Optimism, Cynicism Mark African Union

In a blur of streaking fighter jets, Zulu dancers and parachuting soldiers, African leaders on Tuesday launched the African Union, an ambitious new body that seeks to pull the beleaguered continent out of poverty and conflict.

"We as Africans have a common and a shared destiny. Together we must redefine this destiny for a better life for all the people of this continent," South African President Thabo Mbeki told dignitaries and a cheering crowd of thousands at a celebratory kickoff at a stadium in this coastal city.

Mbeki, the African Union's first chairman, has been a driving force behind its creation. He envisages it as the engine to transform Africa, sparking foreign investment and development through the promotion of democracy and good governance.

Delegates at the stadium glowed with optimism as they slipped out of suit jackets to dance along to the new African Union theme song: "African Unity let's make it a reality/ Unity is the key to the African Century."

Talk of unity won't be enough, said critics who questioned whether the new body would have the resources or political will to enforce its lofty goals or would be another toothless bureaucracy like its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity.

It is doubtful the union, modeled in part after the European Union, would have the power to reign in the despots and corruption-riddled governments that plague the continent, the critics said.

Money will also be a challenge, since the union will inherit the OAU's more than $40 million debt and does not appear to have a better plan for funding itself.

Regardless, African leaders have hailed the 53-nation African Union as a new organization for a new era — one that links a commitment to democracy and human rights to economic development.

Plans for the union include a security council, a legislature and an economic development plan.

Its muscle is to be a peace and security council, whose 15 rotating members may be able to send a continental peacekeeping force to intervene in cases of genocide and war crimes.

The union's other key element is the New Partnership for African Development which seeks billions of dollars of international investment in Africa in return for stable democratic governance and fiscal responsibility.

Only African Union members that comply with NEPAD's basic tenets will be invited to join that body. A mechanism of peer review is to be set up so the members can police each other.

Critics doubt their leaders' commitment to a union that in theory will take away some of their power, and they question whether it will be allowed to use soldiers to end civil conflict and human rights abuses in African countries.

"For Africa to see fundamental changes, there must be a major change in the attitude and thinking of its leaders," said Noel Twagiramungu, a human rights official in Rwanda, where more than 500,000 people were killed in a 1994 genocide while the OAU did nothing. "The biggest problem facing the AU ... is that none of the present leaders can stand up and say, 'I am a credible leader with moral authority and my peers should follow my example."'

South African opposition lawmaker Joe Seremane said Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's efforts to take a leadership role in the union did not bode well for its future.

"Is Libya's human rights record and its grossly undemocratic system of government acceptable to South Africa and other democratic countries?" Seremane asked.

During the summit, Gadhafi suggested the chairman's term be expanded from one year to five and that a pan-African army be established and based in the chairman's home country. But his proposals were quickly shuffled off into a bureaucratic holding pattern.

Gadhafi, who first proposed the union, has made no secret of his desire to be its leader, and hopes to have its headquarters in Libya. At Tuesday's rally he shook his fist in the air and roused the crowd.

"No more slavery. No more colonization. It's a new dawn," Gadhafi said as many in the stadium waved posters of him.

Mbeki, who has been vying with Gadhafi for influence over the union, stressed the importance of reform to Africa's future.

"Through our actions let us proclaim to the world we are a continent of democracy," he said.