OAU leaders reach consensus on action plan

The heads of state of South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt have reached agreement on a blueprint for a combined African development plan for presentation to the Organisation of African unity (OAU) summit this week, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana-Dlamini Zuma said on Monday. Zuma said the blueprint under which Mbeki’s Millennium African Recovery Programme (MAP) and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade’s Omega Plan would merge would be presented to OAU heads of state before the meeting in Lusaka closed on Wednesday. “The presidents met last night and drew up a merger document which will be discussed at the OAU summit this week,” Zuma told IRIN in an interview. She declined to divulge further details. The merged “African Initiative” strategy calls on African leaders to consolidate democracy and for the developed world to increase aid and investment to the continent. It coincides with the transformation of the OAU into a far more ambitious continent-wide union, eventually leading to a common currency, parliament and court of justice. Lusaka this week is the final OAU summit - the last of 37 annual meetings stretching back to the era of Africa’s decolonisation from Europe. Dozens of presidents and prime ministers will bury the OAU with honours and assist at the birth of an African Union (AU) modelled on the lines of regional groupings in Europe, Asia and the Americas. However, observers, including UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have warned that conflict and xenophobia on the continent could put paid to its hopes of increased economic and political integration. “From Burundi to Sierra Leone to Angola to the Sudan and Western Sahara, we are confronted with persistent conflicts and crisis of governance and security that threaten to derail our hopes for an African Union of peace and prosperity,” Annan said in an address to the summit. (For Annan’s full speach see: http://www.irinnews.org/multimedia/embargozambia.doc) Meanwhile, African ministers rallied behind Zimbabwe over its controversial land reform programme on Sunday and accused Britain of seeking to isolate and vilify its former colony in Europe and North America, diplomatic sources said. African diplomats said the tough resolution was unanimously adopted early on Sunday by the OAU council of ministers. It will be put to the OAU summit which began on Monday. “It’s very likely that it will go through in its present form. Zimbabwe was seen as victim and there was lots of sympathy. The feeling was that the EU and the United States were pressing too hard on Zimbabwe,” Reuters quoted one senior diplomat as saying. Zimbabwe has plunged into economic and political crisis since February last year when self-styled war veterans, encouraged by the state, seized hundreds of white-owned farms across the country. Ignoring court rulings ordering the squatters off the farms, President Robert Mugabe has argued that land redistribution is necessary to address a century old imbalance in land ownership in the country. But analysts told IRIN that OAU backing of Zimbabwe was sending the wrong message at a political and economic turning point for the continent. “The AU has an ambitious agenda, including a pan-African parliament, court of justice and monetary union. All of this is predicated on the rule of law and good governance, and this support for President Mugabe’s policies in many ways runs counter to those ideals,” Greg Mills of the South African Institute of International Relations (SAIIR) told IRIN. “There was optimism that the AU would represent a change in direction for the OAU, but this closing ranks around a member that is the subject of external criticism smacks greatly of the old OAU,” Mills said. Sunday’s ministerial meeting named South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, Kenya and Zambia to a committee to support Zimbabwe in future talks with the European Union (EU) and other parties on land reform, news reports said. Mugabe insists that Britain must pay compensation for expropriated land. But London has said it will not finance land reform amid chaos and disregard for the rule of law. Both the EU and the United States back Britain on the issue and have threatened sanctions. Mugabe plans to confiscate 12 million hectares of the 30 million hectares held by white farmers and has earmarked more than 5,000 farms for redistribution to landless blacks.