It offends my sense of justice that Sudan's dictator Omar al-Beshir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, was invited to President Zuma's inauguration. It offends my sense of justice that, at the inauguration, the crowd cheered for Zimbabwe's tyrant Robert Mugabe. And it really offends my sense of justice that our president — a man who has spent much of the current century wading in the waters of moral ambiguity — thinks that the best solution to the problem of African leaders decimating the continent is collective amnesia.
"The world has changed, therefore let us do things differently and not emphasise punishment," said Jacob Zuma during a televised conversation with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. "If you are saying: 'Okay move out, but tomorrow we are going to deal with you', then you are causing a problem with somebody saying: 'Why should I leave when I still have power? I had better remain here."
Rwanda. Home to that infamous genocide of the nineties which saw almost one million people slaughtered in 100 days. One. Million. People. How quickly the continent forgets its own atrocities.
Perhaps Zuma was simply doing what he does best — telling his audience what he thinks they want to hear. The government of Rwanda recently kicked up a fuss (November 2008) when Germany acted on an international warrant by arresting President Kagame's chief of protocol Rose Kabuye for her involvement in the genocide. The world may have changed, but African leaders, it would seem, have not. In 1975, shortly after he massacred 200 000 of his own citizens, Idi Amin was unanimously elected by his contemporaries to chair the Organisation of African Unity (the predecessor to the African Union). This year, African leaders rallied behind Sudan's Omar al-Beshir when the International Criminal Court (to which 30 African countries are signatories) issued a warrant for his arrest.
Some even invited him to their inauguration celebrations.
Perhaps this is what Zuma had in mind when he said: "The leadership of Africa today must come very boldly and deal with these issues. It's not for our sake as leaders. It's for the sake of our people, for the sake of the continent."
For whose sake, exactly, should Robert Mugabe go unpunished for the Matabeleland massacre? How will the continent benefit if the atrocities committed by Beshir are ignored? And how does appeasing the dictator of Eritrea (a country rated to have the worst press freedom in the world), Isayas Afeworki, benefit Africans?
Perhaps more to the point, how does Zuma plan to deal with those dictators who won't budge — not because they fear punishment — but because they simply love power and its trappings far too much?
Take, for example, Muammar al-Gaddafi (Libya since 1969), Paul Biya (Cameroon since 1982), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt since 1982), Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (Uganda since 1986) and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Equatorial Guinea since 1979). Is this the kind of bold leadership we need?
Unless African leaders are held accountable for the crimes that they have committed and the failures of their governments to meet the needs of African people, the continent will never nurture a culture of accountability. The current batch of despotic leaders will simply be replaced by a new batch.
Forsaking justice for a temporary, patchy peace is not the solution. Yes, African leaders do need to be bold. They need to go boldly where no African leaders have gone before. They need to recognise when one of their own has violated the rights of their people and, for the sake of the continent, they need to take a stand. And only those — yes, you, President Zuma — who head up functioning democracies where the rights and freedoms of citizens are respected, can take the first step.
In the words of Desmond Tutu: "As painful and inconvenient as justice may be, we have seen that the alternative — allowing accountability to fall by the wayside — is worse."
As one of the people of this continent, I hope that President Zuma changes his stance on accountability. I hope for this despite the mist of suspicion that clouds my better judgment.
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