Bac 2011 Oral Test
Not long ago, Africa's coup makers and autocrats felt confident they could get a pass from their fellow rulers, elsewhere on the continent. In recent months, however, as military officers and authoritarian presidents from Guinea to Niger and Madagascar are discovering, Africa is saying "no" -and starting to mean it.
In early February-as the crisis in Guinea finally seemed on the verge of a peaceful resolution, but yet another coup was looming in Niger- African leaders decided to step up the pressure. In a resolution on the prevention of "unconstitutional changes of government", a 1-4 February summit of the African Union (AU) proclaimed a policy of “zero tolerance” for military coups and other violations of democratic standards.
That stance is notable. For decades, most African countries were ruled by military or one-party regimes. In response to popular agitation, much of the 1990s, and coups became less common. Yet many of Africa's newly elected leaders were still reluctant to criticize their less democratic peers.
Now that is changing, as the AU and other African regional organizations move more systematically and firmly to uphold democratic values. The process has taken a decade to unfold. The AU's predecessor, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), first decided to reject military coups in 1999. When the OAU transformed itself into the AU in 2002, the new organization's founding Constitutive Act included among its principles "condemnation and rejection of unconstitutional changes of government". Yet at outset the AU focused much of its practical work on Africa's many armed conflicts, and developing ways to enforce its various democratic principles.
"Today the norm is that people should respect constitutions", the UN special representative on West Africa, Said Djinnit, told Africa Renewal. "Whoever makes a move that is unconstitutional should be condemned. And not only condemned but subjected to sanctions.
By Ernest Harsh, Africa Renewal, April 2010, p. 10 (Adapted).
Vocabulary:
To loom: se dessiner, se profiler
To unfold: se dérouler, se d6velopper
A stance: a position.