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What a shame, the AU defends
Mugabe
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
October 8, 2007
Well, it never changes when you
least expect it to. Leaders of the AU are out again in support
of Mugabe, the octogenarian, in his latest tiff with the EU.
The EU attempt to dissuade
Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president from attending the Lisbon
December 2007 summit in Lisbon has failed, mainly because of the
unanimity of the support given to Mugabe by the AU.
“The African Union wants all
African countries to take part in the summit in Lisbon in
December, said an official from the AU.
"Zimbabwe, despite the crisis, is
an African country and we are defending principles here. We have
asked Mugabe to talk to his opposition, but the AU respects the
principle of non-interference. We resort to interference only in
extreme cases of violence or genocide.” The official continued.
It is hard and pitiful to
understand the AU rationale for supporting Mugabe.
Just stating we want “all African countries to take part”
is not enough.
Of course, the EU is not seeking
to bar Zimbabwe from the Lisbon summit. It is only seeking to
block Mugabe from attendance. His
vice or any high-ranking official from Zimbabwe can represent
the country.
The AU principles mentioned have
to be about the special rights given only to dictators on the
continent - to the detriment of the sensibilities of the rest of
the people on the continent; in this case Zimbabwe.
With such an AU attitude, it is
no wonder responses to the genocide in Darfur are at an impasse.
And Sudan, calls the shots in Darfur while remaining a
member of the AU.
When it comes to doing the right
thing for Africa, the AU, it seems, constantly remains
flummoxed. This stance on Lisbon and Mugabe, the fealty or
sympathy for the latter, is a perfect example.
Mugabe has for long had human
rights issues, which have stirred up anger within the
international community. But
most of the harm has been to his people and neighbors. His land
reform effort, a fiasco of a bad policy, has broken the back of
the once healthy Zimbabwean economy.
Zimbabwe now has the highest
inflation rate in the world, said to be about 1 million % and
rising, and according to the United Nations Economic Commission
the worst economic performance in Africa.
British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, continuing his country’s adverse policy on Zimbabwe, is
refusing to attend the summit should Mugabe also attend.
He is eager to push Mugabe out of office.
His effort concerning the
Lisbon summit is for this purpose.
Granted that Britain happens to
be a former colonial master and is to a great extent responsible
for much of the land trouble in Zimbabwe.
It still may harbor intentions that particularly may not
support the overall well-being of Zimbabwe.
But reacting to Britain in this
knee-jerk manner is not the better approach.
The better approach is to look at Mugabe and what he is
doing to Zimbabwe and then to react accordingly.
It
is not a good reason for Africa to help Zimbabwe cut its nose to
spite its face. It takes
a lot of callousness to defend Mugabe, but the AU has done so
now. So, who is
hurting now?
"It (Zimbabwe) is not the only
country not to respect democracy, look at Togo, Niger...
Zimbabwe's problem is mainly with London, it's a bilateral issue
and is none of our business,” said an official of the AU in
defense of Mugabe.
It is funny how the connection is
made to Togo. The AU
declared as fair the election that brought Gnassigbe to power in
2005, barely three years ago.
Now, this official is comparing “democracy” under
Gnassigbe’s baby regime to the 27 years old grandfather regime
of Mugabe. What a shame!
Mugabe has been running the
government of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The negative
impact of his tenure on development in his country is enough to
allow the AU to make an alone judgment on Mugabe’s performance.
Happenings in Zimbabwe are so bad
that they would be enough reason for the AU to ask for a change,
knowing that the next ruler will be a Zimbabwean and not a
British.
The summit on Africa that Mugabe
is adamant about attending was originally planned for April
2003. But according
to the BBC, it has been postponed several times; all in an
attempt to send a message.
In August 2007, Human Rights
Watch wrote a paper called “A Call to Action: The Crisis in
Zimbabwe – SADC’s (Southern African Development Community) Human
Rights Credibility on the Line.” In it, the group reported that:
“The continuing use of arbitrary
and excessive use of force by the police and other agents of the
government of Zimbabwe calls into question its commitment to
ending the political crisis in the country, and creates a huge
obstacle to finding a viable solution to this crisis.”
The message was for SADC’s
meeting that month to act on the problems in Zimbabwe.
Regrettably, after the meeting,
everything that concerned Zimbabwe was mentioned in the summit’s
communiqué, including a call on Britain to honor her land
settlement promise.
The item missing was a call for response to human rights abuses
in Zimbabwe.
There was also no attempt in the
communique to ask Mugabe to step down.
Thus, human rights issues in
Zimbabwe continue to be unaddressed.
It is only human rights abuse when the perpetrator is a
white on a black victim.
And in away, the AU has
telegraphed to Mugabe its approval of his longevity in office,
with the support to attend the Lisbon summit.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publsiher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, October 8, 2007
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