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The Charles Taylor syndrome
Bill Saidi, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
February 03, 2008

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=21&id=8269&siteid=1

In its modern political history — after Hannibal The Great, Cypio Africanus, Sundiata of Mali, Tshaka Zulu and the Munhumutapa empire — Africa has thrown up a rogues' gallery of rulers.

From 1957, leaders emerged who seemed obsessed with either subduing their people with brute force, or consigning them into early graves, if they resisted.

Idi Amin and Mobutu Sese Seko, responsible for many atrocities, must have had the victims' relatives' hearts broken at not being able to witness the Final Judgment of the dictators..

Both men died in miserable, inglorious exile. In each case, it was observed, cynically, they died in relative peace and dignity, which they had denied their victims.

Dwelling on these atrocities has been criticised by some African intellectuals. Their quaint reasoning: it-s a display of self-hate, joining the West in an attack on the race.

There was a display of this in the final hours of Charles Taylor's freedom before he was hauled off to answer for his sins during the Sierra Leone bloodshed, led by Foday Sankoh, Taylor-s comrade-in-diamonds.

Olusegun Obasanjo was finally persuaded to let the man face the music of his deadly masterpiece of atrocities.

The Nigerian made noises of this being an "African" thing, to be dealt with by Africans.

Wiser counsel prevailed and the Liberian delinquent was put on trial.

The impunity with which he aided Sankoh was typical of men of his ilk, who have given Africa the reputation of a bloodthirsty leadership.

Africans are not peculiar in this regard. Every continent has been contaminated by similar savages.

It's a ghoulish absurdity for us to accept as a consolation that we are no different from other races. That excuse can be an impediment to advancement.

Recently, a human rights organisation warned, gently, the two combatants in the Kenyan imbroglio: they might do well to consider how they might have to answer to a court of human rights.

How did they allow their citizens to butcher each other after the 27 December election which, it now seems clear, Mwai Kibaki stole from Raila Odinga?

Kofi Annan's talents as a diplomat were applied diligently immediately he set foot in Nairobi last month. The two men shook hands and spoke to each other - apparently for the first time in months.

Soon, it seemed they would pronounce a cessation of hostilities.

At the time of writing, it was unclear whether Annan had succeeded where another Ghanaian, John Kufuor had failed. Annan predicted it would be weeks before the senseless blood-letting ceased.

Meanwhile, in Addis Ababa, the African Union heads of state met in their summit.

One factor of the Kenyan conflict was crystallized by a non-Kikuyu man interviewed on an international radio station: "We are not going to be dominated by the Kikuyu again."

The Luo were joined by the smaller Kalenjin in what they see as a campaign against Kikuyu domination. Daniel arap Moi, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta's anointed successor, is a Kalenjin and ran the country for decades, as a virtual one-party state dictatorship.

The Kikuyu dominated that government, which, according to all the evidence, spawned another Kikuyu political hegemony. The corruption among the powerful snowballed until Kibaki was forced to probe it officially.

What was exposed was so damning it threatened to tear the government apart. There appeared to be so much anger against the man who led the probe, there were reports his life was in danger.

So, he fled the country.

How Kibaki and Odinga will eventually come to terms with what they have done to their once-beautiful country might depend on how much both are willing to give up. It's the old question of two bulls in a herd: one of them has to give up.

What must concern many Africans who believe we have outgrown the antiquated method of settling arguments with spears, machetes and knobkerries is the lightning speed with which blood was spilled in the aftermath of the election.

Certainly, it must be time for all Africans to demand an unequivocal accounting from their leaders. Charles Taylor could have got away, literally, with murder, if his fate had been left to people like Obasanjo.

On Taylor's fate might hinge the future of the quality of African governance. No leader, freedom fighter or not, should be allowed to trample on the people's rights with Charles Taylor's and Fode Sankoh's impunity.

There has been breath-taking impunity in Zimbabwe too, for which the people know someone has to answer, however long it takes.

The soft-hearted among us tend to hesitate, believing there is virtue in forgiveness. But there is danger is setting precedents. People who commit crimes against humanity must be ready to do the time - and pay the ultimate price for their impunity.

Email: saidib@standard.co.zw

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