African Union wants to be a superpower at the expense of rich nations?

Two-day summit meeting of the African Union ended in the coastal Libyan town of Sirte

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called on the leaders of 53 African countries to get together on the eve of the G-8 summit which is due this Wednesday in Scotland. The African Union intends to overshadow the European Union by carrying out ambitious plans and demand that industrialized countries foot the bill amounting to tens of billions of dollars.

Colonel Gadhafi is the leader of the Libyan revolution, the author of the so-called Green Book, a policy statement with a foreword in which Mr. Gadhafi unpretentiously compares himself to Moses, Jesus Christ, and Muhammad; he is also the bearer of unofficial title "brother leader." Mr. Gadhafi hosts the meeting of all African leaders because he has been obsessed by a concept of African unity over the last few years. Mr. Gadhafi believes that the "black continent" can create an association of nations to be modeled the EU.

An African union can be built a lot stronger and much more united. Needless to say, Mr. Gadhafi envisages himself as an architect and leader of a future united Africa.

Libyan leader and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the meeting's agenda with issues pertaining to the African unity being a top priority. In light of the first regional union comprising Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda that should be finalized by 2010, the meeting is going to consider Uganda's proposal to form a general African government and set up unified African embassies in the world’s main capitals in the long term. The meeting is also going to discuss issues related to the formation of unified African armed forces, a Pan-African center to combat AIDS, a conflict prevention center, and an African investment bank to be based in the Libyan capital Tripoli. Moammar Gadhafi personally saw that the issue of a common African passport and ID was included into the agenda.

All the participants unanimously agreed that Africa should receive 5 seats in the Security Council as a long-awaited reform plan goes under way in the United Nations. Two African nations should be admitted to permanent membership of the Security Council. There are 15 members at the U.N. Security Council at the moment; Russia, United States, China, Great Britain, and France hold permanent membership. The African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit read out the names of candidates which are ready to join the great powers at the Security Council: South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Libya, and Senegal.

On finishing their discussions on the above high-sounding topics, the participants of the African Union summit focused on more down-to-earth problems of the continent. The African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare delivered a report on the state of millions of refugees, on exhaustion of drinking water reserves, on new infectious diseases that still remain a mystery to modern science. Mr. Konare also touched on the issue of human trafficking that remains of frequent occurrence in some parts of Africa. Another report by the Commission for Regional Conflicts addressed the situation in Somali, in the western Sudanese province of Darfur, and Palestine.

Palestine is not part of the African continent. However, it became part of the discussion since the Palestine Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had been invited to attend the African Union summit meeting.

The African Union summit is expected to send an appeal to the G-8 to help curb poverty and ensure security. Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Mirigande unveiled a draft appeal one day prior to the summit. “Our appeal to the Group of Eight is quite simple, we believe that the G-8 should lift debts of all African countries and draw up a plan of large-scale package of investment projects and development projects for African states not only in terms of economy but also in the field of social development and measures to combat AIDS,” said Mr. Mirigande.