Libya: African Union Absent From London Summit

29 March 2011

Washington — The African Union (AU) on Tuesday failed to be present at international conference in London that was devoted to the situation in Libya where the government is seeking to quell an armed opposition that initially started as a popular uprising against the 41-years old rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

The meeting held today saw the participation of 40 governments and international bodies. Delegations at the meeting agreed to press on with a NATO-led aerial bombardment of Libyan forces until Gaddafi complied with a U.N. resolution to end violence against civilians.

It also set up a contact group comprising 20 countries and organizations, including Arab states, the AU and the Arab League, to coordinate international support for an orderly transition to democracy in Libya.

In mid-March the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approved the establishment of a no-fly zone (NFZ) over Libya following pleas from the Arab League and Libyan diplomats across the world who have defected from the Gaddafi regime and joined the opposition.

It also authorized using all necessary measures to enforce the NFZ and protect civilians from military attacks. Since then the Western dominated coalition flew hundreds of sorties including bombing missions and fired more than 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles on military targets.

A week before the commencement of the airstrikes, the AU released a statement expressing its opposition to foreign military intervention in any form. Despite this, African nations on the UNSC namely Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa voted in favor of the NFZ.

The AU formed a five-member panel with the mandate of seeking a peaceful settlement to the Libyan crisis. However, an attempt by the commission to enter Libya was blocked by the UNSC which had banned most flights to the North African country.

Tensions between the AU and the rest of the world became evident when AU commissioner chairman Jean Ping snubbed an emergency summit of world leaders in Paris called to discuss the implementation of the NFZ over Libya.

Afterwards Ping in an interview with the BBC HardTalk programme criticized the international community saying that the AU was not consulted before the Paris meeting and suggested that given these circumstances it was going to be meaningless.

Today, Ping also skipped the London conference for what appeared to be the result of disagreements within the AU on the position that should be adopted by the Pan-African body. The French foreign minister Alain Juppe has said that he regrets the absence of the AU at today’s Libya conference due to internal disagreements.

In the continent, Rwanda and Zambia have appeared to support the NFZ while Uganda, Mauritania and Namibia voiced strong opposition. Even South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma recently suggested that the military operation exceeded the UNSC mandate.

Some political analysts and commentators said they were puzzled by the AU’s no show.

“It’s an embarrassment that they would just not show up,” Francis Kornegay, a senior researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Johannesburg told Christian Science Monitor (CSI). “It might be that they just don’t have a single African position on this issue.”

But many critics say that the AU will not be an honest broker given the influence of Gaddafi over the body. The Libyan leader, who has billions of dollars at his disposal, is one of the AU’s largest benefactors providing along with four other countries 75% of its budget.

Even South Africa which is a member of the AU panel on Libya has reportedly questioned the credibility of the commission.

“There are concerns here at home about this panel and whether South Africa should be part of it. It’s almost a given what they will say, given their relationship with that man [Gaddafi],” a senior government official told the Mail & Guardian newspaper based in South Africa this month.

The newspaper said that Government officials in Johannesburg are worried that should the panel return with a recommendation to the AU that favors Gaddafi, it will spoil the image president Jacob Zuma wants to portray on the continent — that of himself as a statesman who believes in brokering peaceful solutions that do not merely serve its strongmen.

In a related issue the AU chief sounded the warning bell over the financial resources of the organization as a result of the civil unrest that has swept through North African countries such as Egypt and Libya which together with Nigeria and South Africa are the main contributors.

Speaking in Addis Ababa, at the opening of the annual meeting of the Ministers of Finance, Planning and Development of the AU and the Economic Community for Africa (ECA), Ping called on countries to provide the institution with sustainable resources.

Some 77 percent of the AU resources is funded by foreign partners and the remainder by the member states.

‘It is imperative to secure resources and why not find another way to provide sustainable resources for the institution?’ Ping was quoted as saying by the Panafrican News Agency (PANA).

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