OTTAWA -- Senior Canadian officials are fending off pressure to put violent political crises in Zimbabwe, Congo and Madagascar at the centre of the Group of Eight's discussion on Africa at next month's summit.
The three countries have erupted with brutality after questionable elections over the past few months, leading some observers to call on the G8 to hold off on promises for increased African aid and co-operation until African countries demand better democratic conditions, especially in Zimbabwe.
But Canada's summit organizer, Robert Fowler, says African countries have made a good start in dealing with Zimbabwe and other democratic crises on the continent, and the G8 is ready to work with them. "I think it's going in the right direction, and we in the G8 want to encourage that," he said in an interview.
Africa has been ignored by the rich for too long, and now that African leaders are showing a willingness to be more democratic and open to market practices, the West should plan to increase aid and investment there, Mr. Fowler added.
NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, is a plan for Africa's political and economic development created by Africans. The plan commits signatories to opening their economies to investment and free-market practices, and embracing democracy, good governance and respect for human rights.
In return, Africa hopes to strike a concrete deal with the G8 at the summit in Kananaskis, Alta., that would see rich countries committing themselves to billions in new development assistance and investment in the years to come.
But critics say NEPAD failed its first test by taking only reluctant and limited action after March's flawed election in Zimbabwe, despite widespread condemnation from the rest of the world.
"With corrupt and brutally repressive governments in place, passively endorsed by South Africa and the West, no amount of aid will make a difference," a left-leaning South African weekly, The Mail and Guardian, said in a recent editorial.
"It is little short of ominous that NEPAD is being laid on a foundation of lies and the international betrayal of the rights of ordinary Africans."
Zimbabwe is deep in the midst of an economic, political and humanitarian quagmire, with a growing list of rights-abuse allegations against it and questions remaining about the legitimacy of President Robert Mugabe's government. Madagascar has been deeply divided since December's election created a crisis with the ousting of president Didier Ratsiraka. And March's election in the Republic of Congo has led to bloody clashes between troops and militias, displacing 40,000 people.
"My impression is [that the issue of questionable elections has] kind of been swept under the rug" by the G8, said Roy Culpeper, president of the North-South Institute in Ottawa.
He said the situation in Zimbabwe has raised crucial questions about the significance of the NEPAD initiative but, "I'm struck by the eerie silence that has followed the release of the Commonwealth report." The report condemned the election and led most Western countries to cut off aid.
More worrisome, Mr. Culpeper added, is the lack of discussion about other countries with serious problems, such as Congo, Madagascar and Ivory Coast.
Still, Mr. Culpeper agreed with Mr. Fowler that it would be unrealistic to expect immediate changes from Africa. They both said the G8 would be better off engaging the continent in a continuing dialogue on democracy and human rights than simply trying to impose Western values on the situation.
African proponents of NEPAD are adamant that Zimbabwe not be discussed at the summit, and should have little to do with the way the G8 should approach Africa.
"We are concerned about human rights and all the problems of liberty and freedom," Abdelrader Messahel, Algeria's minister dedicated to African affairs, said in Ottawa last week. "But we have not come here to speak about Zimbabwe. Development is not just Zimbabwe. . . . These questions are not on the agenda."
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