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african Union

Why african relief efforts are doomed to fail

by Klaus Rohrich
Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Last week over 40 leaders of countries belonging to the african Union (aU) gathered in Sudan for the sixth annual conference of aU member states. Sometimes known as "The Dictators" Club", the aU leadership is famous for treating itself to lavish meals and accommodations, while the majority of their citizens are forced to live in appalling poverty and under overtly repressive governments not squeamish about torturing and/or killing dissenters.

and last week was no different. The government of Sudan, in an effort to recreate its flagging world image, has spent upward of $30 million building over 40 orange-colored luxury villas that the visiting african leaders used for approximately 48 hours. Sudan's leaders went all out in assuring that the visiting heads of state enjoyed only the best. They retained the services of aCCOR, a French hospitality company that equipped the villas with fifty-two inch flat screen televisions, beautiful china imported from Europe and the finest linen. a cadre of butlers was specially trained to meet every wish the african presidents may have, which included learning to properly open doors for their Excellencies.

The actual location of the conference centre where the summit was held is approximately six kilometers away from the presidential village. To ensure that none of the visiting presidents' sensibilities would be offended, the Sudanese government planted lush greenery along the route to the conference centre, painted decrepit buildings and concealed construction sites behind billboards.

In the words of foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim, "We are investing to change the image of Sudan. This is a good opportunity for us to emerge…[from] a lot of problems and lots of conflict and start a new page for Sudan. Of course it costs to make a new image for Sudan."

This pretty well sums up what's ailing africa. a raging aIDS epidemic, starvation, genocide, unspeakable poverty and heads of state that enjoy champagne and caviar served on Limoges platters in the back of armored Mercedes S-600 limousines.

Since the 1960s, africa has gobbled up the equivalent of six Marshal Plans and is poorer today than it's ever been with life expectancy in some african states at below 35 years. The only africans that seem to have benefited from the West's largesse are the Wabenzi, which is the african term for ‘Big Man". It's no accident that the term Wabenzi contains the word ‘benz', as in Mercedes Benz. africa's Big Men seem to measure their Bigness by the number of Mercedes Benz limos they own. To continue to send aid into africa as the West has done for the past 40 years with no strings attached amounts to nothing short of collusion with kleptocmaniacal dictators.

It seems curious to me that many of africa's rulers have attained their leadership positions as a result of a coup d' etat. Then there is an entire class of former rulers accused of crimes against humanity under the protection of current rulers who revel in protecting their fellow thugs from justice.

The Republic of Congo's president, Denis Sassou Nquesso, who, like his Sudanese host, Omar El-Bashir, seized power in a violent coup was appointed Chairman of the aU. This is somewhat surprising in that traditionally the host of the aU's conference is chosen to chair the organization for the coming year, however, given Sudan's human rights record in Darfur aU members thought it best not to draw attention to that country.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, who is no newcomer to the crimes against humanity scene, has granted asylum to former Ethiopian strong man Haile Miriam Mengistu, who deposed emperor Haile Sellasie in 1974 and initiated a bloody reign of terror and famine that lasted until 1991. Mengistu is currently wanted for genocide and Crimes against Humanity, but the likelihood of him ever facing justice is nonexistent. The Republic of Senegal is harboring former president of Chad, Hissène Habré, who is also wanted by the International Court of Criminal Justice for large-scale human rights abuses. and, of course, we all know what happened in Rwanda and Sierra Leone and what is currently happening in a half-dozen other african countries including high-rolling Sudan.

Help in the form of foreign and humanitarian aid does not find its way to those who are most in need of it. Yet africa's leaders seem to have discovered the West's guilt buttons (with a little help from the likes of Bob Geldof), which enables them to increase their Bigness as Wabenzi at the expense of their citizens.

Until there are some real strong strings attached, any aid to africa is essentially throwing good money after bad.


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