Maybe the AU should sit this one out

If South African President Jacob Zuma is actually serious about winning the rebels’ support for the "roadmap" to peace the African Union negotiated with Muammar al-Qaddafi this weekend, he’s not doing himself any favors with statements like this one:

 "We have completed our mission with the brother leader, and the brother leader’s delegation has accepted the road map as presented by us,"

The AU faces a pretty serious credibility problem to begin with. The Libyan strongman has served as chairman of the organization and has close economic and political ties to many of its members. Moreover, Qaddafi’s pan-Africanist rhetoric is one of the things that most irks his domestic opponents. Here’s what one Benghazi resident told Ryan Calder:

"Africa, Africa, Africa. [This is a reference to Qaddafi’s turn toward African unity and away from pan-Arabism. This turn began in the 1990s.] Qaddafi is always talking about Africa. In school, we had to study African history. But why should Libya have connections with [sub-Saharan] Africa? Look how backward those countries are. Why can’t we have good relations with the West instead — with Europe, the United States? With developed countries that have something to offer us? What good does Africa do us?"

Add to thi the AU’s not-so-stellar history of supporting ill-fated governments of national unity to resolve conflicts in places like Kenya and Zimbabwe, and it’s not quite clear that the Union has an awful lot to contribute here.