African Union struggles to shake off 'talk shop' tag

African Union struggles to shake-off 'talk shop' tag

ARCHBISHOP Ncube: 'All they do is back each other up and drink tea'

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By Terry Leonard

ON a continent brutalized by violence, hunger and poverty, critics are asking whether the cash-strapped African Union can become a force for positive change - not just a toothless club representing mostly corrupt, aging dictators.

A key test will be whether it follows up on demands it made during a meeting Wednesday that Sudan arrest and prosecute Arab militiamen accused of committing atrocities in the country's western Darfur region.

The demand came as Sudan agreed to allow the deployment of 300 African Union troops in Darfur, where thousands of people have been killed and more than 1 million black Africans have fled attacks by Arab militiamen known as the Janjaweed, said African Union spokesman Desmond Orjiako.

"The crisis should be addressed with urgency," the union's Peace and Security Council said in a statement. The "council welcomes the commitment made by the government to disarm and neutralize the Janjaweed militia and urges the government to follow through with these commitments."

Those efforts alone are a departure from the OAU, which did little to prevent or stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that killed at least 500,000 people.

"It is quite a sea change," said Jakkie Cilliers, an analyst with Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa. "The way they are engaging Sudan is unprecedented."

African leaders created the African Union two years ago with pomp, ceremony and eloquent speeches about a powerful new bloc that would help Africans achieve a shared destiny, draw foreign investment and ensure democracy and good governance.

It replaced the Organization of African Unity, widely seen as an impotent body that did little to save Africa from being plundered by despots beyond clamoring for debt relief and aid.

So far, the fledgling union has been involved in peace talks in Burundi, Congo and the Ivory Coast. It sent peacekeepers to Burundi last year. But some critics charge that the African Union has been less aggressive about dealing with African despots and their repressive regimes.

"Zimbabwe is the big test and right now the AU ducks the issue," said Steven Freidman, a senior research fellow at South Africa's Center for Policy Studies.

At a ministerial meeting ahead of its summit this week in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the union delayed ratification of a damning human rights report on Zimbabwe to give its government time to respond. But the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said the government in Harare received the report more than four months ago.

"All they (AU leaders) do is back each other up and drink tea," said Archbishop Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic bishop of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe who has been an outspoken critic of President Robert Mugabe and his authoritarian regime.

But Cilliers and Tom Lodge, head of the political science department at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, disagreed. They said such a harsh report would have never been written by the OAU.

"I think that when it becomes more than just a head of states club, that's a good move forward," said Lodge, who said it was still too early to judge.

Cilliers said the African Union is putting forward views that are making some member states uncomfortable. For example: not recognizing unconstitutional changes in governments, creating standards for monitoring and holding elections and creating an African Court of Human Rights.

"These are all steps in the right direction," he said.

Musambayi Katumanga, a political scientist at the University of Nairobi, said the AU, unlike the OAU, is willing to look at issues such as human rights and transparency.

The AU has a budget of only $43 million, but so far this year, its 53 member states have paid only $13 million in dues.

The organization has ambitious plans for a three-year, $1.7 billion plan to give it more clout in conflict resolution and economic development.
Cilliers called the AU's disposable funds "the budget of a small company" - and its task: "to deal with the worst continent in the world."

AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare plans to increase the organization's efficiency by doubling its staff to 800, raising running costs to $130 million a year.

He wants to finance the proposals by getting African leaders to commit 0.5 percent of their national budgets to the AU.
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