Posted on 05/25/2004 4:25:43 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
ADDIS ABABA : The African Union officially launched its Peace and Security Council (PSC), billed as a robust guarantor of stability on the continent, as the crisis in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region shaped up as a test of the scheme's credibility.
Mozambique's President and AU Chairman Joaquim Chissano formally inaugurated the PSC, modelled on the UN Security Council, at a ceremony at the 53-member organisation's headquarters in Addis Ababa attended by the heads of state and government from at least eight countries.
He said he hoped Africa's "crises and conflicts will be substantially reduced, if not eliminated, thanks to the PSC."
AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare described the PSC, which has been operational since March, as "a valuable instrument that has the power to anticipate and prevent policies that could lead to genocide."
"It should mark a radical departure from the past ... its decisions should be rigorously applied by all concerned member states," he added.
Officials have vowed that the new council will act to intervene in African conflicts, setting the two-year-old AU apart from its largely toothless predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which proved impotent in the face of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
After the council held its first summit-level meeting Tuesday, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit announced that AU military observers would deploy in western Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region in the next few days.
"They are expected to be 100 people, 60 military observers and 30 more other staff," said Djinnit, saying an additional armed protection force numbering between 100 and 100 would also be sent to Darfur if necessary.
The observers will be mandated to monitor a shaky ceasefire signed April 8 between the Khartoum government and rebel groups who took up arms in February 2003.
Since then at least 10,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than a million displaced, while Khartoum has been widely condenmned for atrocities committed by militia forces and government troops in the region.
Aid agencies have warned the whole of Darfur faces mass starvation unless crops can be sown or food stocks preposition immediately.
The PSC called on Khartoum, which sits on the council, to "pursue the disarmament and control of the militias vigourously," said Djinnit, adding that the AU would soon launch an investigation of human rights in Darfur.
"In the past, the OAU was accused of complicity. We are replacing the principle of non-interference with the principle of non-indifference," Djinnit told journalists earlier Tuesday.
The 15-member PSC is empowered to mandate "peace support" missions in conflict areas where ceasefire accords have been signed and to recommend to the assembly of AU heads of state that troops be deployed uninvited in cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"Where grave abuses of human rights, crimes against humanity and genocide occur, the PSC must be the first to condemn and take swift action," Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the council's current chairman, said at the launch.
In all, about 10 countries in Africa are in the throes of conflict.
The European Union welcomed the PSC's inauguration, saying it demonstrated "Africa's determination to take the lead in strengthening its own conflict prevention and management efforts."
Amid all the pomp and optimism, there was room for realism.
"Enthusiasm should not lead us to shy away from the challenges ahead," Konare's spokesman Adam Thiam told AFP.
"The financial problems are enormous for a start," conceded Thiam.
Lack of funds has forced the AU to hand over its 2,700 man mission in Burundi, which has been ravaged by civil war since 1993, to the United nations next month.
Another problem for the PSC is how to ensure member states obey its decisions.
"There are no mechanisms to criticise countries that don't," admitted Thiam.
"If the AU keeps its mouth shut, like the OAU did, we won't see any change," remarked one African diplomat
Ok great. So can we have our $15 billion for "AIDS" back please?
Ah-yuh. This concept has ALWAYS worked so well in the past. Sure.
Great! Now we have an orderly mechanism to determine which tribe will butcher which other tribe.
already was one of THOSE. they called it 'apartheid.' very orderly. very bad idea.
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