President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea made a plea today to give African nations a veto over UN Security council actions on the continent. He did not give details.
"The Republic of Equatorial Guinea asks the international community to…allow Africa to obtain its protection in the Security Council with the right of a veto in its favor. So that Africa can decide for itself before this high organ of world security, and also for transparency in its actions," he said.
President Obiang made his suggestion this morning in an address before the Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly on the Peaceful Resolution of Conflicts in Africa.
Obiang noted that the long history of pre-colonial Africa was not characterized by wars among African peoples, and in the years since colonization, wars have been a result of the division of Africa by colonial powers. "The situation of belligerence in Africa is generally one of purely internal conflicts that are apparently difficult for affected governments to resolve," he said.
"Why do African states have to confront powers outside Africa to resolve its internal conflicts?" Obiang asked. He laid some blame at the feet of "the African political class," which, he said, "continues to believe that Africa cannot subsist without the intervention of the old colonial powers."
President Obiang said that non-intervention did not "justify that a government might consciously work against its own people," but "neither did it justify that the good judgment of African governments to submit to consensus by dialogue and negotiation are continually constrained by foreign intervention, blocking and impeding any solution negotiated by those very Africans."
President Obiang, a recent president of the African Union, has consistently called for African nations to take greater responsibility for resolving the continent's problems and for foreign powers to stand back and allow Africa to settle its own affairs. Since leaving office, he has been a leading voice for African interests in international forums and has emerged among African leaders as an articulate spokesman for Africa.
"Let us cut this umbilical cord of permanent dependency," he said.
