July 1, 2002
African foreign ministers meeting ahead of a summit to launch the African Union have agreed on the need to set up a "robust" peacekeeping force, the assistant secretary general of the Organisation for African Unity said on Monday.
Maintenance of peace will be entrusted to a 15-member African Union (AU) body expected to be called the Peace and Security Council.
"We need to provide the new AU with a more robust capacity to deal with peace and security," Said Djinnit said as the ministers met in Durban, South Africa, to prepare for the July 8-10 summit -- the last of the 39-year-old OAU and the first of the AU, which is loosely modelled on the European Union.
Djinnit noted that in terms of its Constitutive Act, the AU "may also be given the authority to intervene in the internal affairs of member states in specific situations where genocide and crimes against humanity were being perpetrated".
The force is envisaged as a stand-by one, with members of national armies ready to join in combined peacekeeping operations at short notice.
The Peace and Security Council will have 15 members, some with longer terms than others, but no permanent members as on the UN Security Council.
It will be financed by a continuation of the OAU's Peace Fund to which member countries contribute now.
"There would also be voluntary contributions from within as well as outside the continent," Djinnit told reporters, adding that the AU was determined to reverse the current situation under which the Peace Fund receives two-thirds of its funds from abroad.
He said that Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau had not yet ratified the AU because of "conflict and other factors".
The AU plans to set up over the years an African parliament, an African Court of Justice, an African bank, a commission which would eventually have similiar powers to the European Commission, and, perhaps in around 20 years, a single currency.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
