[UAH] Tanzania’s diplomatic fortunes a pain to the rest

Tanzania's diplomatic fortunes a pain to the restBy CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO | Sunday, July 14   2013 at  12:30

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Some very angry words have been exchanged since Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete suggested in Addis Ababa in May that Rwanda and Uganda initiate direct talks with their rebels groups based in eastern DR Congo.

Kikwete was suggesting that the two talk with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU).

Uganda was a little equanimous about it, but Rwanda hit the roof. From on high in Rwanda, Kikwete's suggestion was called "utter nonsense," and officials accused him of being a "genocide denier" and other unprintable things.

Since the establishment of the new East African Community, the leaders and officials in the region have carefully avoided saying such things about leaders of partner states. So what went wrong?

Well, the FDLR are the rump of the forces that committed the 1994 genocide in which nearly one million Rwandans, most of them Tutsis, were killed. The talk-to-FDLR position is associated with some of the most extreme Kagame/Rwanda Patriotic Front haters especially in Europe and North America.

These people also like to suggest that the genocide was committed by the RPF, and campaign for the international isolation of the Kigali government.

So as soon as you take that line, expect Kigali to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at you. I guess if Kikwete had made the suggestion to Kagame in private, all would have stayed there.

But there might be something else at play.

Happy marriage

There seems to be resentment of Tanzania's good diplomatic fortunes. In his recent visit, US President Barack Obama broke the pattern of his two predecessors Bill Clinton and George Bush, and didn't visit Uganda and Rwanda.

Maybe Kenya was used to being left out, but this time felt done in because Obama's father was a Kenyan.

The bloggers, social media and columnists from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, dismissed Obama, saying America was a power in decline, and China was Africa's new love. That Obama had come to Africa offering pitiful American breadcrumbs, while China's President Xi Jinping, and before him Hu Jingtao, were dropping whole loaves of bread when they visited the continent.

Pragmatism returned to Kenyan commentary, when Obama announced he was putting $7 billion into the $16 billion "Africa Power" electricity plan that will cover Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria to start with.

However, those with a sense of history were aware that Tanzania is not just the latest favourite of the west in the region. It is China's too. When no one wanted to touch China in the 1960s and 1970s, Tanzania embraced it.

However, whether it is Kikwete's posture on DRC, or the regional sibling envy of Tanzania's diplomatic jackpot, the differences within East Africa are over issues that are external to us. We disagree over Congolese rebels, Somali factions, China, America, all issues that we import from outside.

The beauty of the EAC has always been that its members have so much in common, they were likely to succeed because they would work in harmony.

What is tragic about the recent kerfuffle in the Community, is that we have become like those rare couple that puts most of its efforts into breaking an otherwise happy marriage.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @cobbo3

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