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| AU Special Summit: African leaders agree on stronger steps to end conflicts
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Tripoli, Libya (PANA) -
African leaders have pledged more sanctions against spoi
lers of peace initiatives and agreed to take tougher actions in future to deal w
i
th state sponsors of terror, armed rebellion in African Union (AU) member states
and piracy.
Rounding off a special summit on conflicts here, the African leaders also reiter
ated their commitment to deal with the scourge of
conflicts and violence in the continent once and for all, and immediately called
on all African states to comply fully with all
the treaties that have been rolled out to boost Africaâ?s democracy and good go
vernance.
In what appeared to be a carrot and stick approach to dealing with the conflicts
, the leaders agreed that the AU would enforce
strict sanctions against groups which refuse to cooperate with mediators or decl
ine to implement an agreed framework for ending any
conflict.
â?We reiterate our full support for all ongoing peace efforts on the continent
and urge all concerned parties to leave no stone unturned to
end the conflicts they are party to, bring hope to their people and build sustai
nable peace,â? the African leaders said in the 'Tripoli
Declaration'.
According to the declaration, in which the continentâ?s leaders agreed to work
towards ending the African conflicts in a more
comprehensive manner, the AU Commission would be granted more financial resource
s to increase the staffing levels at its
offices and to train more experts on conflict resolution.
The capacity of African universities should also be increased to give them the r
equired skills and ability to explore the nature of African
conflicts, to investigate which measures could succeed and which ones could fail
in attempting to resolve any particular conflicts.
And in a rare admission that the continent had failed to end the outbreak of con
flicts, the African leaders agreed to push forward the
implementation of past treaties dealing with good governance, elections and huma
n rights.
The AU Commission was also mandated to present a complete report on which Africa
n countries have complied with the past treaties on human
rights, transparent elections, rule of law, democracy and the control of arms.
Meanwhile, the African leaders also agreed to stop â?unconstitutional reformsâ
? which were also responsible for political tension in the continent.
Without giving any specific details, they warned that unconstitutional reforms,
such as the change of laws to allow sitting heads of state to extend their
tenure in office, were to blame for increasing election related tension in the c
ontinent.
''We reiterate the need for states to promote good governance, to abide by the r
ule of law and to respect their own constitutions, especially
when it comes to introducing constitutional reforms, bearing in mind that failur
e to do so can lead to situations of tension, which in
turn precipitate political crisis,â? the Tripoli Declaration stated.
The African leaders resolved to ensure the AU has enough troops and observers to
deploy in case of a conflict, to enable the continent respond more
rapidly to emerging conflicts.
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| Tripoli - 01/09/2009 |
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