Restore democracy in Sao Tome - Mbeki

2003-07-18 13:58

Cape Town - The military coup d'etat in Sao Tome and Principe on Wednesday underlined the challenge the African continent continued to face regarding defence and entrenchment of democracy, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.

This is especially so, coming so soon after the Maputo 2nd Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union.

Writing in the African National Congress' online publication, ANC Today, Mbeki said available information suggested the initial complaints of the military centred largely on issues of conditions of service, including pay, housing and new uniforms.

As the central African island nation's President Fradique Bandeira de Menezes had undertaken to deal with these matters in person, there was no reason to assume that the military would seek to resolve them by illegally seizing power, he said.

The reality was that coup leader Major Fernando Pereira and his colleagues had shown the greatest disrespect for the decisions and policies of the AU.

"They have acted in a manner directly contrary to the provisions of the (AU's) Constitutive Act, which was ratified by Sao Tome and Principe, together with all other member states of the African Union.

"Accordingly, it also has the force of domestic law in this African country."

The coup leaders had called on the AU not to intervene to restore democracy in Sao Tome, pleading that the population was "one family", which would resolve its domestic quarrels on its own, Mbeki said.

However, quite correctly, current AU chairperson, Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, had taken steps to ensure the Union lived up to its obligations to ensure a speedy restoration of democracy in Sao Tome.

Among other things, he had asked the countries of central Africa to intervene in the matter, acting on behalf of the Union. They had agreed to act as requested, and as a matter of urgency.

The coup d'etat in Sao Tome emphasised the need for the continent to move decisively to ensure that all the AU's institutions and processes were made fully operational as quickly as possible.

These included the Protocol establishing the Peace and Security Council, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the African Peer Review Mechanism.

- SAPA