Response to Pr. Jendayi Frazer: US President should not shake bloody hands of dictators
Jendayi E. Frazer, former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs proposed ways to help Africa in the article titled “Four Ways to Help Africa”, published in the Wall Street Journal on August 25, 2009. One of the four ways proposed by Dr. Jendayi Frazer is to “Hold a summit at the White House with the presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Mr. Obama needs to spend more time meeting and engaging African leaders to address the continent’s challenges.”
The idea of the summit with the dictators who lead Rwanda and Uganda to solve the conflict in the DRC appears flawed and not consistent with Dr. Jendayi Frazer’s past advocacy for a tough stance against dictators. I do not think President Bush’s summits and individual meetings with Kagame, Museveni and Kabila that Dr. Jendayi Frazer alluded to helped at all. From 2000-2008, we had the warlords Mutebusi, Nkunda, Ntaganda, all supported by Rwanda, wrecking havoc, raping women, recruiting children, and committing war crimes, and mass slaughters of the innocent and defenseless Congolese people.
It is only with the UN Experts Report of December 2008, followed by the decision by Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands to cut aid to the Government of Kigali that the dictator Kagame was forced to stop its military and financial support to the renegade General Nkunda, and eventually dismantle the CNDP as we know it.
President Obama should not have any summit with General Kagame or Museveni. General Kagame is accused of war crimes, genocide and mass killings of more than 5 millions Congolese. He is under Spanish and French indictments for war crimes and genocide. General Nkunda’s CNDP forces, armed, trained, and financed by General Kahame are responsible for war crimes and the rapes. Ms. Clinton heard vivid accounts from the victims of these rapes. It is unfortunate that most of these crimes and rapes happened when Dr. Jendayi Frazer, as Advisor to President Bush and then Assistant Secretary of State, was playing a major role, advising on and then overseeing the US African policy. General Kagame should be treated as a criminal and tried for these crimes.
President Obama should keep his moral high ground and not shake the bloody hands of African dictators. President Obama has a better grasp of African issues and proposes better solutions, as confirmed during Ms. Hillary Clinton’s recent trip across Africa. His African policy has more chance of success than the ways advocated by Dr Jendayi Frazer in the Wall Street Journal.
Felicien Kanyamibwa, PhD.
August 26, 2009
