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African leaders gather to launch new continental union
Mon Jul 8, 7:14 AM ET
By DINA KRAFT, Associated Press Writer
DURBAN, South Africa - Leaders from across Africa gathered Monday to bid a formal farewell to the Organization of African Unity, a much criticized regional body formed to usher the continent out of the colonial era.
At a summit full of fanfare, in Durban, South Africa, the leaders prepared for the 39-year-old OAU's transformation into the African Union, an organization intended to focus more on good governance and economic development than its predecessor.
Opening the final session of the OAU, South African President Thabo Mbeki took issue with critics who dismissed the OAU as a failure — a mere collection of corrupt dictators that did little to lift Africa out of poverty and conflict.
Mbeki said the OAU helped unify the continent and ensured its liberation from colonial rule and apartheid.
"The liquidation of the system of colonialism stands out as one of the historic achievements of the OAU, which guarantees the organization a permanent place of honor in the history of the formation of modern Africa," Mbeki said.
The OAU's work has paved the way for the next chapter in Africa's development, the formation of the African Union and its economic arm, the New Partnership for African Development, he said.
Mbeki, who will be the first chairman of the new union when it is launched Tuesday, has been a moving force behind the union and NEPAD, which seeks international investment in Africa in return for good governance, fiscal responsibility and respect for human rights.
Mbeki has had to vie for influence with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has hoped to use the union as a lever to assume a strong leadership role on the world's poorest continent.
In an effort to placate the Libyan leader, Gadhafi was to be made a member of the steering committee for NEPAD, a program he has opposed in the past, media reports said Monday.
Dressed in lavender robes, Gadhafi told the delegates Monday he welcomed foreign investment in the continent, but warned that it should come on Africa's terms.
"Those who want to assist us, we welcome. Those who want to impose conditions on use, we don't want them," he said. "We are not children who need to be taught."
Gadhafi said Africa has its own approach to development that is different from wealthier nations.
"We will do our part to achieve human rights and reach popular democracy, but in our own style, our own way," he said.
The OAU was derided as little more than a bureaucratic talk shop for African leaders, that did nothing to stop the oppression of Africans at the hands of their own leaders.
The African Union is envisaged as a far stronger federation that will include a parliament, a security council and a standby peacekeeping force that theoretically could be used to stop internal conflicts in African nations.
However, many critics remain doubtful African leaders will be willing to give up even a small piece of their power to the new body.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan ( news - web sites) expressed optimism that the African Union would help the continent.
"The road to freedom for many of our brothers and sisters was to prove longer and harder than most of us dared imagine in 1963. The road to prosperity, alas, has proved even more elusive," he said.
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