The Myth of the African Solution to Darfur’s Genocide
By Justin Laku
Dec 13, 2006 — The failure of the African Union (AU) based on the facts Dr. Kwame Nkrumah underestimated the degree of suspicion, and animosity which his crusading passion had created among a substantial number of his fellow heads of state. Also, too many of African leaders had a vested interest in keeping Africa divided, because most of them had put their interest before the interest of the African nations.
The AU is a comfort club for African dictators where they meet to pat each other on the back, and compare notes on suppressing their citizenry. In order to be relevant today, the AU must change its dubious dealings from a “Dictators’ Only Club” to a people-based organization. The heart of the AU’s impotence is its principle of non-interference, and non-intervention which simply meant that member states turned a blind eye to their neighbours. Thus this explains why the Darfur’s Genocide will continue as long as the AU remains in charge in Darfur.
What is happening in Darfur today is exactly what happened in Rwanda, which left many choking and drowning on their own blood from April to July of 1994. Darfur is Rwanda in slow motion; the only different is the number of death: so far 300,000 people have died in Darfur while 800,000 deaths in Rwanda. This is a hidden holocaust which is unfolding before our very eyes.
The lack of good leadership, governance, clear vision, and high level of corruption in Africa are the problems that have contributed to the poverty, and underdevelopment of the continent. Good governance is the key to development in Africa, and leadership is the most powerful lever to good governance as well as clear vision. The founders of the OAU, and later the AU had bigger vision for Africa, and willing to build a nation of Africa from nothing. Clear vision gives people direction, where they want to be years down the road. Through good leadership, governance, and absent of corruptions, Africa has the potential to be able to move forward, and extricate itself from the cesspool of underdevelopment, and poverty that has plagued, and bedevil the continent since independence.
African dictators are well known for their high level of corruption. They have sticky fingers that have been implicated in the disappearance of public funds, and development money which more often than not ended up in their private accounts in banks overseas. To combat, corruption in Africa it is very important that Western governments pass law that will prohibits transfer of money from Africa to western banks without proper transparency; also the law must forced, and persecute the international banks or bankers who fail to disclose any private accounts from Africa, and specially if the account is related to statesmen. Failure of the Western governments to act means that the West is encouraging, and abetting the endemic corruption in Africa.
The Rwandan Genocide could have been prevented if there was good leadership, governance, and clear vision for Africa. If each member state of the AU had provided the Canadian hero, General Romeo Dallaire, with 50 troops, Gen. Dallaire could have stopped the killers from their genocidal operation. By sending African troops to assist Gen. Dallaire in his mission in Rwanda in 1994, it would have sent a different message to the international community that Africa is now responsible, and in charge of its destiny. This would have lent credence to the AU regarding the offering of uniquely African solutions to African problems. Unfortunately that did not happen from the AU. Therefore; why should the west believe, and trust the corrupted dictators of Africa that they will solve Darfur’s Genocide?
No one African leader or statesman raised their voice against Khartoum’s regime regarding the Genocide in South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, and Darfur. The AU turned a blind eye to the South Sudan’s Genocide; it never gives any consideration at the now defunct the OAU in its many summits. In fact, “T he OAU will not even allow our story South Sudan to be heard in its council,” according to General Joseph Lagu, Chairman of Anya Nya I, in 1971. The reason is that most of the AU leaders are involved in corruption, jailing, and suppressing their oppositions such as in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Chad, Burundi, Liberia, Congo, and overthrowing elected governments in Africa . For example how could Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian president, point fingers at Omer Basher, the Sudanese president, about the situation in Darfur, and label it as genocide that requires UN intervention while giving Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, safe haven in Nigeria?
Most African countries depend on financial aid, and loans from the West. How can the AU support its troops in Darfur if it can not bankroll its army? In addition to that, the international community is fully aware that the AU lacks experience, training, logistics, and the AU has no history of dealing with crisis. For example to this date, the status of Western Sahara remains unresolved. Furthermore, the crises in Somalia , Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone , Chad, Uganda, Angola, and Zimbabwe remain unresolved. Since its inception in May 26th, 1963, the OAU (the forerunner of present-day AU) has not solved one single crisis in Africa. On the contrary, the failure of the international community consist of allowing Darfur’s Genocide to continue by leaving the Right to Protect (R2P) to the weak hands of the AU, which lacks a clear, and strong mandate to fight back, arrest, and detain the janajweed militia, backed up by the Khartoum’s regime, which terrorizes unarmed men, children, rapping innocent women and girls. Which begs the question; Can the weak protect the weak?
African oil is the property of Africans, however, the African leaders view oil money as their personal assets, and most of time they revenues from oil to enrichment themselves often time with the support of foreign companies as well as foreign governments. When it comes to wars in Africa, Western leaders say, “It is Africa’s problems”. However, when it comes to exploitations of the African resources, and fuelling the wars in Africa, the West, including Canada, has always maintained its presence in Africa in order to protect its interests. Western greed, therefore, contributes, and fuels the persistent poverty, and underdevelopment in Africa.
Revenues from oil generate billions of dollars. If used wisely, these oil revenues can be used to improve healthcare, education, reduce crime, alleviate poverty, build infrastructures; and it can even be used to fund the AU mission in Darfur. Instead, the West is dishing out more money to the AU which fosters corruption due to a lack of transparency, and accountability. Eventual the war in Africa will be viewed as channels of generating funds to the African dictators’ private accounts. There are some many NGOs worldwide especially in Canada, and US collecting money to support the AU mission in Darfur, but we have not seen any statement from the headquarter of the AU in Addis Ababa detailing how much donations the AU mission have received, and how it was spent.
I believe that time has come for the AU to take responsibility of funding its troops in Darfur since it has the money from the oil or at least pay half of the cost in order to learn how to be responsible, and functionally proactive in preventing wars from happening. The proposed reasoning is that a member state which creates a problem must pay for the cost of the solution. If you get married, you’re responsible to look after your family, not your neighbor, otherwise stays away from marriage business – South Sudanese proverbs. It is unreasonable, and unintelligent for the West to foot the bill for the AU when the continent abounds in oil money. The West is equally responsible for accepting the myth of African solution to African problems. Africans have to take full responsibility for how they are spending the billions of dollars that their governments are getting from the oil productions. Africans should fund the AU mission in Darfur. On the other hand, the AU, in partnership with the West, must come up with clear future plans, proposed solutions to all wars, crisis, and legal systems to persecute the law breakers (janajweeds) in Africa to bring about solutions to the myriad crises that bedevil the continent.
“The proposed extinction of an entire race should now be considered an override clause to the rule of national sovereignty. Rwanda is over and everybody mourns it comfortably. We ought not to wait until Darfur is over to start saying never again yet again” Mr. Rusesabagina
* Justin Laku, Founder of the group Canadian Friends of Sudan. He can be reached at [email protected]