Maputo, Mozambique — African heads of state and government have a busy few days ahead of them, as they meet for the second summit of the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique, from 10-12 July.
All week, the foreign ministerial Executive Council has been drawing up the agenda and recommendations that the African leaders will debate, endorse or reject during their 3-day summit.
With some devastating crises afflicting the continent, their citizens look to them for the leadership to end Africas armed conflicts and address problems like drought and famine, as well as speed up development, promote democracy and strengthen regional integration and trade.
But there are already blots on the continental copybook.
One of the top items on the summit agenda is the creation of the Peace and Security Council, the organ envisaged to help resolve wars in Africa, through direct intervention.
Yet barely a dozen countries have ratified the protocol that will establish the Council, broadly based on the United Nations Security Council. Ratification by half of the AUs 53 member states is required to bring the Peace and Security Council into being.
In the twelve months since the African Union was inaugurated at its first summit in Durban, South Africa, several new conflicts have been added to already existing wars on the continent - including a civil war in Cote dIvoire and an upsurge of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia and Burundi. There have also been a number of attempted and successful coups detat in the past year.
So, for instance, the new military leader of the Central African Republic, Francois Bozize, has not been invited to Maputo in accordance with an AU decision that those who come to power by force are not welcome.
But Madagascar, whose leader Marc Ravolomanana was excluded from the AUs Durban launch in 2002 because of his accession to power by force, will make a splashy comeback this year, again taking up its seat. Madagascar has even been named the host of next years AU summit.
Divisive topics
However Zimbabwe, in a state of economic and social collapse, will not be on the agenda for discussion. "As you can see from the agenda, Zimbabwe is not on it. It is not a subject that will consume our time," Mozambican foreign minister, Leonardo Simao told reporters, Monday. Simao is the incoming chairman of the AU's Executive (ministerial) Council.
Zimbabwe remains a divisive issue and consensus is one of the building blocks of the new African Union. Some nations support President Robert Mugabe, whilst others think he has mismanaged his country and should go. Critics say, however, that it is hypocritical to side-step the Zimbabwe crisis given the constant repetition of the AU's mantra of "finding African solutions to African problems."
Another glaring problem is the massive shortfall in membership dues. How to finance the Union is already a concern since the AU is short of cash. Finding new sources of funding and revenue for its operations will need be an integral part of the debate among Africas leaders in Maputo.
Summit sources said eight countries face possible exclusion from the summit, for being behind with membership payments by two or more years.
Those in line for sanctions are the Central African Republic, the Comoros Islands, the DRC, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles and Somalia. The penalties would include preventing debtor nations from speaking or voting during AU meetings, at both summit and executive council level, or from presenting candidates from their countries for posts.
The AU's debt, estimated at US$39m, date back to the Organisation of African Union, (OAU) which was replaced by the AU in South Africa last year.
The Executive Council, made up of foreign ministers, passed a resolution Tuesday increasing contributions from the five wealthiest members of the organisation - Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa - who pay the lion's share of costs.
In return, these member states are lobbying to be allocated a larger share of the 749 posts in the African Union Commission (secretariat). The proposal has been referred to the summit for a final decision.
An annual budget of $41m for the African Union is estimated for 2004.
Operational costs are likely to increase substantially to cover the planned 17 institutions of the AU, rising to $65m once all the organs are fully established, said outgoing interim Commission chairperson, Amara Essy.
The OAU had only four significant institutions.
The Maputo summit will also have to elect a chairperson, to head the secretariat, and some of the 10-member Commission, half of them women. This gender equality decision, now a policy of the AU, was taken by heads of state at the inaugural summit last year.
Former Cote dIvoire foreign minister, Essy, had his re-election hopes dashed late Monday, when his country withdraw his candidacy. Essys withdrawal paved the way for the appointment of the former Malian president, Alpha Oumar Konare, by consensus.
Apart from Essy, Konare was the only other candidate to apply for the top job.
It is thought that the Malians stature as a one-time head of state will enhance the profile of the AU and ensure straight talk among its leaders and collaboration with Africa's partners outside the continent.
There will also be discussion in Maputo about the formation of the other institutions that will make up the African Union, including an African Court of Justice, a continental parliament and eventually a common currency.
Who will host what?
Libya and South Africa are known to want the parliament in their countries. The Indian Ocean Island of Mauritius, Sudan and Nigeria are campaigning to host the Court of Justice.
Mauritian foreign minister, Anil Gayan, said they considered the court as one of the "principle organs" of the AU. "We might not be able to take on the pan-African Parliament, because Mauritius is a small country, but it can easily accommodate the African Court of Justice," Gayan told reporters, adding that the Court would be a "symbol of the new Africa; a symbol that Africa is now ready to govern itself properly and comply with the rule of law to have good governance."
Gayan said Mauritius had already got the backing of its regional grouping, the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The Maghreb states had also thrown their support behind the Mauritian bid, he said. Rwanda had withdrawn in Mauritius favour and Gayan said that his country had spoken to Sudan and was also lobbying the Nigerians - the other contenders.
"I believe that Mauritius hosting the Court of Justice would be the link between the island states of the Indian Ocean, members of the African Union and the continent. So, that would be the link. And what better link can you have than justice?"
One AU structure already in place is the New Partnership for Africas Development (Nepad), the economic implementation arm and the Unions watchdog on good governance, including a fledgling heads of state peer-review mechanism.
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On Wednesday, Mozambiques foreign minister described Nepad as Africas own economic blueprint and "passport to tackle the main problems the continent is facing." Integration of Nepad into the African Union proper will also be high on the list of summit priorities.
The Nepad secretariat is currently based in South Africa, whose president and inaugural AU chairman, President Thabo Mbeki, is one of its principal architects. Nepad, much vaunted as an African economic and social recovery programme, is richly praised abroad and has become Mbekis pet project. But its practical worth is questioned by ordinary Africans, who struggling to make ends meet and see little sign of an early change in their circumstances.
Speaking at the opening of the AU Executive Council, the outgoing chairperson, South African foreign minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said: "I am convinced that we have the determination, commitment, political will and inner strength to implement the Nepad programmes and set up the institutions with the necessary sense of urgency." She stressed that "claiming the right to determine our own future must also mean developing the capacity to deal with our own problems."
South Africa is working quietly to retain the Nepad secretariat, although technically analysts said this should be located at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It is said that Pretoria is determined to hang onto Nepad to ensure it effectively achieves the lofty goals it was set up to fulfil.
In the social area, the main focus of the Maputo summit will be to find a common strategy to combat HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. "These three diseases are responsible for high rate of morbidity in Africa," said Mozambiques foreign minister. Leonardo Simao concluded that increasing Africas capacity to control the three killer diseases was a priority to save lives.
