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OAU Chief Sees Bright Future for African Union
Secretary-General of the Organization of the African Unity (OAU) Salim Ahmed Salim said here on Wednesday that an African Union will play an more important role than the OAU in the development of the African continent.
Salim told a press conference that the 37-year history of the OAU showed that Africans need an organ with greater powers to deal with political, economic, and social challenges facing Africa. "Africa has not other choices but the union to meet the challenges in the economic globalization," he said, stressing that "Africa will have a more united union than the European Union." He said that the founding of the African Union is of the same significance with the founding of the OAU in early 1960s when the African states got rid of the western colonial rule one after another.
After three-day deliberations, leaders attending the 36th OAU summit signed the Draft Constitutive Act of the African Union here on Wednesday afternoon.
Under the Act, the African Union will be officially established until the OAU member states ratify the document which covers the establishment of a series of organs including the Assembly, the Executive Council and the Pan-African Parliament.
The African Union will also establish a series of financial institutions including the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Fund and the African Investment Bank.
Salim rejected doubts about the future of the African Union, saying history has proved that the OAU is very successful though many doubted it at the beginning.
He stressed that from the OAU to the African Union, Africans will enhance their cooperation in all sectors in a more effective way.
He expected that the ratification will be well done before an extra-ordinary summit of the OAU in March next year in Sirte, Libya where the African Union was initiated by the African leaders on September 9, 1999.
"However, we don't force the member states to make ratification if their people don't accept it," he said.
According to Salim, "OAU will be dissolved one year following the founding of the African Union."
He disclosed that more than 80 percent of the heads of state and government at the present summit signed the Act while others including South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria promised to follow in the near future.
Salim pointed out that those countries which boycotted the OAU summit did not mean they boycotted the OAU but the venue, Lome. Angola and its alliances including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) boycotted the Lome Summit, accusing Togo of supporting Angolan rebels by providing weapons.
However, Salim reaffirmed the OAU's decision to exclude the Comoros and Cote d'Ivoire from the summit, claiming that unconstitutional change of government is no longer tolerated. "African people prefer to choosing their leaders by votes rather than by bullets," he said.
On regional conflicts, Salim said the OAU and its member states will try every means in cooperation with the international community to explore ways to end the bloodshed.
The OAU chief appealed again for the release of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Sierra Leone, the national reconciliation in Somalia, a quick cease-fire and withdrawal of foreign troops from the DRC.
Salim said that during the three-day summit sessions, African leaders discussed the African economies and the challenges of globalization, the role of the regional economic communities in the process of African integration, African debts and approaches for solution, and the challenges of peace, security and stability in Africa.
They also discussed solutions to the conflicts between Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as in the DRC, Sierra Leone and Somalia, he said.
Founded on May 25, 1963, the OAU is designated to promote the unity and solidarity of the African states, defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of members, coordinate and intensify the cooperation and efforts to achieve a better life for the people of Africa.
Following eradicating all forms of colonialism from Africa, the organization has been focused on peace and development and reversion of the growing marginalization of Africa in economic globalization.
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