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Wanted - Former African Leaders to Help Mugabe
Omar Kalinge-Nnyago
April 12, 2007

http://allafrica.com/stories/200704121035.html

The much anticipated Southern Africa Development Coordination Committee (SADCC) summit in Tanzania to discuss Zimbabwe produced largely expected but disappointing results.

The summit only served to embolden President Robert Mugabe who left the summit in an upbeat mood. Back home on the following day, he was nominated as presidential candidate for his ZANU PF party in the increasingly uncertain 2008 poll.

This, despite speculations of a revolt in his party and rumours of a possible military coup, amidst the sensational resignation of his Vice President.

For sitting presidents meeting in the presence of Mugabe, it would have been wishful to expect them not to empathise, even sympathise, with the elder statesman, whom many see as a veteran pan-Africanist and relentless anti-imperialist crusader. For a country like South Africa, arguably the most important in the block, Mugabe is an icon of the new democracy's anti-apartheid struggle.

While Zambia's Levi Mwanawasa had earlier been reported to have made remarks that were quite disapproving of Mugabe's democratic conduct, he was not expected to sustain his position. Mwanawasa himself has not treated the opposition well either.

Southern Africa has had a unique relationship with the "white man" which makes it less receptive to suggestions from the northern hemisphere. Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa suffered the horrendous last experiences of white domination in the last century and their memory of white exploitation needs no refreshing.

So, when Mugabe stood up to redistribute land to the indigenous Zimbabweans, however crudely, much of Southern African "understood". Tanzania, though fairly farther off, in Eastern Africa, was a frontline state against apartheid and other anti-imperialist struggles.

Besides Southern Africa's reluctance to condemn Mugabe and their unexpected appeal to the so-called Western 'friends' to go slow on Zimbabwe, there is a reality that ought to be addressed. Most African leaders, not least Mugabe, are afraid of leaving power, not more for the sake of it as for the uncertainty of the consequences.

Kenneth Kaunda's and Frederick Chiluba's woes after leaving power have been well documented. So is the fate of Liberia's Charles Taylor. The tirades of Ghana's current regime against Jerry Rawlings and accusations of corruption against his family, that made him stay away from the 50 year celebrations of Ghana's independence are known.

Many African leaders have come to power after years of armed conflict that alienated the vanquished. The armed struggles that bring some African leaders to power involve actions that often constitute crimes against humanity, for which they can be prosecuted. Some commit crimes during their reigns.

Olara Otunnu, former UN Special Representative for Children in Conflict Areas has repeatedly called on the International Criminal Court, ICC, to indict Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni for war crimes and crimes against humanity he allegedly committed during 1980-85 when he fought a bloody war that led to the end of President Apolo Milton Obote's (RIP) rule, and for atrocities committed by his army in the hopefully soon ending 19-year civil war in Northern Uganda while fighting the equally atrocious Lord's Resistance Army. Such calls make the overstayed Ugandan leader too scared of life after power.

Mugabe, and other African leaders afraid of leaving power, could use some help. Not from the same frightened lot of serving presidents, but from past leaders who are now leading normal, private, productive lives, especially those that voluntarily left power.

Between June 5-8, 2005, 15 former African former heads of state and government from across Africa gathered in Bamako, Mali, to discuss the individual and collaborative contributions that former leaders can make to address the urgent challenges.

In their declaration at the end of the meeting, now known as the "Bamako Declaration of the African Statesman Initiative" the former leaders committed themselves, in part, to continue using their good offices to foster dialogue and the peaceful resolution of the continent's conflicts and to promote human security and democratic models of government that offer citizens the opportunity to choose their leaders freely and participate fully in the political life of their countries.

Retired African statesmen might be more useful in persuading Mugabe to step down peacefully.

The Mugabes and Musevenis of Africa and others like them need assurances - that it is possible to leave power peacefully and continue to be useful. Only past leaders can play this role.

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