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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Mar 21 2011 - 11:21:32 EST
http://www.sunherald.com/2011/03/18/2953940_p2/african-leaders-snuff-out-flames.html
Friday,
Mar. 18, 2011 African leaders snuff out flames of discontent
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Angola's ruler of more than 30 years, President Eduardo
dos Santos, has used mass troop deployments and arrests to quash a planned
pro-democracy protest. Opposition politicians and human rights lawyers in
Angola, a virtual one-party state, have been receiving anonymous death
threats and the cars of two lawyers were set ablaze.
In Djibouti, riot police moved against an estimated 6,000 people at an
opposition political rally on Feb. 18, and opposition politicians said five
people were killed and dozens wounded. A second rally planned for March 4
didn't happen after security forces filled the streets. Opposition leaders
have been jailed.
"There is no way anybody can win against him," opposition leader Abdourahman
Boreh said from exile in London, referring to President Ismail Omar Guelleh.
"He uses all the power, all the police, all the government instruments and
resources, and he uses brutality."
Uganda's Conservative Party leader John Ken Lukyamuzi said "it is very
possible" the protests will spread to sub-Saharan Africa. In his own
country, police fired tear gas against people protesting alleged rigging in
last month's presidential vote that saw incumbent Yoweri Museveni, 66, who
has been in power since 1986, win again. He threatened his opponents.
"I will deal with them decisively and they will never rise again," Museveni
said, promising at one point to "bang them into jails and that would be the
end of the story."
Some have used the carrot to quell unrest.
Ethiopia's 22-year government announced a cap on basic food prices within
days of President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali's flight from Tunisia. Opponents
said Saturday the government has rounded up some 200 opposition members in
the past week "in a preemptive action to prevent the popular uprising that
is sweeping through northern Africa."
In Zimbabwe, Jeenah said, people are held back from taking to the streets by
fears of the beatings and torture meted out to dissenters, while Mugabe is
sustained by the lack of criticism and even support demonstrated by other
African leaders.
Ivory Coast threatens to slide back toward civil war since Laurent Gbagbo
refused to accept that he lost November elections. As Gbagbo's intransigence
turns the commercial capital, Abidjan, into a war zone, African leaders have
been hesitant to intervene militarily. Some who side with Gbagbo are
themselves anti-democratic.
If Gbagbo prevails, he would be the third African leader to refuse to accept
election results, following the lead of Mugabe and Kenya's Mwai Kibaki.
It's a dangerous precedent. More than a dozen presidential elections are
scheduled across Africa this year. If winners of free and fair elections are
prevented from taking office, the people's discontent can only build.
Faul reported from Johannesburg. Associated Press writers Jason Straziuso
in Nairobi, Kenya; Godfrey Olukya in Kampala, Uganda; Divine Ntaryike in
Douala, Cameroon; and Phathizwe-Chief Zulu in Mbabane, Swaziland contributed
to this report.
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