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The African Union’s reputation suffered a setback during the past week when its leaders faltered in the face of Robert Mugabe’s blunt challenge to democratic norms in Zimbabwe. But while the organization may be weakened, VOA correspondent Peter Heinlein reports there is cause for hope in the expressions of dissent by a small, but increasingly vocal, group of African leaders determined to distance themselves from the continent’s authoritarian despots.

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Reuters - Raila Odinga, Kenya’s New democratically elected PM, urged the African Union (AU) on Monday to suspend Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from the body.

“The African Union should not accept or entertain Mr. Mugabe,” Odinga told reporters in Nairobi. “He should be suspended until he allows the African Union to facilitate free and fair elections between him and his opponent.”

Odinga — whose power-sharing agreement with Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki after a disputed election in December has been touted by some as a possible solution for Zimbabwe — is one of the continent’s most vocal critics of Mugabe.

At the weekend, Odinga, known for his fiery rhetoric and flamboyant style, also urged the AU to send troops into Zimbabwe.

“Right now Mugabe is a crisis, they have no president with legitimacy to run the country,” he said.

Mugabe went to an AU summit in Egypt on Monday after being re-elected in a one-candidate election condemned by regional monitors. “The (African) union will be setting a very dangerous precedent for the continent if Mr. Mugabe is accepted to participate as a duly elected president,” Odinga said.

African Union (AU) leaders have begun a summit in Egypt that looks set to be overshadowed by the crisis in Zimbabwe. The two-day AU meeting was declared open by the current chairman, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who introduced host President Hosni Mubarak for the first speech.

President Robert Mugabe entered the hall in Sharm el-Sheikh with the Egyptian and Tanzanian leaders. Mr Mugabe, 84, was sworn in on Sunday after his election victory but observers said pre-poll violence had undermined the vote’s credibility.

There have been calls for the AU not to recognise Mr Mugabe, but it may urge talks with the opposition instead. Mr Mugabe claimed a landslide victory as the sole candidate after the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew.

The AU has a rule not to accept leaders who have not been democratically elected - but observers say it is unlikely to take such strong action against Mr Mugabe so quickly.

A draft resolution written by African foreign ministers during talks ahead of the summit did not criticise the elections or Mr Mugabe, but condemned violence in general terms and called for dialogue.

African leaders are expected to urge Mr Mugabe to enter into talks with Mr Tsvangirai, and engage in some sort of power-sharing agreement. South African President Thabo Mbeki, the regionally-appointed mediator for Zimbabwe, has called for a negotiated solution.

On Monday, the MDC called for an additional mediator to be appointed to work alongside Mr Mbeki. Mr Mugabe was sworn in during a quickly convened ceremony on Sunday, about an hour after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced the results of the presidential election run-off.

In a speech that followed the swearing-in ceremony, Mr Mugabe said he was committed to talks with the opposition to find a solution to the political crisis.

(Picture - Nelson Mandela, left, waves from the stage, as U.S. actor Will Smith smiles from behind, at the 46664 charity concert in honour of Mandela’s 90th birthday in London, Friday, June 27, 2008. The former South African president Mandela’s 90th birthday falls on July 18.AP Photo)
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LONDON (AFP) — Nelson Mandela made an emotional appeal Friday for new leaders to take forward his lifelong struggle against poverty, sickness and oppression, in a speech at his 90th birthday concert in London.

[AP Video 1] - [AP Video 2] - [Speech]

Joined on stage by all the artists performing, Mandela said it was time for “new hands to lift the burdens.”

Mandela, who retired from public life nine years ago, is expected to retreat further from the limelight after he turns 90 on July 18, and hand over the reins of his 46664 campaign against HIV/AIDS.

Introduced by US movie star Will Smith, Mandela was welcomed on stage by rapturous applause.

[AP Video 1] - [AP Video 2] - [Speech]

Dressed in a black shirt with a 46664 logo, and black trousers, Mandela took more than a minute to walk to the podium, with one hand on a walking stick and his other arm around his wife Graca Michel.

Mandela smiled as Smith led the audience through a round of “Happy Birthday To You.”

Joined on stage at London’s Hyde Park by all the concert’s performers, he smiled broadly and waved as he reached the podium.

[AP Video 1] - [AP Video 2] - [Speech]

Mandela began by reflecting on the 70th birthday concert held at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1988.

“Friends, 20 years ago, London hosted a historic concert which called for our freedom. Your voices carried across the water to inspire us in our prison cells far away,” the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.

“Tonight, we can stand before you, free. We are honoured to be back in London for this wonderful celebration.

“But even as we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete.

“Where there is poverty and sickness, including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all.

“Friends, and those watching all around the world, please continue supporting our 46664 campaign.

[AP Video 1] - [AP Video 2] - [Speech]

“We say tonight, after nearly 90 years of life, it is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now. I thank you.”

At the instigation of his wife, he waved to the audience, who gave him three cheers as he slowly left the stage with his hand on his wife’s shoulder.

A star-studded cast of artists, including Amy Winehouse and Annie Lennox, performed at the concert, with Queen and Paul Rodgers slated to follow them.

Precisely 46,664 tickets — after Mandela’s prison number during his 27-year incarceration for trying to topple South Africa’s apartheid regime — went on sale for the three-and-a-half-hour concert.

Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, Genesis legend Peter Gabriel and British actor Stephen Fry were among the celebrities introducing the artists.

[AP Video 1] - [AP Video 2] - [Speech]

In the AU, several powerhouse countries have leaders who critics say benefited from rigged elections. Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uganda are all countries where electoral fraud including intimidation of opposition support, ballot stuffing, or unilaterally changing the country’s constitution to extend or end term limits, have all allegedly been used to keep a leader in power.

[Read Full Article Here (ABC NEWS)]

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Reuters

Egypt is continuing large-scale secret deportations of Eritrean asylum seekers despite objections by the U.N. refugee agency, which fears for their safety, Egyptian security sources said on Wednesday.

They said a number of Eritreans were taken to Cairo airport in interior ministry vehicles on Tuesday night and put aboard special flights to Eritrea, but could give no further details. The ongoing deportations are the largest forced returns of asylum seekers from Egypt in decades, and could mark a shift in Egypt’s attitude toward tens of thousands of largely African migrants in its territory, activists say.

Amnesty International, which says returned Eritreans are at serious risk of torture, said it feared up to 120 asylum seekers had been flown home overnight from Cairo, adding to about 690 other Eritreans who Amnesty says were deported since June 11.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, which has been unable to confirm any forced returns, said it was concerned about possible deportations of some of the roughly 1,600 Eritreans who were reported to be in detention in Egypt.

“Basically, we have received similar reports from different sources that the deportations were still taking place,” UNHCR spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said.

The latest deportations would leave nearly 800 Eritreans remaining in Egyptian jails, and Amnesty said the remainder were also at risk of imminent deportation.

An Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment, but the ministry has said Egypt fulfils its international obligations toward refugees.

Egyptian security sources told Reuters last week that deportations have occurred and that more were planned.

Egypt, facing a surge of Eritrean arrivals in recent months, is under pressure to staunch the flow of African migrants into Israel over its sensitive Sinai desert border, Amnesty says. Police have shot dead 13 migrants at the border this year.

Security sources said Egypt suspected the Eritrean detainees planned to smuggle themselves to the Jewish state.

Facing rising international pressure over the deportations, Egypt agreed on Sunday to give UNHCR access to the remaining detained Eritreans for the first time since February.

UNHCR said it had been able to visit only about 140 Eritrean asylum seekers and want the deportations to end.

“We are concerned because there are serious human rights violations in Eritrea and … when people are forcibly returned they face detention for long, long periods of time. Months if not years. And they face torture,” Etefa said.

Eritreans arriving in Egypt in recent months include Pentecostal Christians fleeing religious persecution and others trying to avoid military conscription, activists say. UNHCR said some Eritreans appeared to have been drawn to Egypt in hope of reaching Israel, but also cited a deteriorating human rights situation in Eritrea. Activists say others had spent time in neighbouring Sudan but no longer felt safe there.

“Our Arab League is located in Cairo and the African Union is located in Addis Ababa. If they want cooperation they have to go through Cairo and Addis Ababa” - Muammar Gaddafi

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TRIPOLI, June 10 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Tuesday a EU proposal for an economic and security union with southern Mediterranean states was an insult to Arabs and Africans.

“This is taking us for fools,” Gaddafi said. “We do not belong to Brussels. Our Arab League is located in Cairo and the African Union is located in Addis Ababa. If they want cooperation they have to go through Cairo and Addis Ababa.”

France proposed the union last year as a way of boosting ties with the European Union’s southern neighbours and improving trade and security cooperation.

The plan is due to be unveiled in Paris on July 13 but has received a mixed welcome from the southern countries.

Gaddafi said the proposal involved economic projects that had failed already such as the Barcelona Process, an earlier attempt at north-south cooperation launched in 1995.

“They are throwing us bait to attract us to such projects. This is an insult to us Arabs and Africans,” he said in Tripoli at the start of a mini-summit of five North African states and Syria.

Libya called the meeting to seek a common stance on the proposed union and discuss Israel’s role. Arab governments fear that joining the union alongside Israel might imply a normalisation of their relations with the Jewish state.

They have also called for clarification on the proposed union’s institutions, financing and decision making process.

“If they come with an offer based on value and principle like fighting disease or climate change we can maybe discuss this. But they come with economic offers because they consider us as hungry people,” Gaddafi said.

The Tripoli meeting was attended by leaders of Syria, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania. Morocco’s King Mohammed did not attend and was represented by Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi.

Morocco, a staunch ally of France, has shown most willingness to take part in the union.

Egypt’s foreign ministry said President Hosni Mubarak was invited to the Tripoli meeting but could not attend as he had other engagements and was not given enough notice.

Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe - Africa

Even with the grand coalition Cabinet in office here in Kenya, we will not be the same again. Suspicion still abounds, as do counsels of despair in the prospects of African democracy. Travel through the country and you will sense something tangible of disunity and division, hostility and distrust. You will sense antipathy and you still feel the hatred. And you may see something else. Something gradual, almost as unnoticeable as the river erosion that wears down a fluvial rock. The transformation of Kenya from one nation with various sub-groups into several nations.

Why did we reach this state? Where did the rain start beating us?

In Tolstoy’s War and Peace, one of the most poignant moments occurs when the Russian generals discuss the evacuation of Moscow in the face of Napoleon’s brutal onslaught. General Kutuzov and his fellow generals are hankered around a table studying a map of the military positions of the contending armies, when one of them asks: “When did it become necessary that we must abandon Moscow?”

Kenya having abandoned its democratic highroad and pedigree of peace, love and unity, we can likewise ask, “When did it become necessary that we must go through the scandal of our post-electoral crisis?”

It behoves us all to make the effort to understand what went wrong in our country, because only through an accurate diagnosis of the causes of our condition can we come to a proper prognosis on how to heal our country.

One temptation is to blame our African heritage for our disgrace. Indeed, we have tolerated electoral fraud in neighbouring African states, failing to recognise our own vulnerability. The best democracy in Africa is one-party-dominant democracy. Either you get monarchic democracy, like in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, or dynastic democracy, like in Nigeria, Tanzania and Botswana.

Ethiopia has a parliamentary government. During its general elections on 15th May 2005, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi promised a free and fair exercise. Voter turnout was substantially high, and as the results started flowing in, the opposition took a big lead sweeping all the contested seats in the capital Addis. By the afternoon of May 16th, the opposition reported that it was halfway towards winning a majority in the national parliament.

Then the electoral chicanery began. While the preliminary results showed the ruling party trailing badly, the government announced that it had won almost sixty percent of all the seats. The opposition protested, alleging massive rigging. Prime Minister Zenawi immediately declared a state of emergency, outlawed all public gatherings, and got the electoral tallying process halted. The leaders of the opposition were put under house arrest as the government consolidated its position.

The Ethiopian experience is the standard experience in much of Africa. In May 2004 in Malawi, October 2005 in Zanzibar, February 2006 in Uganda, September 2006 in Zambia and April 2007 in Nigeria, similar experiences have occurred. Finally, this month in Zimbabwe we have observed another instalment of the nauseous contempt African leaders and their dominant parties have for democracy.

Our general lack of concern with these experiences of our African neighbours has created a vicious cycle of contempt for democracy.

Joseph Tanonoka, a journalist writing from Southern Africa, comments about the Zimbabwe elections: “It’s Kenya all over again because of wrong priorities, because of African leaders’ reluctance to urge losing presidential candidates to vacate their posts, because of… malicious detachment and indifference to the suffering of the people.”

Swapan Dasgupta writing from India comments that Africa can no longer blame its colonial legacy for the ills of bad governance afflicting it. A similar legacy of colonialism in Asia was shrugged off, leading to various economic powerhouses and responsible democracies. Even countries afflicted by civil strife like Sri Lanka have finally grown up and matured into democratic states.

Dasgupta regrets “the unending spate of bad news from Africa” that has overshadowed successes in much of the rest of the world. The tragedy of Africa is that the leaders squandered the considerable goodwill among their own peoples instead of building and strengthening their democratic institutions.

According to Dasgupta, the personality cults of African leaders have proved to be a veneer for naked self-aggrandizement that has turned Africa into a continent of rich politicians and impoverished people.

The current situation in Kenya, and indeed in much of Africa, is self-inflicted. Bad leadership is behind most of our woes. To fight manipulated democracy and get good leaders, Africans must come together in solidarity to support electoral processes throughout the continent.

BBC - A plan to build the largest and most powerful hydroelectric dam in the world is being discussed in London.

Financiers and African politicians will look at how to finance the $80bn (£40bn) cost of the Grand Inga project.

The plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo would generate twice as much energy as China’s Three Gorges dam.

It is hoped it will boost Africa’s electricity supply by a third, but opponents doubt it will help the poorest Africans without electricity.

The World Energy Council, (WEC) which is hosting the two-day meeting in London, says the Grand Inga project will help the estimated 500 million Africans without access to electricity.

“We have to raise the level of access to commercial energy all through Africa and other parts of the world, where this poverty is faced,” WEC secretary general Gerald Doucet told the BBC.

“We can’t do it without building these projects, but of course, on a sustainable basis that takes into account the social, civil and environmental issues.

“And I can say that in the past, mistakes have been made, but WEC is here to make sure those mistakes are not repeated,” Mr Doucet said.

New grid

Power would be transmitted to other countries via a giant new distribution system to Egypt in the north, Nigeria in the west and to South Africa.

In order that construction can start as planned in 2014, the World Energy Council is calling for finance for a feasibility study to be done as soon as possible.

The Grand Inga project would be built on the Congo river alongside two existing hydroelectric plants and is expected to begin operating between 2020 and 2025.

The plans include a 205m-high dam, 15km-long reservoir and a plant with a capacity to produce 320 terawatt hours of electricity annually.

The idea for the project was first conceived in the 1980s, but political turmoil in the DR Congo meant that the plans could not proceed.

(Prime Minister Meles Zenewi meeting with
President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil of India, New Delhi on April 08, 2008)

The first India-Africa summit concluded on Wednesday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying India wanted to be a partner in Africa’s ‘resurgence.’ The summit, adopted the Delhi Declaration and the Africa-India Framework for Cooperation, documents Singh described as a framework for cooperation in the 21st century.

India wants to follow the Chinese route of offering convenient loans and low-cost projects in exchange for raw materials, but also to develop a model of collaboration different from the increasingly criticized model of Beijing.

New Delhi wants to increase trade and diplomatic relations with the African continent. It is seeking energy and raw materials in exchange for loans and projects. Experts say to counter the strong Chinese presence, India must propose a different form of collaboration, more respectful of local needs and the rights of the people.

China has obtained contracts in Africa, by granting loans to governments without caring how they are used. This has led to opposition, as shown by the recent anti-Chinese protest in Zambia. Experts warn India should avoid this approach.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has announced the commitment of the least 500 million dollars over the next five years, to be used for projects and services in Africa, and has also pledged to bring financing from the 2.15 billion dollars of the past five years (electrical grids in Mozambique and Ethiopia, railways in Senegal and Mali, cement factories in Congo, construction projects in Ghana, military structures in Sierra Leone, technology training centres in Lesotho) to more than 5.4 billion. Numerous agreements on trade and collaboration are expected.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is in India along with Leaders and senior government officials from 14 African nations including, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Congo’s President Joseph Kabila and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Alpha Oumar Konare, the former president of the African Union, said that it is important “for Africa to move away from the colonial system of trade that has turned us into a mere market”. The rise in food and oil prices is a serious problem for many African countries, and India could “support our initiatives to fight the hunger that threatens many of our countries”.

India has an increasing need for energy and raw materials: often beaten by Beijing in nearby markets, like Kazakhstan and Myanmar, it is now looking to Africa, where China has already been active for many years. New Delhi has always had primarily political relations with Africa, supporting various independence movements. But its trade relations amount to “only” 30 billion dollars a year, although this represents a sixfold increase in five years.

China conducted 73.3 billion dollars worth of trade in Africa in 2007, and in 2006 hosted a summit with 50 African countries. At least 15,000 African students are studying in India. India is a leader in sectors that are very useful for Africa, like the use of low-cost technology and the production of affordable generic pharmaceuticals.

The support of African countries is also important in the international arena, with India trying to obtain a permanent seat at the United Nations security council.