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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Nov 29 2010 - 06:52:20 EST
Sudan boycott clouds tough Africa-EU summit
Claire Rosemberg
November 29, 2010 - 1:49PM
Leaders from Africa and Europe head into tough talks to seal a "new, equal"
partnership between the two continents Monday after narrowly averting a
last-minute diplomatic rumpus over Sudan.
Hosted in the high-rise seaside Libyan capital by leader Moamer Kadhafi,
Sudan is boycotting the two-day Africa-EU summit in retaliation for the
exclusion of President Omar al-Bashir, who faces an international arrest
warrant.
The eve-of-summit boycott, which Bashir blames on the Europeans, comes as
the two continents face off on fractious issues such as trade and
immigration, while striving to put the burden of history behind in a new
partnership of equals.
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But concerns that a leader wanted by the International Criminal Court would
join the gathering of 80 nations, only the third in two decades, had worried
some nations, diplomatic sources from both continents said.
Notable summit absentees include the European Union's "big three" -- British
Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel -- though the Sudanese issue was never publicy
cited.
The Sudanese pull-out Sunday came 24 hours after former South African
president Thabo Mbeki reported Bashir was indeed headed for the oil-rich
desert nation's palm-fringed capital.
"Mr Bashir will not attend," Khartoum's Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti
retorted. The no-show was "to avoid embarrassment to Libya" and was taken
"under pressure from Europe".
Bashir was indicted in March 2009 for alleged war crimes and crimes against
humanity, and in July 2010 on charges of genocide, linked to atrocities
committed by Khartoum's forces in Darfur.
In a statement, he accused Europeans of "hypocrisy" for urging him to
implement Sudan's 2005 north-south peace accord while attacking his
legitimacy.
Europe's stand was "an attack on the African Union and Sudan while also
undermining the idea of real dialogue and cooperation between Africa and
Europe," the Sudanese leader said Sunday.
At the last Africa-EU summit three years ago in Lisbon, leaders representing
more than 1.5 billion people pledged to turn a page on the old-era
donor-recipient relationship and instead propel ties to "a new, equal and
strategic level".
In Tripoli, where a massive police presence cordoned off the heart of the
city on the eve of the summit, a draft of the joint 2010 declaration seen by
AFP states that the two continents are "determined to seize together new
opportunities for broader and mutually beneficial initiatives."
Africa's leading aid donor, the 27-nation EU remains its top trading partner
but risks being elbowed aside as Brazil, India and other emerging giants
join China in chasing the spoils of the resource-rich continent.
And African leaders, frustrated after almost a decade of failed efforts to
seal trade deals with the EU, are heading into the summit determined to air
their grievances.
"This is an extremely important question where we still have differences,"
African Union Commission president Jean Ping said ahead of the talks.
After years of wrangling over Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between
the two continents, the prickly issue was studiously left off the summit
agenda.
But Africans complain the EU is setting conditions for the EPAs that will
throw up new hurdles for poor countries striving for economic progress.
China on the other hand has pumped billions in investments in oil, mining
and manufacturing while winning hearts and minds with soft loans and aid in
infrastructure and energy, geared to lift the world's most destitute
continent out of poverty.
Africa, currently clocking up the world's highest growth, is setting its
heart on new private investment initiatives -- in fields such as renewable
energy, adding value to natural resources, and developing infrastructures.
Another bone of contention is how to deal with the ticking migration bomb --
a question close to Khadafi's heart due to the millions of migrants flooding
into a Tripoli bottleneck.
"It would be difficult not to discuss this," Ping said.
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