Oh Joy! The EU Business wesbite reports in a 21 March article that the 53-member AU representative in Brussels, Ambassador Mahamat Annadif, has castigated no less than...
...the ostensibly-mighty European Union of 27 members that they are employing "double standards" over Zimbabwe "while ignoring abuses by other African leaders". Though he was short in specifics, he maintained :
"I would have preferred that there were no double standards at the European level, even for judging heads of state"
He maintained:
"We talk about Zimbabwe, but for me there are other heads of state who are just as important to avoid as Mugabe, but they have support ... which means that today, no one says a word to them,"
In my view, the African Union has, for too long, kow-towed to the EU, because of its colonial and financial dependence on them (among other factors). While talk is cheap, it is important the AU begin to openly criticise the EU, whilst contemporraneously salivating on so-called funds from the European Development Fund, which only serve as tools to deepen AU country dependence on them.
The AU has many light years to go in order to get some its house in order, but developments like these remind me of the very necessary "eternal vigilance" needed on dealing with the Europeans.
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