Former Liberian President Charles Taylor who goes on trial in The Hague, Netherlands today for human rights abuses is a reminder of one of the problems with Africa. Mr. Taylor is accused of orchestrating a civil war particularly in nearby Sierra Leone by buying and receiving diamonds from warlords who he supplied weapons in exchange. The more serious aspect of that is that his warlord allies then went out of their ways to unleash unparalleled brutality on countless civilians who were deliberately mutilated in unspeakable ways.
The impunity and sadism that characterized Mr. Taylor’s reign in Liberia is peculiar to Africa. The continent is home to the likes of Mr. Taylor who feel at ease to trample on people that they claim to govern. That is why it has become almost a cliché in the international media that Mr. Taylor’s trail will be a long-awaited lesson for his likes on the continent. But the reality is that the cliché is more of an exaggeration than anything at all. If not for the mutilation that Mr. Taylor’s allies in Sierra Leone unleashed on innocent civilians, chances are that he could have gotten away with the impunity and sadism that characterized his rule of Liberia. Western leaders could have found justifications on the grounds of law and order to leave him alone. The state of affairs produced by such tolerance of governance which is sustained by impunity, sadism, and lack of responsiveness is one of the continent’s greatest undoing. The destitution and decay that societies in country and after country in Africa are consigned to by their so-called leaders is no less unconscionable than the acts that Mr. Taylor will begin to answer for in The Hague today.
Dragging just one out-of-control former leader to The Hague for a show trail will definitely not rid the continent of the others. Mr. Taylor’s trial is just an exception, which will not establish a pattern. One who bets that Mr. Taylor's trial will not be followed by even one more will not be wrong at all. The only measure more likely to put a stop to governance by impunity on the continent is one that empowers Africans to compel their political leaders to become responsive. That measure is still lacking for Africa. In most if not all cases, the heartless individuals that unleash reigns of impunity on their fellow Africans find supporters in the West. A politician or warlord who does not need to worry about international acceptance even when he achieves political power through illegitimate means will not bother to govern responsively. Africa’s post-colonial supra-national states are just conducive for abusive rule. The clamor for the restructure of those post-colonial supra-national states in parts of the continent will mark the beginning of that measure which will help establish responsive governance in Africa. The interesting thing about that is that without Western interference, Africans can and will accomplish the task of establishing the basis for responsive governance for themselves.
Monday, June 4, 2007
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