Isolate Mugabe to promote rights

May 19, 2007

THE European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) are wrangling over whether or not Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should attend the EU-Africa summit scheduled for December in Lisbon, Portugal. The summit is important because it seeks to discuss development and migration—issues that are dear

THE European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) are wrangling over whether or not Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should attend the EU-Africa summit scheduled for December in Lisbon, Portugal. The summit is important because it seeks to discuss development and migration—issues that are dear to Africans.

The AU insists that outsiders have no right to judge African leaders—to say who the good guys and the bad guys are on the continent. But the AU is not in a position to do this either, because it lacks acceptable standards for leaders. It insists on non-interference in the internal affairs of other states—an outdated principle that led to the collapse of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

For example, the OAU held its summit in Uganda in 1976 at the height of Idi Amin’s reign of terror and the continental body proved itself irrelevant. It was therefore shocking when the recent SADC summit in Tanzania expressed “solidarity with” Mugabe at a time when everybody expected advice for him not to contest in the next election. This is what makes the EU different from African bodies.

The EU banned Mugabe and his entourage from travelling to Europe for human rights violations. The AU knows that Mugabe does not respect human rights, unleashes terror against the opposition, his people are starving, the economy has collapsed and he has no ideas to reverse all these. So in whose interest should he be propped up, ordinary Zimbabweans or himself and fellow presidents?

The AU should have benchmarks to isolate the bad apples if it is to stand the test of time. Mugabe should stop hiding under a would-be good programme of land reform to cause more suffering to his people.

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