Pan African parliamentarians call for more effective conflict mechanisms


BY GEORGE KAGAME

African national legislators attending the 10th session of the Pan African Parliament have called upon the African Union Commission to increase the capacity of the AU Peace Keeping force so as to be able to deal more efficiently with conflicts on the continent.


The legislators noted that various conflicts both military and civil on the continent like in Mauritania, Somalia, DR Congo, Darfur, Chad, and Zimbabwe would be avoidable if the AU peace keeping force was active and efficient.

They were reacting to the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission Erastus J. O. Mwencha, who in his speech earlier in the day had stated that the AU was determined to strengthening the peace and security initiatives in the continent as a pre condition for the development of Africa.

Mwencha said that the AU had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the AU and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) defining the relationship between them early this year.
Chuzao Gullelab from Namibia said talk of peace and security by the AU was useless as long as conflicts persisted on daily basis on the continent: "the crisis in Eastern DR Congo, Somalia and Darfur are frustrating and AU organs appear incompetent to handle them.

Mohammed Laga said that because of the limited integration processes on the continent, conflicts in many regions in Africa are sometimes fermented by outside forces while Africans were sometimes not directly responsible. He called for a more effective Pan African Parliament to move faster from being an advisory body with no powers to an active one that can demand action from government such that these conflicts can be avoided.


Commenting on the issue of stability Sunnir Door from Mauritius said while quoting a Ghanaian writer that beginning with the independence era in Africa, there had been 206 heads of state on the continent but only 20 good leaders, he added the AU needed "to budget more and more for development and less and less for peace keeping" as is the case now. Shadrac Niyonkuru from Burundi called upon the AU to devise concrete measures to demand the reinstatement of the constitutional government and penalize all African governments that come to power through coup de tats.


Responding to Mwencha's call for the development and harmonization of Africa’s customs administration and laws and negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, PAP members were critical of the process saying that the negotiations were not handled properly by African negotiators.

Batille Tosiki from @@@@ said the people that handled the negotiations on behalf of African states were not competent enough to deal with European sophistication.



Dr Georgette Kalimi from Egypt said the noble causes that African leaders want to achieve will not be achieved if the mentality of poverty still exists in the mindset of the same leaders; the mentalities she added are manifested throughout rampant corruption on the continent.


Azadine Abdelmajid said that countries in Africa that had started to transform food crops in the production of energy were criminals in the range of drug dealers: "they should be pursued by international law because this is a bad crime considering that many Africans are threatened by starvation while other countries are turning food crops into energy," said Abdelmajid.