Sisay Asefa, Professor Department of Economics, Western Michigan University, responds to No. 570
Your pitch on behalf of AU is interesting, but you miss an important point about its origin and evolution. The AU would not have been possible without the great founding African fathers such as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Kwame Nekrumah of Ghana, Senghor of Senegal, Kenyatta of Kenya, and Nyerere of Tanzania. They were not democrats, but with all their failings, they were giants and great founding fathers of OAU from which the AU emerges. I am afraid AU must prove itself before it can be praised. Specifically, it must take firm stand in violation of the n rights of African people in their respective states and learn condemn or even decisively intervene, with force if necessary, when vicious atrocities are committed by dictators or rebels on African people in various states.
AU must develop the capacity of intervening to stop intra and interstate conflicts and wars driven by rebels and dictators. It should be viligant to prevent the next Rwanda or the currently unfolding humanitarian disaster in Darfour in Western Sudan. So, the verdict is still out whether AU can deliver in action not on paper. It is not honest to degenerate OAU father which gave birth to AU child before the latter proves itself to serve Africa and the African people.
Sincerely
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