USAU: AU SUMMIT IN ADDIS ABABA -- OUTCOMES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 02 OF 04 ADDIS ABABA 000289 SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/FO, AF/RSA, AF/E, AF/S, AF/C, AND S-USSE STATE ALSO FOR NEA/MAG, AND IO-UNP NSC FOR MGAVIN PARIS FOR WBAIN AND RKANEDA LONDON FOR PLORD E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/10/2020 TAGS: PREL PGOV UNP UNGA UNSC NI AU SUBJECT: USAU: AU SUMMIT IN ADDIS ABABA -- OUTCOMES *********************** * Missing Section 001 * *********************** ADDIS ABAB 00000289 002 OF 004 and private investment, initiatives around which food security can be built. "Nations survive when they can feed themselves," he concluded. ¶5. (U) Mutharika segued naturally from agriculture to transportation infrastructure, saying that Africans should think of food on a regional, not national, basis, and must consider the importance of roads, railways, and interstate linkages to transport food across borders. He lamented the "roads to nowhere" that result when nations build highways that stop at their borders and praised the U.S. interstate highway system. "That's where we might ask you (partners) for assistance," he said. Mutharika named energy as his final priority, emphasizing the need to link national power grids with regional ones to ensure consistent power supplies in Africa. ¶6. (U) Responding to questions and comments from AUPG members, Mutharika stated that the issue of women cuts across all AU priorities. "Every program should have women's participation," he said. Mwencha later echoed this point, saying that gender should be mainstreamed into all AU activities. On the role of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) in the agenda outlined, Mutharika commented that the whole of Africa is a sick continent. He singled out Somalia as a place where "development has regressed," and underscored the need to find solutions with the Somalis, the international community, and Africans. In general, the AUPG took it as a positive sign that Mutharika had already begun to engage with AU colleagues and partners on issues of mutual interest, and could clearly and succinctly state his priorities. -------------- PEACE AND SECURITY -------------- ¶7. (U) The 2010 AU Summit also resulted in the election of new PSC members. The AU Assembly appointed five countries, representing each of Africa's five regions, as PSC members for a three-year term beginning April 1: Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Another ten countries were appointed for a two-year term: Benin, Burundi, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Rwanda, and South Africa. Some observers at the AU Summit expressed concern over some of the newly-elected countries, such as Zimbabwe and Libya, questioning their suitability in light of problematic democracy and human rights records. (Comment: PSC members are not, as a rule, supposed to use their membership as a platform to push their own, bilateral agendas, and therefore are not expected to change the overall tenor of the PSC's workings. End comment.) ¶8. (C) In advance of the Summit, the AU declared 2010 "The Year of Peace and Security in Africa." The Assembly emphasized that this theme would provide African people, leaders, and institutions, as well as the international community, with an opportunity to strengthen peace efforts and launch new ones. In Mwencha's wordsT%Ae=`'Vcomments to the AUPG, the mere mention of Somalia induced Ping to launch into a rant on the need for more troops, training, and financing, and to berate would-be donors for failing to pay funds pledged. ¶9. (U) Ping also brought up Sudan, saying "the post-referendum period starts now" and warning that a decision for South Sudan to separate from the North could result in the resumption of war, particularly if the country is not prepared for it. The framework for negotiations in Sudan was a recurring theme in many Summit bilaterals, with the AUC leadership emphasizing that former South African President Thabo Mbeki, as the lead on political dialogue, should be viewed as the "umbrella under which others operate." -------------- UNCONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES IN POWER ADDIS ABAB 00000289 003 OF 004 -------------- ¶10. (U) Because the AU Charter contains no provisions to address situations in which a leader obtains power via unconstitutional means other than a coup (for example, in Niger),the AUC was hampered in its capacity to handle non-coup seizures of power in Africa. Recognizing this as a significant deficiency, the Assembly reiterated its categorical rejection of unconstitutional changes of government and took steps to institute additional punitive measures against offending governments. The AU already has the ability to suspend offending countries from taking part in AU activities, but the Assembly added the following prescriptions: (1) Perpetrators of unconstitutional changes in government shall not be allowed to participate in elections to restore constitutional order; (2) any member state that instigates or supports an unconstitutional change in another country may be sanctioned; (3) the Assembly may implement economic and other sanctions as appropriate. Furthermore, the Assembly decided that member states should not accredit illegitimate authorities to non-African international bodies including the UN or UN General Assembly so that, in effect, governments that come to power through unconstitutional means will be suspended not only by the AU, but by other multilateral organizations as well. Decisions to implement such measures are to be made in close consultation with regional entities. ¶11. (SBU) The AU Summit Assembly addressed the issue of Madagascar, as a country in which constitutional order has yet to be restored. Reiterating previously-expressed recommendations, member states from SADC presented a decision on Madagascar that calls for the Malagasy to implement the Maputo Agreement and the Addis Ababa Additional Act. The decision also called for de facto President Andry Rajoelina to stop imposing unilateral solutions on the current crisis. On mediation, it acknowledged the efforts made by both SADC and the AU in returning Madagascar to constitutional order. At the same time, it underscored "the leading role played by SADC in the mediation process," and expressed support for SADC mediator Chissano and his team. Given persistent tension between the AU, SADC, and the UN over the proper approach to Madagascar, SADC's proposed decision was a clear attempt to reaffirm its primacy in the mediation process. At the February 3 Summit debrief, Ping admitted that some controversy surrounded Madagascar and complained that the "SADC Secretariat never comes" to the AU Summit. Ping noted that there was "no debate on Niger," and summarized discussion on Niger, Guinea, and Zimbabwe by saying, "these issues had a good summit." (Comment: Such comments, made despite the fact that the Summit reached no real solutions to the crises in these countries, call into question the AU's effectiveness when it comes to truly insisting on and upholding constitutional order in Africa. End Comment.) -------------- CLIMATE CHANGE -------------- ¶12. (U) Though member states raised many questions related to climate change, heads of state and government ultimately agreed to continue with the accord adopted in Copenhagen, and to participate in the Bonn Climate Change Talks in May/June 2010 and the conference in Mexico in December 2010. According to Ping, "all await the mandatory treaty." He conceded that some countries have resisted signing the Copenhagen accord, but the AUC "told them they couldn't hold others hostage" and appealed to them to "move in the direction of signing." In a decision on the African Common Position at the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change, the Assembly formally affirmed its intent to speak with one voice in future climate change negotiations and endorsed Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as the coordinator of the Conference of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC). -------------- BUDGET -------------- ADDIS ABAB 00000289 004 OF 004 SUBJECT: USAU: AU SUMMIT IQFGNd^voted to development, with the expectation that partners will contribute $133 million of this and member states will contribute the rest. The Assembly voted to allocate $3,020,854 to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to facilitate its integration into the AU. Commenting on the 2010 budget, the AU's Head of the Division of Information and Communication said that she is pleased with the increase and that her department has received much-needed additional funds with which she plans to hire more staff members. -------------- COMMENT: -------------- ¶14. (U) Overall, the AUC leadership, member states, and partner countries seemed satisfied with the outcomes of the 2010 AU Summit, though it will remain to be seen if and how proposed initiatives are implemented. As expected, the Summit's stated theme of Information and Communications Technology took a back-seat to more pressing issues. Ideally, the AU would like to spend less time on conflicts and crises, and more time on issues such as women's rights, good governance, and economic integration, as evidenced by the choice of "Shared Values" as the theme of the Summit in ¶2011. The fact of the matter, however, is that peace and security is likely to remain the AU's bread and butter for the foreseeable future. ¶15. (U) Moving forward, this is an excellent time for the USG to work with the AU on advancing President Obama's emphasis on food security, given President Mutharika's desire to reach the goal of having no child die of hunger on the continent in five years and the proven success of the USG's relationship with Malawi on food security. The new AU chairperson is very pro-USA and is a positive advocate of the effectiveness of USG involvement on the continent. USG should take full advantage of the goodwill earned in Malawi to replicate the same goodwill on a continent-wide scale through the AU. YATES