COMESA Welcomes New Member
Lilongwe, Oct 15, 2011 (The Herald/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
THE 15th Comesa Heads of State and Government summit opened at the New State House complex here yesterday with the bloc's new chairman, President Bingu wa Mutharika welcoming Africa's 54th state, the Republic of South Sudan into the Comesa family.
President wa Mutharika also congratulated newly elected Zambian President Michael Chilufya Sata on his victory.
"In a very special way, I welcome our dear brother His Excellency Michael Chilufya Sata, President of the Republic of Zambia to the great Comesa fraternity. I am sure the Comesa Authority joins me in congratulating President Sata for his recent victory in the general elections. Comesa as a family of nations warmly welcomes you," Dr wa Mutharika said.
Reports of a diplomatic stand-off between Dr wa Mutharika and Mr Sata dominated the build up to the summit. President Sata announced that he would boycott the summit in protest over his deportation from Malawi in 2006.
The Zambian leader, who is demanding an apology from the Malawi government, was declared persona non grata and a prohibited immigrant to Malawi, a status that has since been revoked.
President Sata is being represented at the summit by Vice President Guy Scott.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit sent a delegation, while his northern neighbours the Republic of Sudan were represented by President Omar al Bashir as Africa sent a clear message to the West that the International Criminal Court arrest warrant on the Sudanese leader did not hold sway on the continent.
Mr Bashir is the first sitting president indicted by the ICC, which issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Darfur region.
Though Malawi ratified the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding document, which obliges the country's security forces to arrest President Bashir on sight, Dr wa Mutharika made it clear in March that African leaders should not be dragged to The Hague when Western leaders are left to go scott free.
Many African states have long questioned the legitimacy of the ICC given its tendency to clamp down on developing world leaders while turning a blind eye on the excesses of Western leaders like Tony Blair and George W Bush, whose illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan culminated in well documented cases of crimes against humanity.
Along with President Mugabe, the other leaders who attended the opening session were Swazi King Mswati III, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza and several vice presidents and plenipotentiaries.
The opening session that was addressed by outgoing chairman King Mswati III of Swaziland, host president and incoming chairman President wa Mutharika, East African Community chairman President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi and African Union Commission chairman Dr Jean Ping underscored the need to enhance regional economic integration so that the dream of having a Comesa Monetary Union by 2018 can be realized.
Under the Comesa roadmap, a Free Trade Area was created in 2000, a Customs Union in 2009, a Common Market is envisaged by 2015 and a Monetary Union by 2018.
The overriding theme of the opening addresses was the establishment of the Grand Free Trade Area, encompassing Comesa, Sadc, and EAC member states, and stretching from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt.
After the keynote addresses and the acceptance speech by the incoming chairman who pledged to dedicate his tenure towards accelerating economic integration and fostering food self-sufficiency in the region; it was time for a change of guard manifest in the handover of the instruments of office to the incoming chairman.
The scene was like a throwback to December 8, 1994 the day the then Preferential Trade Area - which had existed since 1981 - was transformed to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa to enhance economic integration among member states.
The setting was the same, the central characters were also the same, albeit, now wearing different robes. King Mswati was the Comesa chairman and Dr Bingu wa Mutharika was the Comesa secretary general then when the leaders resolved to embark on an ambitious journey set to culminate in a customs union by 2018.
There was wild applause as Dr wa Mutharika received a copy of the Comesa Treaty, the Comesa Flag and a gavel and board from King Mswati III, 17 years to the day they had witnessed the birth of Comesa.
After the official opening, the leaders went into closed session where they were expected to tackle a broad agenda encompassing an overview of the Comesa regional integration programme with special focus on trade and investment, opportunities for innovative means of financing for national development and regional integration.
The state of the Comesa-EAC-Sadc tripartite negotiations for the establishment of a Grand Free Trade Area stretching from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt will also be discussed.
The Summit enters the second and final day today.
Copyright The Herald. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).