African heads tackle the continent's challenges in Lome

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.