{UAH} ICC: AFRICAN LEADERS ARE THEIR OWN ENEMIES

 

Closing the ICGLR summit in Uganda, President Museveni is reported to have suggested a special sitting of the African leaders (through the AU I presume), to discuss the ICC, which seems to target only African leaders. Many glaring facts are testimony that African leaders are their own victims at best, or at worst, enemies of their own people. The ICGLR is the second most useless outfit on the continent, after the AU. Meant to foster peace and stability in the region, its leaders have refused to marshal enough forces to physically flush out the bandits in Congo forests. If at the height of the Kabila Crisis, 16 countries were drawn into the fray, why not marshal the same forces now, and pacify the region, beginning with Congo? The country remains a haven of war lords, guarding and protecting international pillage of the mineral wealth, while the leaders are ever globe-trotting, 'seeking solutions' to the region's problems in five star hotels, akin to what Graham Hancock calls discussing famine over steaks!!. Why didnt this conference convene in the jungles of eastern DRC, where people have been reduced to a sub-human existence, serving as sex-machines and slave labour for the UN 'peace-keepers', who are in reality fronts for mineral wealth pillage?

The tragedy of this region and continent was summed up to us by a UN 'peace-keeper' in DRC, with whom we struck a rapport during a business lunch at Goma's Stella Matutina Hotel. A young guy in his early 30s, he argues that he cannot imagine himself suffering in the jungles of wild Africa, leaving his young family, while the 'leaders' of the country and the continent are the actual engineers and beneficiaries of the conflict. His verdict therefore, was that his 'suffering' in the jungle must be paid for, thus the 'femmes de confort, ( some as young as 10) and the incessant flights of ancient ugly Russian planes from Goma Airport.These are the two major activities of the forces in eastern DRC: it is an entire chain, each force exacting its authority according to its level in the hierarchy. Despite being a jungle airport, Goma is the second busiest airport in the region, after Nairobi's Wilson.

The ICGLR, has among its goals, non-aggression and mutual defence. If this is the case, why then the arms race that we see among its individual member states? The resources squandered on arms would go a long way in strengthening the economies of the region, thus reducing the causes of instability and its consequences: what has been termed ' sex and gender based violence' is a product of such instability. Eastern DRC is in a state of bellum omnium contra omnias( war of all against all, where you either eat or you are eaten). And this can never be solved by condescending speeches in five star lakeside resorts. DRC and her immediate neighbours are led by generals, yet the region remains unstable.

The ICC therefore is the only saviour for the suffering African peasant. You cannot protest neo-colonialism while running along the pillagers and rapists of this continent, in the name of investors. We have seen it all. Since we have seen African leaders for what they are, we shall lose nothing if we petition the ICC to expand the definition of crimes against humanity to include kleptocracy in all its manifestations: pillage of resources ( as in oil and the DRC scenario), primitive stealing as we witness in Uganda, et al. In this way, ordinary Africans will lose nothing by having an 'imperialist' institution protect them against their own home hyenas. Both are hyenas, where the one from your village or the foreign one.

African leaders can only save their necks if they take a leaf from Cuba's Castro. He has been a living testimony of leaders sharing the plight of their people. He practices what he preaches. The moment we detect this spirit in our leaders, we shall rally behind you and condemn neo-colonialism. But as matters stand now, you are merely agents of competing forces seeking to rape the continent, as you take your own piece of the pie, stowing it away in foreign capitals and banks for your progeny. 

Mme Bensouda, les voici….!!!