed by the AU - before he undertook the mission. For instance, there is no hint in his pronouncements that he was aware of the findings of the AU observer mission to the elections in the Ivory Coast. Neither does he seem to be aware of the strong condemnation of the elections as contained in the various reports from other observer missions - such as the EU's - from the "international community"
[And if he was aware then his motives may be suspect - given his strong pronouncements against Kibaki/UK thievery of the 2007 presidential elections in Kenya]
3) It may be said that on Somalia, Guinea, Egypt, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, ... the AU and ECOWAS have no position that is distinct or contrary to that of the UN - and hence the white hegemony of the USA/UK/EU axis. Thus, we may look elsewhere for guidance on that "AU position".
" ..The AU cannot afford to mediate 18 elections (which are in the offing in Africa this year) if they all end up like Ivory Coast .."
"cannot afford"? Then perhaps:
1) The AU is taking on a responsibility that is NOT in their mandate.
2) In Africa, there in no place for the imperial white man's ruse of "elections" in which the west's boy MUST win - preferably by theft and intrigue and demonstration of overriding power and control of an African country.