African Union to discuss common security policy

Discussion around a common defence and security policy for the continent is set to top the agenda this week as African foreign ministers gather for the 3rd Extra-ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Executive Council in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ministers are expected to flesh out the details of a draft policy document on the topic, which will then be presented to AU heads of state at their next meeting in July in Maputo, Mozambique.

Although first mooted some 40 years ago at the launch of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the idea of having a comprehensive policy to deal with ongoing conflict on the continent never really took off.

However, at the launch of the AU in July 2002, leaders recommitted themselves to a continent-wide strategy that would enable Africa to avoid overreliance on the international community to solve its problems.

While consensus had been reached that a coherent strategy was needed to handle crises on the continent, details of how the policy would be implemented remain vague.

"The discussion at the Johannesburg meeting is likely to be tricky, given that security policy always involves issues of sovereignty. Also, the appropriateness of intervening in a country suspected of human rights abuses is likely to draw heated debate," Siphamandla Zondi, a researcher at the Pretoria-based Africa Institute, told IRIN.

At a meeting in Ethiopia earlier this month, African defence chiefs agreed that by 2010 the continent should have a stand-by force able to intervene to prevent genocide. The force is expected to fall under the AU's Peace and Security Council, which will be able to launch an intervention to forestall genocide without reference to the country involved.

But AU officials have stressed that this did not constitute the establishment of an African defence force, an idea rejected when raised earlier by Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi.

The agreed plan envisages the establishment of regionally based stand-by brigades, with each country initially pledging soldiers and logistical support to the United Nations and later to AU missions.