Africa, Unione Africana, Sudan Nyt 06-01-24
L’Unione Africana respinge il tentativo di un sudanese
di dirigerla
MARC LACEY
- Il candidato favorito per la presidenza dell’Unione Africana,
che rappresenta 53 paesi del continente, sarebbe il presidente della Rep. del Congo,
Denis Sassou-Nguesso. - Respinta la candidatura del presidente sudanese Omar Hassan
al-Bashir, secondo il quale è il turno di un rappresentante dell’Africa Orientale.
Contrari anche gli USA. - al-Bashir è accusato di aver fomentato la guerra nel
suo stesso paese; proposta la formazione di un comitato che nomini il
successore del presidente nigeriano Obasanjo.
I primi tre presidenti:
Thabo Mbeki, Sud Africa; Joaquin Chissano, Mozambico; Obasanjo, Nigeria,
di cui scade ora il mandato.Nyt 06-01-24
African Union Rebuffs Attempt by a Sudanese to Lead It
By MARC LACEY
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Tuesday, Jan. 24 – African leaders rebuffed an attempt Monday
by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan to become chairman of the African
Union, sidestepping what they called the embarrassing prospect of having a
leader accused of fomenting war in his own country take the helm of a
continent-wide organization that advocates peace.
Mr. Bashir, eager to rehabilitate his
own image and that of his beleaguered country, had
lobbied hard for the prestigious post. But after considerable behind-the-scenes
jockeying over his proposal in advance of a two-day summit meeting that opened
here on Monday, Africa’s leaders opted
instead to set up a committee that will recommend who should replace President
Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria as the African Union’s chairman.
Given the controversy, Sudan suggested that it would
abandon Mr. Bashir’s bid if it continued to divide the union’s members.
The
top candidate to emerge for the post was President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Congo Republic,
officials said early Tuesday.
Selecting Mr. Bashir, a general who
seized power in a 1989 coup, would put the organization in the difficult
position of attempting to mediate peace talks and quell the violence in the
home of its chairman. Worse still, Mr. Bashir’s own government has been
accused of carrying out attacks on civilians in the western Darfur
region and arming militia fighters who continue to terrorize the population
there. An international criminal court is investigating an array of officials
in Mr. Bashir’s government for human rights violations related to the Darfur crisis, but has not indicated how high up the
ladder the inquiry goes.
Human rights groups across the
continent and beyond warned that choosing Mr. Bashir would damage Africa’s
credibility in the eyes of the world and hamper the
African Union’s efforts to negotiate an end to the Darfur
crisis and to other conflicts around the continent.
"Making Bashir the chairman would
be an insult to the victims of Darfur,"
said Salih Osman, a Sudanese human rights lawyer and opposition member of
Parliament. "The highest level officials in this government are involved
in the atrocities in Darfur."
Sudan, celebrating the 50th anniversary of its independence, argues that
it is working hard to bring peace to Darfur
and that it has made enough progress on a number of other fronts that it
deserves the chairmanship. A year ago, for instance, the government signed a
power-sharing agreement with southern rebels that ended a two-decade-long
conflict. Since then, the government has
admitted former rebels into its ranks and opened up political space to
opposition parties.
"Which country in Africa does not
have internal problems?" asked Lam Akol, Sudan’s foreign minister, defending
Mr. Bashir’s bid. Still, there are ample signs that Sudan has a long way to go. The
government initially denied credentials to cover the summit meeting to a
Sudanese newspaper that had editorialized against Mr. Bashir’s chairmanship
bid. Authorities later backed down but said they would discuss the matter with
the paper’s editor after the meeting ended.
On Sunday night, security officials
broke up a meeting of several dozen human rights activists in which Mr.
Bashir’s chairmanship was to be discussed. Participants were held for
several hours and then released after various European ambassadors protested.
"I’m surprised and disappointed," said Kent Degerfelt (svedese?), the European Union’s ambassador to Sudan,
who had several staff members at the meeting. "This is a step in the wrong
direction."
The hesitancy to select Mr. Bashir was
seen as clear evidence that the African Union, set up in 2002, is seeking to
distinguish itself from its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity,
which was criticized as a dictators’ club unwilling to hold its members
accountable. Already, the African Union has sanctioned two member states, Togo and Mauritania,
for failing to hold democratic elections, and has conducted peacekeeping
operations in Burundi and Darfur.
Some African leaders said they feared
that the debate over Mr. Bashir’s chairmanship would create a distraction as
they attempt to end Africa’s conflicts and
help the continent grapple with a variety of woes.
The Bush administration also
suggested that Mr. Bashir’s selection might interfere in the African Union’s
efforts to seek a peace settlement in Darfur.
"It is a concern to us, and it should be a concern to the A.U.
nations," President Bush said during a trip to Kansas on Monday.
Mr. Bashir, who has complained of
outside interference in his chairmanship bid, offered to allow someone else
handle Darfur matters for the African Union should he be selected by his
colleagues to lead it.
The
African Union’s first three chairmen, Thabo Mbeki from South Africa, Joaquin
Chissano of Mozambique and Mr. Obasanjo of Nigeria, were chosen with little
controversy. The 53-member bloc, loosely modeled after the European Union,
rotates the presidency to give each of five regions access to the top post. East Africa says it is now its turn.
But Mr. Bashir’s bid drew discomfort
from the start, even after fellow leaders in East Africa
had lined up solidly behind him. With support for its bid lagging, Sudan
said late Monday that it was ready to bow out of the race if no consensus
emerged.
"We don’t want to make any crack in
the union," said Mustafa Osman Ismael, a top foreign policy adviser to Mr.
Bashir. "We don’t want there to be division in order to obtain the objective.
If that means Sudan
should withdraw, we’ll withdraw."
New York Times