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Gaddafi pushes for union after election to head AU
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 02 - 02 - 2009


Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
was elected chairman of the African Union on Monday, according to Reuters.
Resplendent in golden robes and cap and hailed as "king of
kings" by traditional African leaders who accompanied him,
Gaddafi accepted a gavel from the outgoing chairman, Tanzanian
President Jakaya Kikwete, at a summit in Ethiopia.
He told fellow summit leaders that his project to create a
united continental government would be approved at the next
meeting in July unless there was a majority against it.
The AU normally relies on consensus in reaching decisions.
"If we don't have a quorum for rejection, that means we have
accepted it," Gaddafi said.
Gaddafi's election was treated almost like a coronation by a
group of 30 customary African leaders dressed in colourful robes
and headgear who accompanied him to the conference hall at his
invitation.
"On behalf of the traditional kings, on behalf of all the
sultans, on behalf of all the princes, on behalf of all the
customary rulers, I want to say thank you to the King of Kings
who we have now crowned," their unidentified leader said.
The group attended a conference sponsored by Gaddafi in
Libya last September.
Gaddafi, supported by some AU members like Senegal's
Abdoulaye Wade, has been pushing for a unity government for
years, saying it is the only way to meet the challenges of
globalisation, fighting poverty and resolving conflicts without
Western interference.
But others, led by regional economic powerhouse South
Africa, see the idea as a distant and impractical prospect that
would infringe the sovereignty of member states, although all 53
members of the AU say they agree with the idea in principle.
An often heated three-day summit devoted to Gaddafi's
project in Ghana in 2007 did not reach a deal despite the
participants being berated by the fiery Libyan leader.
The first day of this summit on Sunday again pulled back
from accelerating the process.
Kikwete told reporters the meeting had agreed to replace the
African Union Commission with an "authority" rather than an
immediate pan-regional government as it had proposed. This would
be launched at the next summit in July.
He said this would move it closer to a federal government
but he was vague on how much real new power the authority would
have.


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