Botswana faults Gaddafi over 'hasty' AU decisions

• Botswana says the just-ended AU summit was a failure
• Botswana: Libya, has no respect for established procedures and processes of the African Union

“We had not, for instance, anticipated that the chair will insist on inclusion of areas such as the coordination of a common African Defence and Security Policy and the elaboration of a common African programme of action on the area of foreign trade and foreign policy as well as other areas which were not identified as areas of competence in the earlier deliberations on the matter.

“Neither had we anticipated that the chair will equate the functions of the secretaries (who will replace the current AU
commissioners) to those of eight continental ministers headed by a president and vice president.

“Given the way the meeting was presided over by the chair, Botswana found it fruitless to oppose the adoption of what is essentially the framework of the African Union Government, the issue on which our position is well known. It was clear that the chair was not prepared to entertain opposing views or opinions calling for a gradual approach to continental integration,” Merafhe said.

He explained that it must be understood that while the Sirte Summit was forced to adopt a document most countries did not agree with, the test will be in implementation.