UN chief hails Africa’s gains

ADDIS ABABA – UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced concern over deadly unrest in Madagascar in a speech to African leaders yesterday that steered clear of a controversial bid to indict Sudan’s president for war crimes.

At least 68 people have been killed in clashes between supporters of Madagascar’s president and the mayor of its capital city in a power struggle that has overshadowed the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital.
‘I am particularly concerned about recent developments in Madagascar and urge that all parties address their differences peacefully and through existing constitutional mechanisms,’ Ban said.
However, Ban did not mention a request by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor for an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar el-Bsshir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
The move has sparked concern among leaders here that the court is unfairly targeting African leaders, while ignoring crises in places like Gaza or Sri Lanka.
African Union Commission president, Jean Ping, told the summit earlier that the bloc was trying to lobby international support for a 12-month delay to the ICC warrant ‘to give a greater chance to the peace process.’
Leaders of the 53-nation bloc gathered to discuss boosting the continent’s energy and transport systems.
However, most attention has focused on a tragic list of crises and conflicts, highlighted by an unfolding political drama in the island country of Madagascar, whose president and top mayor are locked in a bloody power struggle.
Ban hailed moves toward forming a new government in Somalia, following the election of a new president last week, and praised Zimbabwe’s progress toward forming a unity government to end months of political crisis.
‘All of us can take pleasure from the progress in political settlements in Somalia,’ he told the delegates. ‘We have all worked hard to get to where we are, but there is much more to be done to eliminate the suffering of Somalians.’
In Zimbabwe, he said the formation of a unity government is ‘the first step towards full democracy, but there is still a long way to go.’
‘I urge all sides to build on the hard-won breakthrough’ and to ensure that the world can bring aid to ease the plight of Zimbabweans who are struggling against devastating food shortages and a worsening cholera epidemic, Ban added.
He also noted that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo had taken ‘a dramatic turn for the better’ following a joint offensive by government and Rwandan forces which led to the arrest of a key rebel leader last month.
But Ban urged the African Union to do more to bring stability to those countries while tackling crises that have erupted elsewhere in recent months.
Ban called for a return to democracy after coups in Guinea and Mauritania and a failed coup in Guinea-Bissau.
He also urged Sudan to do more to end a bloody civil war in Darfur, calling on the warring parties ‘to stop immediately all kinds of violent activity which jeopardise the peace process and threatens the lives of civilians.’
The first day of the meeting on Sunday had been dominated by intense closed-door debates on the future of the African Union, with Libya leading calls for the creation of a new continent-wide government to create a ‘United States of Africa.’
But his proposal won few fans, and the leaders decided instead to consider ways of expanding the mandate of the existing AU Commission, which will be renamed the AU Authority.
The summit’s main agenda – to boost Africa’s energy and transport networks – was pushed largely to the fringes, weighed down by the grim realities of the global economic downturn.
– Nampa-AFP