The United Nations "is desperately in need of reform, particularly at Security Council level", Mr Dick Spring TD has said.
Speaking in Dingle, Co Kerry, yesterday at a political symposium organised as part of the Feile na Bealtaine festival, he said he found the situation in Africa "depressing", that in Algeria "totally depressing"; democracy, he said, had failed in Zimbabwe.
Noting the traditional role Ireland has played in sending help to African countries, Mr Spring commented on the "strong sense of ownership" felt by the Irish people towards Africa, but stressed it was time "for us as a nation to do an audit of what we have been doing for the past 25 years in relation to Africa".
Mr Spring's experience as a foreign minister dealing with European politicians had left him under no illusion about the sense of unease shared by many European countries towards Africa. It was due to "historical hang-ups and historical baggage" and the legacy of various acts of colonisation. "I would rather Ireland was doing trade with Africa than providing aid," he said.
Of the relationship between governments and various non-governmental organisations working in Africa, Mr Spring told of the difficulty facing a government when asked to provide aid, more of which is spent on protection - such as paying local gangsters and warlords to ensure the delivery of supplies - than is spent on the food and medicines.
Pointing out that Britain left Botswana in 1966, Mr Spring said he had recently learned that two years later diamonds had been discovered in that country. Had that discovery been made earlier, "Britain might still be there".
Earlier an aid worker, Mr Brian Stockwell, spoke of the gross mismanagement of food distribution in Africa. He criticised the performance of the UN, the Red Cross and the World Food Organisation.
In an address based mainly on his experiences of the famine in Somalia in 1992 and in other African countries, Mr Stockwell said incompetence was rife at all levels.
"The failure of the UN in Somalia was in no way a unique event for Africa. This could be related to the fact that for every dollar spent on an African war refugee during the 1980s, the international community spent $18 on similar victims in Asia."
For Mr Stockwell, Africa in the European consciousness had always been "equated with darkness - the Dark Continent, Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Dr Yohannes Fassil from Eritrea explained why Africa was poorer now than in 1960. "Some 10 million people have been forced to abandon their homes in search of food, water and pasture. Between 15 and 17 million people are homeless" as a result of civil war, famine and drought, he said.
Dr Fassil said food production per head had been steadily falling for more than 20 years. It was too convenient to blame the African situation now on colonial rule instead of looking at the political and economic failures created by 20 to 30 years of independence. His country won its independence from Ethiopia after 30 years of war. "It is very poor and has a population of 3.5 million." Educated Africans had taken their expertise elsewhere - there were as many Sudanese doctors now working in Britain as in Sudan, Dr Fassil said.
The Bishop of Kerry, Dr Bill Murphy, outlined Ireland's historical contribution to Africa, which missionaries began in 1920.
A speaker from the audience underlined the ambiguities prevailing about attitudes to Africa. Considering the importance we want to put on Irish-African links, she asked how the way refugees are treated can be justified? "I don't," Mr Spring replied.
