African heads tackle the continent's challenges in Lome

LOME, 11 July 2000 (IRIN) - African heads attending the 36th summit of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Lome, Togo, began closed-doors
discussions on Tuesday on Africa's main challenges, ranging from the
HIV/AIDS pandemic to the various conflicts, both national and subregional,
that afflict the continent .

These and other issues, including relations between Africa and the
international community, were broached on Monday by speakers at the
summit's opening session, who included UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Annan stressed that the UN "is ready to help Africa, wherever and however
it can". He noted that "resources that flow in abundance to halt 'ethnic
cleansing' and relieve refugees in Europe are not available when even
worse things happen in Africa", and that he felt "the injustice of these
double standards", but he also pointed out that "too many of Africa's
problems are self-inflicted".

Annan stressed the need for African nations to invest in areas such as
education and access to information technology (IT). He said he was
writing to the leaders of industrial nations to urge them to make a major
commitment of resources to bridging the gap between Africa and the rest of
the world in the area of IT but noted that African leaders also had to do
what they could to ensure that their peoples did not miss out.

The UN Secretary-General noted that there were positive developments such
as Senegal's performance in protecting its people from HIV/AIDS through
education, Uganda's success in slowing the rate of HIV infection, South
Africa's transformation into a non-racial democracy, and regional and
subregional initiatives in the economic field and other areas such as arms
limitation and conflict resolution.

However, the leaders of some nations involved in sub-regional conflicts
were absent from the 10-12 July meeting. Angola's Jose Eduardo dos Santos
stayed away in protest against the support Togo has reportedly been giving
to the UNITA rebels fighting his government while the presidents of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Namibia, Laurent Kabila and Sam
Nujoma respectively, remained at home in solidarity with their Angolan
ally. Other notable absentees include Charles Taylor, president of
Liberia, where government troops have been fighting insurgents in Lofa, a
county that borders on Guinea. The outgoing OAU chairman, President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, noted that a number of achievements had
been made since the last summit, including the return to democratic rule
in Niger and Guinea-Bissau and a successful electoral process in Senegal.
Both Bouteflika and Togo's President, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, the
incoming chairman of the OAU, expressed support for a proposal for the
formation of an African union and a panafrican parliament, launched last
year at a meeting of African heads in Libya. Bouteflika expressed his
conviction that plans to form the two bodies would be on track while
Eyadema said: "The time has come after the United States of America, the
European Union and perhaps before Asia to create a united Africa.The
African Union will transform Africa into a solid and healthier political
and economic bloc." Some other African leaders have, however, been less
enthusiastic about the idea.

[ENDS]
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000

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