Botswana Shows Admirable Strength

Giving credit where credit is due, the government of Botswana, one of the continents most stable and successful democracies, should be saluted for stepping up and openly challenging the legitimacy of Robert Mugabe's continued rule in Zimbabwe. Botswana's delegates to the recent AU summit refused to recognize Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe following last week's election in which he was the only candidate, the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai having withdrawn out of fear for his and his supporters physical safety. Some other African states, such as Tanzania and Liberia, have strongly criticized Mugabe following the election, but others, most notably South Africa under President Thabo Mbeki, have made excuses for Mugabe while refusing to take any measures to stabilize Zimbabwe and provide respite for its people.

Botswana has raised the possibilty of military conflict in order to force some stability, a measure not entirely uncalled for considering the mryiad of Zimbabwean refugees that continue to pour into the neighboring country. If violence results, it must be seen as directly the result of Mugabe's despotic rule and consequent ruination of Zimbabwe, causing a mounting crisis to the entire region that many of the most significant power players have miserably failed to address.

Will Mr. Mbeki Please Stand Up?

While not denying the complex problem of neo-colonialism, it is hard for a Westerner who truly hates to see injustice anywhere to believe that Robert Mugabe, or any of the host of African dictators of the past half-century, have anything but their own best interest in mind. When opposition activists are killed by the scores, beaten and harrassed by the tens of thousands, and people forced to flee the country by the hundreds of thousands as a result of disastrous economic policies on the part of the ZANU-PF (Mugabe's 'redistribution' of land to his own cronies, NOT to the people of Zimbabwe), it is clear that Mugabe is no longer a liberator. He is a corrupt and unprincipled despot who will stop at nothing to hold onto power. I do not believe that the people of Zimbabwe are so ignorant as to believe Mugabe's broken-record rationale of blaming every problem on the West. It is Mugabe, first and foremost who must take the blame, and the voting last spring proved that this is the view of most Zimbabweans, even in the face of violent intimidation. For this, I praise the brave people of Zimbabwe. Now if only some African leaders, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki in particular, would have the courage and intelligence to make a similar stand (as, it should be noted, Mr. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently have) and put an end to this inhumane madness, perhaps the West would not feel compelled to 'interfere'.

Have We Learned Yet?

The recent violence in Kenya is disturbing, even terrifying. A quick summary: following disputed elections on 27 December, 2007, in which incumbent president Mwai Kibaki claimed victory, unrest broke out among opposition supporters of candidate Raila Odinga, amid charges of fraud and election stealing. Not so noteworthy, perhaps, especially for Africa. Here is what makes it so frightening: Kibaki is a Kikuyu, the majority tribe in a country comprised of about 40 ethnic tribes; Odinga is a Luo, the second or third largest tribe; and the violence (which has claimed around 500 lives already, and displaced another 250,000) is quite openly being drawn along ethnic lines.



Last week, 30 Kikuyu, many of them women and children, were burned to death in a church into which they had fled for refuge. There have been retaliations on the part of the Kikuyu. Sound familiar? It does to anyone who remembers a genocide that took place in another African country called Rwanda not fifteen years ago. In that tragedy, 800,000 people were killed before the international community decided to take real measures to stop the slaughter.



Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who has called for a UN criminal investigation into the church killing, urges the world to not allow the disputed election to take precedence over the lives of innocent civilians. No political reasoning, by anyone in either party, justifies genocide. He writes,

" What is disturbing is that this instance seems to have been part of a coordinated programme with similar acts occurring in several other places at about the same time against ordinary members of the same community. Ordinary people do not wake up one morning and suddenly decide to kill their neighbours. Ethnic cleansing is often instigated by the political elite of one community against another community. It is premeditated - often an order from political warlords."



This situation must not be allowed to deteriorate any further. The world community has made overtures of diplomacy to both Kibaki and Odinga, and the U.S. has appointed a high-level diplomat to attempt a brokerage of peace. This is well and good, but thus far, the situation has not improved. Let us not forget that we had a token UN force in Rwanda during the crisis there, and it accomplished next to nothing. A percieved effort, even an honest effort, on the part of the U.S. and the international community is not good enough. If the diplomatic efforts do not bear fruit, it is unacceptable for us to call over our shoulder, 'We tried,' as we walk away, leaving thousands at the mercy of genocide-inspiring politicians and their ready followers. This is no excuse; there can be no excuses.

Let us not forget.