ADDIS
ABABA, July 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A major summit
of African leaders opened Tuesday, July 6, in the Ethiopian capital
Addis Ababa as some 40 heads of state and government gathered to focus
on the continent’s burning issues, with the Darfur crisis taking
center stage.
The
Great Lakes region and Ivory Coast are also expected to be among the
hottest topics on the agenda of the African Union summit, which is due
to close Thursday, July 8, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
risk of a third war in less than a decade in the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC), and hence the stability of all its neighboring
countries, is also worrying the two-year-old African Union (AU), which
has repeatedly warned that there can be no prosperity in Africa
without peace and stability.
Fears
of a renewed conflict in DRC were raised in late May, when former
rebels, who theoretically had been integrated into a new national
army, rose up against regular troops in the east of the country,
prompting Kinshasa to accuse its old enemy Rwanda of involvement.
Ivory
Coast, which has not settled down since a rebellion erupted in
December 2002, is the third major theater of unrest on the summit
agenda.
Also
up for discussion are Somalia, the Indian Ocean's Comoro islands,
Burundi and Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The
summit will also witness the unveiling of a three-year strategic plan
for the continent, a document central to the AU's desire for greater
unity and development and less war.
The
plan has a budget of some $1.7 billion, money the AU does not have and
which its 53 member states and the international community will be
asked to provide.
‘Africa
Is Back’
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"The brutalities already inflicted on the population of Darfur could be a prelude to even greater humanitarian catastrophe," warned Annan (AFP)
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Addressing
the opening session, AU Commission Chairman Alpha Omar Konare assured
the heads of state that "Africa is back".
"Africa
is often presented as a risk for itself and the rest of the
world," he told the summiteers.
"We
reject this image. For us, Africa is a great opportunity... You will
continue to make history, to accelerate history... You will see
clearly that Africa is back," he said.
Konare
has been at the forefront of efforts to revitalize the pan-African
body, transforming the much-maligned and ineffectual OAU into the AU,
injecting it with a fresh determination to drag the continent from
poverty and despair to prosperity through greater unity and security.
"Our
potential is great, new hopes for peace are beckoning," said
enthusiastic Konare.
"This
continent, this land so rich in natural resources is a demographic
force," said Konare, noting that by 2025, there will be some 1.3
billion Africans, "almost as many as China, or India, more than
the US and the European Union combined."
"Tomorrow
we will be the new market. We will be the young market," he said,
explaining that some 800 million Africans will be under the age of 15
in 2015.
But
Konare conceded that Africa's renaissance needed considerable amounts
of money to be sustainable, "the kind of support the US gave
Europe after the Second World War, or that the EU is giving its new
members."
"We
need to find new ways of mobilizing resources," such as taxing
financial transactions or arms sales, he said, adding that he hoped
that African leaders would also contribute to the continents rebirth.
Thorny
Darfur
But
alongside Konare’s upbeat message came the UN Secretary General's
warning of potential catastrophe in Sudan's Darfur region.
"Without
action, the brutalities already inflicted on the civilian population
of Darfur could be a prelude to even greater humanitarian catastrophe,
a catastrophe that could destabilize the region," Annan told the
summit.
More
than 10,000 people are said to have died in Darfur and more than a
million been driven from their homes since the revolt against the
government broke out among indigenous ethnic minorities in February
2003.
The
United Nations has labeled the 16-month-old conflict as the world's
worst current humanitarian crisis.
"I
remind the government [of Sudan] of its sacred duty to protect its
civilians and the rebel groups of their responsibility and duty to
respect the ceasefire and work with the government to end the conflict
peacefully," said Annan.
On
Monday, July 5, the AU Peace and Security Council decided to send a
300-strong armed protection force to the war-torn region, where it has
already deployed observers to monitor a shaky ceasefire.
AU
Peace and Security Director Sam Ibok told a news conference in Addis
Ababa that the AU was working up to the full deployment of a
protection force for returning refugees and observers, AFP said.
Ibok
said Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Botswana had been approached to
provide troops for the protection force, one of the first of its kind
mandated by the AU.
"We
are confident [Sudan] will accept. It has been difficult but we are
talking," Ibok said, describing the force as a
confidence-building measure.
He
said the AU lacked the means and resources to send a fully-fledged
peacekeeping mission to Darfur, an area the size of France.
Existing
AU agreements provided for the deployment of a protection force in the
event that warring parties proved unable to ensure the security of the
observers.
Annan
and US Secretary of State Colin Powell both paid brief visits to
Darfur last week to push for a resolution to the conflict pitting
rebels against government forces and their militia allies.
