Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
10ADDISABABA289
2010-02-11 13:15:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Addis Ababa
Cable title:
USAU: AU SUMMIT IN ADDIS ABABA -- OUTCOMES
how-toVZCZCXRO0679 PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO DE RUEHDS #0289/02 0421315 ZNY CCCCC ZZH P 111315Z FEB 10 ZDK FM AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7734 INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE PRIORITY RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY RUEPADJ/CJTF HOA PRIORITY RUZEFAA/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 8065
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
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