|
African leaders name Congo to head AU, Sudan in 2007
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-01-25 09:14
African leaders named Congo to head the African Union and gave Sudan the
leadership in 2007, settling a row over Khartoum's bid to lead the 53-nation
body.
Sudan's candidacy to head the continental body had failed to win unanimous
support because of the conflict in Darfur, where the AU is mediating peace talks
and has deployed a 7,000-strong peacekeeping force.
President Denis Sassou-Nguessou, who ruled Congo for 13 years until 1992 and
returned to power five years later in a coup, took over the chair from Nigerian
President Olusegun Obasanjo on the final day of the AU summit in Khartoum.
In an address to African leaders, Sassou-Nguesso pledged to work for peace.
"I take this as a call to history, the history of Africa's renewal," he said.
"I plan to commit the continent on a resolute conquest for peace."
Khartoum last year signed an historic deal to end 21 years of war in the
south but the conflict in Darfur has continued, claiming some 300,000 lives and
displacing two million people since 2003.
Darfur rebels taking part in AU-sponsored peace talks in Abuja warned they
would pull out of the negotiations if Sudan was given the AU presidency.
But a Sudanese minister said that Khartoum's ambitions to lead the African
Union hinged on ending the violence in the western region of Darfur.
"The writing was clear on the wall right from day one that Africa was not
going to give the leadership to Sudan simply because of Darfur," said Minister
for Cabinet Affairs Deng Alor, who hails from southern Sudan.
"We are going to put our house in order, solve our problems so that come 2007
we take the lead," he said.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said "Sudan will next year certainly be
designated but on condition that the situation improves, that there is a
solution for Darfur and a solution for its relations with Chad."
But Sassou-Nguessou said no conditions had been placed on Khartoum to take
the chair of the AU, set up in 2002 with a new commitment to tackle the
continent's problems.
"The Darfur issue is important but there are no conditions for Sudan to
become chair," said Sassou-Nguessou.
US President George W. Bush's top adviser for Africa also said that Sudan
should not take the helm of the AU if the bloodshed continues in Darfur.
"If they continue like they are now, in 2007, I doubt very seriously that
Sudan can be president of the AU," US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa
Jendayi Frazer told journalists on the sidelines of the summit.
Human rights groups had warned that giving Sudan the AU chair would be
tantamount to rewarding the regime of President Omar al-Beshir, accused by the
US of genocide in Darfur, and would damage the AU's credibility.
The flap over Sudan's AU bid dominated talks at the summit, which officially
was to tackle issues of culture and education while touching on conflicts in
Ivory Coast and Chad's border clashes with Sudan, among other problems.
Leaders also decided against extraditing former Chad dictator Hissene Habre
to Belgium, who ruled from 1982 until he was deposed in a coup in 1990, to face
trial for crimes against humanity.
A commission of legal experts will be established to examine the case and the
fate of the 63-year-old ex-leader will be discussed again at the next AU summit
scheduled to be held in July in Banjul, the capital of Gambia.
|
