Remarks by Hon. Louise Mushikiwabo Minister of foreign affairs and cooperation of the Republic of Rwanda to the 275th Ministerial Meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, April 26, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Theme:
“The new threats to peace and security in Africa: lessons learned from north Africa crises and Cote d’Ivoire”
(Rwanda is Chair of the Peace and Security Council for this Month)
Excellency the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, standing in for the Chairperson of the African Union Commission,
Honorable Ministers,
Excellencies Commissioners,
Excellencies Ambassadors,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me thank you all once again for having responded to the invitation of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to discuss a serious issue of concern to all member states of the Union.
After the crises in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and the post electoral crisis in Cote d’Ivoire and having observed recent uprisings in Burkina Faso, and in Uganda, there is no better time to discuss a subject related to “New Threats to Peace and Security in Africa” than this one.
An open and frank deliberation on the matter will lead the Peace and Security Council, and indeed all AU member States, to find preventive measures to address potential threats to Africa’s peace and security.
As earlier mentioned in my remarks, today’s session is a special one. We deemed it necessary to convene at a ministerial level so as to offer a much needed forum to deliberate and come up with conclusive measures on prevailing Peace and Security threats in Africa at this particular time.
We also thought that interested countries, beyond the ones represented on the Peace and Security Council, could contribute to this debate and offer their views on this urgent matter.
There is no doubt that new threats to peace and security on our continent are real. The experiences, especially from North Africa, tell us that Africa faces a serious threat of becoming a conflict prone continent again. This presents a danger to the hard earned peace and the path of sustainable economic prosperity that have characterized our continent in the recent past.
The uprisings that we have witnessed have caused unnecessary loss of life and are perpetuating a negative image that Africa cannot afford. If the leadership of our continent does not go beyond communiqués and unimplemented resolutions, roll its sleeves and face these issues, the social unrests have potential spill-over effects to the rest of the continent and undermine the well being of citizens.
To address the root of the problem, there is need to come up with extraordinary solutions, and this will require that Africa’s leadership does not conduct business as usual.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
During the recent 4th Joint AU/ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development held on 28 March 2011 at ECA, here in Addis Ababa, some of these threats were clearly pointed out.
In that meeting, two elements were specifically highlighted to being the root causes of the uprisings witnessed in North Africa namely: poverty and poor governance.
From those statements, it is evident that both aspects are most of the time inter-linked.
On the economic front, it is obvious that poverty is and will remain a root cause of conflicts in Africa. It is therefore imperative to fast track economic development in our countries.
According to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, if sub-Saharan African countries are to perform better and generate enough wealth to satisfy their peoples’ needs, there is an urgent necessity to revisit adopted economic models that are not always relevant to Africa’s development.
Citing comparative studies of Africa’s development patterns and that of a number of Asian countries, it is his view that “the neo-liberal development paradigm cannot bring about economic transformation or sustained and accelerated growth”. He goes on to say that, the primary objective of a developmental state would be to bring about radical transformation of the political economy of a country. By so doing, value creation through producing globally competitive products and services, would become the only dominant path to wealth accumulation.
This view was shared by the United Nations’ Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Abdoulie Janneh, who called upon African Leaders to improve their political governance by making economic transformation a top priority for wealth creation and poverty alleviation.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The solution to the crises however cannot be reached by the creation of wealth alone. As we all know, the countries affected by the recent revolts in North Africa or the Middle-East are relatively wealthy.
Streamlining governance issues was strongly affirmed as the second aspect of the solution.
And according to Dr Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank: “we all know very well, growth that is not inclusive, that leaves some behind, as we can see from North Africa, is neither economically, nor politically sustainable and will only leads to frustrations and social explosion”.
He believes that it is the imbalance in labor market, the high unemployment and the underemployment, especially of the youth, that lead to the violence in North Africa.
Following the diagnostic, Dr Kaberuka, prescribed the cure: “The first responsibility of any developmental State is therefore to attempt to meet those aspirations and you can see they have a lot to do with economic welfare, economic opportunities- but they go beyond bread and butter”.
To govern for all and not for some, to be more inclusive and reach out to young and poor, these are the key messages learned from uprisings in North Africa that the President of the African Development Bank presented to the conference here in Addis Ababa.
Dr Jean Ping, Chairperson of the AU Commission, gave a similar message: “African countries need to expand the provision of social services like access to education and health, generate meaningful employment as well as ensure food security so as to ensure sustainable development”.
The 2011 World Development Report entitled Conflict, Security, and Development presents the same facts: “Low incomes, poverty, unemployment, income shocks such as those sparked by volatility in prices, rapid urbanization, and inequality between groups all increase the risks of violence”.
If to these objective factors one adds internal political opposition and international manipulations, the complete picture of what we call new threats to peace and security in Africa is drawn.
Nevertheless, we can ask ourselves if these objective factors respond adequately to the recent crisis in Cote d’Ivoire or to the deplorable situation we witnessed few years ago in Kenya. Post election violence is not really new to Africa, but the case of Cote d’Ivoire has brought that phenomenon to an unprecedented level.
This put the fundamental question of the adaptation of the concept of democracy to the reality of our people.
If the French democratic system is different from the British one, why should Africa adopt democratic systems similar to those? Do these systems necessarily respond to the equity, justice and inclusivity needed by the people of our countries? Let me recall the reach exchanges we’ve had during the last summit on African values. Should an African State experience genocide like in Rwanda or civil unrest like in Kenya for it to realize the importance of inclusive governance? That’s a question that I pose to this assembly.
Global governance is the last aspect I would like to introduce for our discussions. Let me use for a moment Libya’s case to illustrate my view. You are all aware about the perception by different actors, media in particular, that Africa, especially the African Union, has been absent or irrelevant in the management of the crisis in Libya.
We also know that the African Union’s Peace and Security Council put in place a High Level Ad Hoc Committee in Libya composed of five Heads of State. I know that a roadmap to bringing peace in Libya has been decided upon.
We all acknowledge Mr. Ping’s effort in interacting with other stakeholders, such as EU, US, NATO and UN, trying to find a lasting solution to the Libyan crisis. We applaud these efforts, but would like to emphasize more needs to be done to yield expected results. For instance, what special consultative mechanisms are in place and can be timely used in times of crisis, such as the one we are facing today, that would allow different AU organs to interact with Heads of State?
We are all in agreement that Africa should not condone a Head of State who holds his own people in contempt. And that we shall never tolerate a Head of State that intentionally takes lives of its own people. Despite all this, why has the African Union not responded timely and take a leadership role to put in place practical steps to stop this?
Finally, why has the African Union, in such grave situations prevailing and potential outbreak of violence in member States, not called for an extraordinary urgent conference of Heads of State and Governments for prompt deliberations and actions? It is our collective duty as the leadership of this continent to take timely and collective actions.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Facing all these important questions, it is impossible to elude our responsibility as a continental organization of which we all are members. There is considerable consensus that the Union has to play a leading role in safeguarding the lives and the well being of its people; it is therefore our duty to deliberate on these.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
These are some ideas and informed points of views which I believe can orient our reflection on today’s subject as we seek to prevent potential crises on our continent as an able and responsible Union.
I thank you.
SOURCE
African Union Commission (AUC)
