Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, left, and host Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika  ALSO: Tough issues face 1999 OAU summit

July 12, 1999
Web posted at: 3:29 a.m. EDT (0729 GMT)

In this story: Unity an elusive goal Ethiopian-Eritrean warring leaders attend Two OAU founding fathers on hand RELATED STORIES, SITES

ALGIERS, Algeria (Reuters) -- African leaders have turned out in force for Monday's final Organization of African Unity summit of the century in search of home-grown solutions to the continent's numerous conflicts.

Veterans like Togo's Gnassingbe Eyadema and Gabon's Omar Bongo, both in power since 1967, traveled to the summit as did Nigeria's newly elected Olusegun Obasanjo and over two dozen other heads of state.

Libya's Muammar Gadhafi, who has not taken part in an OAU summit since 1977, arrived in Algeria on Saturday after trying to bring warring Ethiopia and Eritrea together for a pre-summit chat.

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, who has not attended an OAU summit since Islamic gunmen tried to kill him in Ethiopia in 1995, was expected on Monday. South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, who is emerging from Nelson Mandela's shadow, was also expected.

Host President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has lobbied hard for a high turnout of the OAU's 53 members, sending planes to collect some of them.

Sierra Leone's rebel leader Foday Sankoh

Security for the summit is tight with Algeria's radical GIA Islamic group shunning peace overtures from Bouteflika, who has persuaded the armed wing of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) to agree a ceasefire. FIS supporters took up arms after the army scrapped 1992 elections it was poised to win.

The OAU, symbol of the dreams of Africa's independence leaders, was born in 1963 in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

But unity has been an elusive goal, and Africa's myriad conflicts will dominate the three-day meeting, the OAU's 35th.

Sierra Leone's President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and rebel leader Foday Sankoh signed a peace deal in Togo on Wednesday. Eyadema, black Africa's longest serving leader, hosted the peace talks and arrived in Algiers with Sankoh.

Congolese President Laurent Kabila and the presidents of neighboring countries involved in the 11-month-old war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a ceasefire accord in Zambia on Saturday after intensive lobbying from their southern African neigbours, including Mbeki.

But the deal was marred by a dispute between Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebel factions over who should sign. Mediators said the rebels could sign later.

Ethiopia's strongman, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki were in town for the summit, and the OAU will try again to make progress towards ending the year-long war between their countries.

Gadhafi, who has played a key part in mediation attempts, also wants OAU backing for a total lifting of the sanctions imposed after the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The U.N. Security Council suspended the sanctions after Gaddafi handed over two suspects for trial.

Zambia's Frederick Chiluba, who led efforts to broker peace in the Congo, arrived in Algiers on Sunday as did Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Chad's Idriss Deby, who both sent troops to fight for Kabila along with Angola and Namibia.

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, accused by Kabila of invading along with Rwanda, also arrived on Sunday. Kabila and Rwanda's Pasteur Bizimungu were expected on Monday. It was unclear whether Angola's Eduardo Dos Santos would make the trip.

Two of the OAU's founding fathers, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria, will attend the summit as special guests.

Officials say that Senegal's Leopold Sedar Senghor and Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba had been invited but had declined on health grounds.

King Hassan of neighbouring Morocco, Africa's longest serving head of state and the only other founding father still alive, was invited but declined.

Hassan suspended the kingdom's membership of the OAU in 1985 in protest of the admission of the Polisario Front's self- proclaimed Saharan Arab Democratic Republic in the Western Sahara, which Morocco claims. Algeria traditionally supports Polisario.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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