Daily Independent Online.
*
Friday, June 11, 2004.
Obasanjo, five African leaders take case
to G8
Bolaji Tunji
Foreign
Affairs Editor
President Olusegun Obasanjo and five
African leaders have joined the G8 Summit on Sea Island in the United States as
its agenda focuses on issues affecting the African continent.
The African leaders who are taking part in
the summit include President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Abdelaziz Bouteflika,
Algeria, John Kufuor, Ghana, Yuweri Museveni, Uganda and Abdoulaye Wade of
Senegal.
Debt and the battle against Aids/HIV are
expected to top Thursday's agenda.
In a statement, leaders called on Sudan to
disarm immediately the militias in its western Darfur region, blaming them for
massive human rights violations.
They urged all parties to the conflict to
immediately and fully respect the ceasefire there and allow unimpeded
humanitarian access to those in need.
The G8 was expected to discuss the
situation in Zimbabwe as well as approve extending and expanding a debt relief
programme, and endorsing new initiatives on AIDS, peacekeeping and trade.
Africa remains the only part of the
developing world no better off than it was 25 years ago despite the initiatives
like the Brandt Commission and Live Aid in the 1980s to more recent efforts
such as Washington's AIDS Fund and Africa's own NEPAD partnership. Growth rates and life expectancy are
falling and poverty is growing amid the AIDS epidemic and continuing war,
corruption and bad governance.
Mbeki said on Thursday that some will see
the African delegation as "objects of compassion and contempt,"
adding that, "We can expect to be portrayed in some quarters as mendicants."
The South African leader called on Africans
to become "demonstrable masters of their own destiny."
"We must be able to set our own
priorities based on our own realities, experience and needs, rather than those
of foreign donors and the organisations through which they channel funds,"
he said.
Per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa is
now estimated to be $200 lower than in 1974.
The G8 leaders are expected to look at
plans to train and equip more than 50,000 peacekeepers over the next five years,
particularly for deployment in Africa.
Mbeki has said the Darfur region of Sudan, where a civil
conflict has displaced about one million people, needs urgent humanitarian aid.
