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(TALKZIMBABWE) AU snubs Zimbabwe civil society group

AU snubs Zimbabwe civil society group
By: Ralph Mutema
Posted: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 5:24 am

President Robert Mugabe (2nd R) and African Union (AU) Chairman President Bingu Wa Mutharika of Malawi arrive for the closing ceremony of the AU summit in Ugandas capital Kampala July 27, 2010.

THE African Union snubbed civil society institutions from Zimbabwe in their attempt to include teething problems in the inclusive Government on the agenda of its 15th Ordinary Session Summit. AU leaders gathered in Uganda this week for the summit, officially opened by President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

On the agenda was the crisis in Somalia, the conflicts in Sudan’s Darfur region and in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

AU leaders resisted attempts by representatives of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, who had gathered in Uganda to try and influence a discussion on Zimbabwe.

The group wanted the AU to interfere in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe and urge speedy changes in the country's electoral laws ahead of national elections that may be called next year.

Both President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) have signaled recently that they are ready for elections next year.

The Coalition approached the AU secretariat hoping to have Zimbabwe on the agenda, but was ignored.

They resolved to deliver the same message to a Southern African Development Community meeting in mid-August in Namibia.

Meanwhile, the AU says it will add 4,000 troops to its peace force in Somalia and is considering whether to let them battle Islamic fundamentalists who were behind suicide attacks in Uganda that killed 76 people.

They said a cap of 8,100 on troop levels for the force, known as AMISOM, had been lifted and they were mulling whether to give it powers to combat militants, despite misgivings of some AU members.

The AU also called for the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir to be suspended while the continental body carries out a probe into alleged genocide in Darfur.

The Hague-based court earlier this month charged al-Bashir with three counts of genocide against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. The court had issued a warrant against al-Bashir in March for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“We have decided to establish our own mechanism,” AU President Bingu wa Mutharika told reporters in Kampala at the end of a three-day summit.

“We are asking the United Nations to suspend for the period of 12 months” the arrest warrants against al-Bashir, he said.

Labels: AU, CIVIL SOCIETY, NEOCOLONIALISM, SOMALIA, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 5:24 PM