PANA News - Africa: Weekly Press Reviews
for July 12 and July 19
Panafrican News Agency. B.P. 4056, Dakar, Senegal
From Olu Sarr, PANA Staff Correspondent
DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) - Boutros-Ghali's bid for re-election
as United Nations secretary-general, the summit of the
Organisation of African Unity, elections in Niger and the
establishment of Sierra Leone's Truth Commission, were among
the leading issues discussed in the African press this week.
Boutros-Ghali's announcement seeking a second five-year term awakened the hostility of the United States government. The Lagos newspaper, Daily Times, said that while the U.S. claimed that its hostility was motivated by a desire to see a more efficient U.N. system, "the real reason behind Washington's moves may be nothing but sheer domestic politics."
It said: "It is no longer a secret that over the years, right wing elements in the United States have turned the world body into a favourite sport to be punched and vilified at every opportunity."
Consequently, it said, "In a re-election bid that is already badly tainted by Whitewater, Paula Jones and Filegate, Mr. Clinton has chosen to vote against Boutros-Ghali perhaps to deny his republican opponents an opportunity to attack his foreign policy. But he went too far."
Trimming the U.N. bureaucracy, democratising its Security Council, reducing the size of the U.S. contribution to the world body, it said, were all badly needed changes.
"Reforms of this magnitude, some observers have pointed out, go well beyond the purview of the secretary-general; it is an issue which the member states themselves must pursue vigorously," it said.
"Be that as it may, Africans must stand solidly behind Dr. Boutros-Ghali in his re-election campaign because as the first African to occupy that position, the secretary-general has acquitted himself quite well," it said.
He was called upon to occupy that position "at a crucial but difficult moment" in international relations. It noted that with the end of the cold war, there was a dramatic shift of world attention, to the countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
"In spite of this, Boutros-Ghali ensured that Africa was not marginalised within the U.N. system," it said. "He supported peace-keeping operations in Angola, Mozambique, Liberia and Somalia."
Earlier this year, it noted, he launched a special 25 billion U.S.-dollar initiative for the development of Africa. "These factors, and the fact that past occupants of the world's highest public office have always had a second term, compel us to urge Africa to rally solidly behind Dr. Boutros-Ghali, to ensure that he is not denied a second term which is rightly his.
"Furthermore, Boutros-Ghali's second term would afford him the opportunity to realise the democratisation of the permanent membership of the Security Council, which the big boys have hitherto monopolised to the exclusion of large sections of the globe.
"The membership of the Security Council indeed poses the biggest paradox of our time, namely, that those who are weeping louder than the bereaved, calling for democracy in other countries, cannot see the need to democratise the U.N. to ensure that all the free nations of the world conduct their affairs in an atmosphere devoid of bullying and condescending inequality." Cotonou's Le Citoyen (The Citizen) and The Monitor, of Addis Ababa, agreed with the Daily Times.
Le Citoyen, a Beninese publication, commented on the endorsement given the Egyptian diplomat by the Organisation of African Unity.
"In fact, Africa has no reproach against Boutros Boutros-Ghali and his [first term] has been positive," Le Citoyen said.
"Mr Boutros-Ghali's major handicap is American hostility or, rather, Israeli hostility expressed through Bill Clinton, the U.S. president, who will be seeking a second term in office at the end of this year," it said. "In effect, Boutros-Ghali has become persona non grata [in the United States] because of his policy in the Near-East."
The Monitor noted U.S. assurances that it would not oppose the election of another African as secretary general.
"Although this is a good diplomatic compromise, Africans should not entirely leave the choice to be guided by the tastes of the United States. They will have to make their own independent choice and coordinate their diplomatic activities to this end, with other developing countries," the newspaper said. "There are, of course, a lot of educated and talented African diplomats that can fill Boutros-Ghali's shoes. Whether they are endorsing the re-election of Boutros Ghali' or any other African candidate, they will have to close ranks as they have recently done at the Yaounde Summit and [work] for the best interests of Africa," it said.
