|
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS ISSUE
Peace also has quietly and slowly gained the upper hand in many parts of Africa. By Laurie Goering Tribune foreign correspondent Published January 16, 2005 JOHANNESBURG -- If you didn't hear much about the landmark
elections in Mozambique and Namibia this past year, it's because they were
remarkably unremarkable. In Namibia, President Sam Nujoma, who had led the country since independence from South Africa in 1990, agreed not to run again for office. His chosen successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, won the November election with 77 percent of the vote in polling praised as peaceful and transparent. On the other coast of southern Africa, Mozambique's president, Joaquim Chissano, also decided to step down, after 18 years in office. Elections there were criticized for irregularities and low turnout. But former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's team of observers said the problems didn't alter the outcome, and Chissano's favorite, businessman Armando Guebuza, was elected Mozambique's new president by a 34-point margin. Africa remains better-known for its dictators than for free and fair elections. But across a growing portion of the continent, and particularly in southern Africa, democracy is deepening its foothold. Democracy and treaties South Africa held quiet and fair presidential elections last year. So did Botswana and Ghana. Nujoma and Chissanoâboth popular leadersâdecided for the good of their countries and democracy to step down, bucking the long African trend of leaders clinging to power at any cost. Peace also has quietly and slowly been gaining the upper hand in many parts of Africa. The brutal conflict in Sudan's Darfur region dominated Africa's image internationally and has been a nightmare for the continent, with tens of thousands of lives lost. But a two-decade conflict between Khartoum and southern Sudan finally reached an apparent end this month with the signing of a long-awaited peace treaty. Uganda appears close to ending a nearly two-decade battle with the bloody rebel Lord's Resistance Army in the north. Long, ugly wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia are history, and even Congo appears relatively quiet despite fears of renewed conflict near the Rwandan border. An uneasy truce appears to be holding in Ivory Coast as well. What's changing in Africa? Part of the credit goes to African leaders such as South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who have flown around the continent helping broker peace deals and uphold cease-fires. Both are proponents of NEPAD, the New Partnership for African Development, which promises greater African responsibility for solving the continent's problems, from war to corruption, in exchange for greater Western investment. They have a long way to go in convincing many African leaders that war and graft don't pay, and they have notably failed to put enough pressure on some major trouble spots, including Sudan and Zimbabwe. But African leaders at least are trying to find solutions. African nations, through the new African Unionâa replacement for the failed Organization of African Unityâalso are improving efforts to militarily solve their own problems. For years, West African peacekeepers have helped limit bloodshed in Liberia and other nations, and South African peacekeepers have kept an eye on problem spots such as Burundi. But the continent has often needed foreign peacekeepers to help in its worst conflicts, and they can be slow to arrive, a situation likely to worsen in coming years, particularly as overburdened U.S. troops remain tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now African nations are jointly planning a continent-wide peacekeeping force, with contingents in each region that are capable of both quick-response and long-term monitoring of conflicts like those in Ivory Coast and Sudan. The force will take most of a decade to put in place. And whether African leaders, reluctant to interfere in the affairs of others, will ultimately have the political nerve to use the troops remains to be seen. The African Union so far has shown little willingness to ignore objections from Sudan's government and send large numbers of soldiers to Darfur. But in other regions African will for peace appears to be stiffening, particularly as the continent's leaders recognize the economic cost of continued conflict. All not rosy Huge problems remain in Africa, even as the desire for peace and democracy grows. Zimbabwe, which has disintegrated from a prosperous model nation to an economic and social disaster under President Robert Mugabe's misrule, remains the democratic outcast of southern Africa. Parliamentary elections planned for March are widely expected to be as stacked in Mugabe's favor as those that returned him to power in 2002, over the objections of most of the country's voters. But though crisis dominates the headlines, there's plenty of good news in Africa too. Somalia has a government for the first time in a decade, even if it's still based in nearby Kenya as its members figure out how to cope with armed Somali warlords. Ethiopia and Eritrea, at least for now, are no longer at war. And Congo this year will hold its first democratic general elections since independence in 1960, something its residentsâand most Africansâhope will be another step toward greater peace and stability in Central Africa's fractured giant. | |||||
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
