How to tap and protect Africa's natural resources, the
continent's role in the world and the information age's impact on
African society were key themes at a summit of African leaders that
opened yesterday in Cannes, France.
Crises in the Sudanese region of Darfur and in Guinea
overshadowed the gathering of 40 heads of state and government. The
leaders of Sudan, the Central African Republic and Chad were likely
to meet on the sidelines to discuss Darfur, said the office of
French President Jacques Chirac, the summit host.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has resisted United Nations
efforts to deploy some 22,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, an area
suffering from constant clashes between government troops and
ethnic African tribes.
Guinea was discussed at a dinner of African leaders that Chirac
hosted on Wednesday night. Rioting and clashes between protestors
and security forces led President Lansana Conte to declare martial
law Monday. A Guinea human rights group said Wednesday that at
least 64 people have been killed since the weekend.
The African summit is expected to be Chirac's last, and a new
era in France-Africa relations is on the horizon after the French
presidential elections this spring. The two leading candidates to
succeed Chirac have both made clear they want reform of relations
with the continent where France has its traditional influence as a
former colonial power.
Change seems inevitable, since neither Segolene Royal nor
Nicolas Sarkozy have the depth of contacts and personal friendships
in Africa that Chirac built up over more than 40 years in politics,
the last 12 as a president who worked to put African development on
international agendas.
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore said Chirac would be
missed.
"For a long time, he has been our international advocate on
debt, development, the environment. He is a character who will stay
in our hearts for a long time," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently holds
the rotating presidency of the European Union, was to attend the
summit for the first time.
Before the summit, France also held a conference in Paris this
week to advertise African success stories people such as media
entrepreneur Daniel David from Mozambique, who set up a private TV
station but said he struggles to find funding to expand.
"Africa can no longer be described as a lost continent," said
John Kufuor, the African Union's chairman and president of Ghana.
Reporters should concentrate on "positive developments" in the
fields of human rights and "in the management of our economic
affairs", he said.
"Reports of corruption, crime, civil wars and even weather in
Africa should not be presented in the media as if they were
inherently African and exclusive to our continent, since they occur
everywhere," he said.
(China Daily February 16, 2007)
