African meeting breaks up in disunity

Press, 27 November 1982, Page 9

African meeting breaks up in disunity

NZPA Tripoli The nineteenth summit conference of the Organisation of African Unity -collapsed yesterday for the second time in four months, delegates saying that differences over Chad had' underlined the rift between its radical and moderate members. Because it lacked a 34 nation quorum, the meeting was abandoned and a 12State committee was set up to try to narrow the' gap between the two camps. The issue which scuttled the conference — and the Foreign Ministers’ session which preceded it — was whether the Hissene Habre Government, which seized power in Chad in June, should have the country’s seat in the conference hall.

Moderate States pressed for Mr Habre’s delegation to take the seat at the Ministerial and summit sessions, but a radical bloc led by Libya wanted it to remain empty until the heads of State had discussed the issue. Under a compromise worked out by the 30 countries represented, Mr Habre’s Government was asked to withdraw voluntarily from the summit in. return for recognition by the O.A.U. The current session originally attracted 45 States, and delegates’ hopes were raised that it would not go the same way as the summit conference abandoned in August. A quorum could not be found then because 21 nations boycotted the talks in protest against the controversial admission to the

O.A.U. in February of the Polisario Western Sahara Independence Movement. Mr Habre, who toppled the Libyan-backed, Goiikouni Oueddei when he captured the Chadian capital of N’djamena, rejected the O.A.U. compromise in Paris yesterday. The result was that the summit had been left with only 30 attending States, four short of a quorum, said an O.A.U. spokesman, Peter Onu. Apparently angry about the failure of the compromise, Libya and three of its allies — Mozambique, Madagascar and Ethiopia — announced that they no longer stood by the compromise, which would have implied their recognition of Mr Habre, delegates said.