Dialogue would have solved Libyan dispute
PRESIDENT Museveni wrote a letter in the New Vision which was also published in the Daily Nation of March 22. This letter has touched my heart as an African who has strived to defend the continent from imperial toxins of Western countries.
By David Nyekorach Matsanga
PRESIDENT Museveni wrote a letter in the New Vision which was also published in the Daily Nation of March 22. This letter has touched my heart as an African who has strived to defend the continent from imperial toxins of Western countries.
I have been targeted by my enemies in Africa because of my outspoken stand against United Nations (UN) rushed resolutions like the one on Libya last week.
I took a good international hammering when I defended Zimbabwe against Western hatched sanctions by telling the West to have dialogue with President Mugabe. Many human rights organisations threatened me, but in the end dialogue prevailed. One can see how dialogue changes things without the use of war machinery. But now the same pattern of double standard is repeating itself in Libya.
The West is shelling Libya without an exit strategy that will usher in peace by peaceful means. How do you safeguard air-space when the problem is on the ground. The same Western countries are patrolling the Indian Ocean infested with threat of war and piracy when the problem of Somalia is on the ground and not in water. Libya’s solution is dialogue.
I fully agree with President Museveni, that the bombings and shelling against Libya must come to an end and a route of dialogue be sought. Resolution 1973 which mandates the Western countries to safeguard civilians has been misused by the countries that pressurised the UN Security Council to secure the same.
I have always maintained that Africa needs its own muscle to resolve conflicts on the continent. In my writings as a Pan Africanist, I have maintained that a united continent will repulse the angry Western powers whose dwindling oil reserves have caused the current inroads on Libya. There is no simple template for best practice on unity, but lessons can certainly be learnt from the current attacks on Libya.
Germany, a member state of the European Union felt that the UN resolution was ambiguous and it abstained.
South Africa gained independence through the support that Libya gave the African National Congress (ANC)and its military wing. Gadaffi can be condemned by many people, but those of us who know the help he gave South Africa’s ANC in their fight against the apartheid regime would have liked President Jacob Zuma to rethink seriously on the Libya issue.
South Africa has had a titter rivalry at the African Union with Libya and, therefore, for it to use that as a friend who is fixed at a corner is bad politics.
The crucial nexus is the bad trend in which some Western nations forced a UN Security Council resolution on Libya leaving some other countries in the Middle- East unsanctioned.
The Uganda Government, on several occasions, has asked the UN Security Council for a no fly-zone on Somalia to stop supplies reaching militants in Mogadishu and other airports where our sons and daughters from Uganda are being killed, but the US which created the crisis of Somalia has totally refused to accept the suggestion.
The double standards show how the US targets countries with rich oil reserves and then sends its troops. The sea of ties and double standards of the world policeman are narrowing everyday.
Anytime the US opens its mouth on international matters like the International Criminal Court (ICC) cancer on Africa, there is a political deficit left for the poor nations of the world.
Africa and Libya require an honest and sometimes painful dialogue about the past, present and future, the question of military force is controversial in that it intersects the issues of reconciliation and sustainable security. Those wishing to remove Gadaffi by force will be dealing with another monster worse than Gadaffi because violence breeds a new round of violence which will engulf Libya.
All these factors are pointing to a harsher war aimed at Israel that is isolated among radical neighbours in the Middle-East. What the US and its allies are doing is to remove some moderate or semi-democratic states and replacing them with the likes of Muslim -Brotherhood militants of Egypt. This will backfire soon.
The very oil democracy that has killed Iraq will kill Libya if the Western countries just impose their legitimacy without an exit strategy from the shelling.
Resolving the underlying causes of the crisis of the conflict in Libya is prerequisite to ensuring sustainable development and reduce the likelihood of conflict re-emerging again in Libya. The framers of the UN Security Council will leave to regret after several months of shelling and failing to overthrow Gadaffi from power and one wonders what they will do next.
African Union must show its muscle when dealing with the UN Security Council on matters that affect African peace and security. Africa must reject any form of manipulation that will bring chaos for future generations.
Africa must reject the NGO syndrome that I see being used against its people in countries like Zimbabwe and Kenya. Most of the elite, young, and educated people in those countries survive on NGO handouts or look at US ambassadors for supply of money for regime change.
These NGOs, have in turn, supplied wrong and sexed dossiers to Western paymasters that kill Africa with inflated records of human rights abuses in their countries. There is another factor that has puzzled most of us who fight for the African continent. In Egypt the people on the streets were called “demonstrators†and in Libya the men with guns-were called “rebels†by Western backed media. Now the question I pause to the world is since when did rebels get support from a Western backed air strike? Does this mean one needs to go to one part of Kenya, Uganda or Zimbabwe to mobilise a band of youths and then get a no-fly zone and fight a government of the day recognised by the same UN?
I fully support your letter. It opens our hearts for nationalism and patriotism in Africa. We have lost all the vigour and stamina of our fight for independence. The current generation that uses computers is that born after independence.
I call upon President Museveni to seriously tell the US about their hypocrisy on Africa. Museveni should lay down a timetable and conditions for the US on Somalia. They are now busy harassing Kenya, where they have come in form of ICC, summons, warrants, outreach, civil society, youth programmes, NGO funding, to create regime change. All these are being linked to Al-Shabaab threats to kill more people in Kenya and probably Africa.
The writer is a specialist: African history, governance, democracy and conflict resolution
PRESIDENT Museveni wrote a letter in the New Vision which was also published in the Daily Nation of March 22. This letter has touched my heart as an African who has strived to defend the continent from imperial toxins of Western countries.
I have been targeted by my enemies in Africa because of my outspoken stand against United Nations (UN) rushed resolutions like the one on Libya last week.
I took a good international hammering when I defended Zimbabwe against Western hatched sanctions by telling the West to have dialogue with President Mugabe. Many human rights organisations threatened me, but in the end dialogue prevailed. One can see how dialogue changes things without the use of war machinery. But now the same pattern of double standard is repeating itself in Libya.
The West is shelling Libya without an exit strategy that will usher in peace by peaceful means. How do you safeguard air-space when the problem is on the ground. The same Western countries are patrolling the Indian Ocean infested with threat of war and piracy when the problem of Somalia is on the ground and not in water. Libya’s solution is dialogue.
I fully agree with President Museveni, that the bombings and shelling against Libya must come to an end and a route of dialogue be sought. Resolution 1973 which mandates the Western countries to safeguard civilians has been misused by the countries that pressurised the UN Security Council to secure the same.
I have always maintained that Africa needs its own muscle to resolve conflicts on the continent. In my writings as a Pan Africanist, I have maintained that a united continent will repulse the angry Western powers whose dwindling oil reserves have caused the current inroads on Libya. There is no simple template for best practice on unity, but lessons can certainly be learnt from the current attacks on Libya.
Germany, a member state of the European Union felt that the UN resolution was ambiguous and it abstained.
South Africa gained independence through the support that Libya gave the African National Congress (ANC)and its military wing. Gadaffi can be condemned by many people, but those of us who know the help he gave South Africa’s ANC in their fight against the apartheid regime would have liked President Jacob Zuma to rethink seriously on the Libya issue.
South Africa has had a titter rivalry at the African Union with Libya and, therefore, for it to use that as a friend who is fixed at a corner is bad politics.
The crucial nexus is the bad trend in which some Western nations forced a UN Security Council resolution on Libya leaving some other countries in the Middle- East unsanctioned.
The Uganda Government, on several occasions, has asked the UN Security Council for a no fly-zone on Somalia to stop supplies reaching militants in Mogadishu and other airports where our sons and daughters from Uganda are being killed, but the US which created the crisis of Somalia has totally refused to accept the suggestion.
The double standards show how the US targets countries with rich oil reserves and then sends its troops. The sea of ties and double standards of the world policeman are narrowing everyday.
Anytime the US opens its mouth on international matters like the International Criminal Court (ICC) cancer on Africa, there is a political deficit left for the poor nations of the world.
Africa and Libya require an honest and sometimes painful dialogue about the past, present and future, the question of military force is controversial in that it intersects the issues of reconciliation and sustainable security. Those wishing to remove Gadaffi by force will be dealing with another monster worse than Gadaffi because violence breeds a new round of violence which will engulf Libya.
All these factors are pointing to a harsher war aimed at Israel that is isolated among radical neighbours in the Middle-East. What the US and its allies are doing is to remove some moderate or semi-democratic states and replacing them with the likes of Muslim -Brotherhood militants of Egypt. This will backfire soon.
The very oil democracy that has killed Iraq will kill Libya if the Western countries just impose their legitimacy without an exit strategy from the shelling.
Resolving the underlying causes of the crisis of the conflict in Libya is prerequisite to ensuring sustainable development and reduce the likelihood of conflict re-emerging again in Libya. The framers of the UN Security Council will leave to regret after several months of shelling and failing to overthrow Gadaffi from power and one wonders what they will do next.
African Union must show its muscle when dealing with the UN Security Council on matters that affect African peace and security. Africa must reject any form of manipulation that will bring chaos for future generations.
Africa must reject the NGO syndrome that I see being used against its people in countries like Zimbabwe and Kenya. Most of the elite, young, and educated people in those countries survive on NGO handouts or look at US ambassadors for supply of money for regime change.
These NGOs, have in turn, supplied wrong and sexed dossiers to Western paymasters that kill Africa with inflated records of human rights abuses in their countries. There is another factor that has puzzled most of us who fight for the African continent. In Egypt the people on the streets were called “demonstrators†and in Libya the men with guns-were called “rebels†by Western backed media. Now the question I pause to the world is since when did rebels get support from a Western backed air strike? Does this mean one needs to go to one part of Kenya, Uganda or Zimbabwe to mobilise a band of youths and then get a no-fly zone and fight a government of the day recognised by the same UN?
I fully support your letter. It opens our hearts for nationalism and patriotism in Africa. We have lost all the vigour and stamina of our fight for independence. The current generation that uses computers is that born after independence.
I call upon President Museveni to seriously tell the US about their hypocrisy on Africa. Museveni should lay down a timetable and conditions for the US on Somalia. They are now busy harassing Kenya, where they have come in form of ICC, summons, warrants, outreach, civil society, youth programmes, NGO funding, to create regime change. All these are being linked to Al-Shabaab threats to kill more people in Kenya and probably Africa.
The writer is a specialist: African history, governance, democracy and conflict resolution