Beautiful Horizons

Points to Ponder

As some on my side of the political aisle seem very encouraged about what's taking place in Libya and while I certainly have nothing but contempt for Muammar Ghadafi, I have to acknowledge a sense of unease about the whole enterprise.

My chief concern is about the endgame. As Admiral Mullen has acknowledged, all this could still result in Ghadafi remaining in power. Assuming Ghadafi and his minions are defeated/killed/exiled, who is to lead Libya and on what basis? How deep will the intervention be?

Another issues that concerns me is why the focus on Libya and perhaps not the Ivory Coast? In the Ivory Coast, an autocratic leader, Laurent Gbabgo, who had resisted calling for elections for some ten years, lost in the second round of elections to Alassane Ouattara and has steadfastly refused to relinquish power. Gbagbo forces have murdered unarmed women at an opposition rally and last Thursday shelled a public market in an area of Abidjan that is pro-Ouattara, killing twenty-five.

In this conflict, unlike Libya, the endgame is clear: Laurent Gbagbo should be jailed and Alassane Ouattara should be sworn in as president. Again, I hold no brief for Ghadafi. I just can't ignore an uneasy twinge of deja vu.

My Limited Experience Regarding Tunisia

About twenty-seven years ago my Amnesty International group had a prisoner case in Tunisia. It was not a full-fledged prisoner of conscience case, but an investigation case. Our prisoner was a Tunisian military officer who belonged to a banned political party. The party had used and advocated violence in other countries in the Middle East, but we did not know if that was the case in Tunisia.

We were never able to resolve this issue and it became moot when our prisoner was released as part of a general amnesty following the ousting of then President Habib Bourguiba, by the recently ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In reading about the recent history there while working on the case, I noted how largely secular the nation appeared. Tunisia is a popular destination among European sunseekers and was a refuge for notoriously corrupt former Italian Prime Minister, Bettino Craxi.

What is interesting is that it appears that France is coming off quite badly among the opponents of the Ben Ali regime:

France has misread Tunisia for years, not just in recent weeks, said Jacques Lanxade, a retired admiral, former military chief of staff and former ambassador to Tunis in the late 1990s.

“Since 2000, people saw the Tunisian regime closing itself into a semidictatorship, but we did not react,” he said. “We continued public support of this regime because of economic interests, because we thought Ben Ali had a role in fighting Islamists.”

But France did not understand how deeply the economic crisis was changing things, and ignored restrictions on the press, Mr. Lanxade said, adding, “We didn’t take account of Tunisian public opinion and thought Ben Ali would re-establish his position.”

As for the US, it appears to be faring a little better:

By contrast, aided by the release of secret memos by WikiLeaks, the United States was seen by Tunisians to have made critical statements about corruption and greed in Tunisia. Washington also criticized the crackdown on demonstrators, and President Obama scored with protesters on Friday when he praised their “courage and dignity” and called for fair elections.

Christopher Hitchens is also being criticized:

Issandr El Amrani, a Moroccan-born freelance journalist in Cairo, who edits the Arabist blog, introduced this note of caution on his Twitter feed:

New Tunisia govt. needs to clarify next steps to convince and appease. Not legitimate yet.

Mr. el-Amrani also posted a link to a 2007 article on Tunisia in Vanity Fair, with the note: “Christopher Hitchens, you fraud, we still remember you this propaganda you wrote for Ben Ali.”

Ben Ali's wife may have been Tunisia's very own Imelda Marcos/Lady Macbeth:

The greed shown by former Tunisian president Ben Ali's wife, Leila, forced people to revolt against the ruling dispensation.

Dubbed as Imelda Marcos of the Arab world, Leila, a former hairdresser, was known for her love of wealth and its trappings. The woman, who came from a humble background,was branded "The Regent of Carthage' ' for her power behind the throne and her love of money, luxury cars and opulent homes.

This is why so much anger on the streets and the family known as "The Mafia''was a target of its attack directly. Looters , sick of the family's nepotism , filmed themselves on mobile phones destroying the expensive cars at one of their villas and riding motorbikes across the manicured laws.

Muammar Qaddafi is upset:

Over the weekend, the man who has ruled Tunisia’s neighbor Libya with an iron fist for more than four decades, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, tried his hand at casting events in Tunisia in a sinister light. In a televised address to his people on Libyan state television on Saturday, Colonel Qaddafi identified the evil organization he blamed for unleashing a plot against public order and Arab self rule in Tunisia: WikiLeaks.

Picking up on the conspiracy theory put forward by Iran’s leadership, which holds that the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables were released by the C.I.A. to undermine anti-colonialist governments, Colonel Qaddafi warned his listeners about the dark designs of “WikiLeaks which publishes information written by lying ambassadors in order to create chaos.”

One hopes he has reason to be worried.

Tunisia

"All I know is what I read in the papers" - but this New York Times article on the fall of the Tunisian government in the face of popular unrest is remarkable for the apparently significant conjunction of information gleaned from Wikileaks revelations, communication on Twitter and related social media, and the broadcasts of Middle Eastern cable news channel Al Jazeera in the destabilization.

Genocide Denial from the US Left

Anti-Imperialists, American Marxists Edward Herman and David Peterson have recently released a new book, called "The Politics of Genocide."  It's hot off the presses of Monthly Review Press.  It in, Herman and Peterson argue that genocide is a political conspiracy of the evil Yankee military industrial complex. Apparently, the heart of the book comes to the conclusion that the genocide in Rwanda really didn't occur and that we've all been duped about the horrible events of 1994.  The real crime was the Tusti violence against Hutus(!), glossed over as it was by omnipresent American media (of course) that has escaped critical review by the public and thus should the focal point of one's understanding on this matter.  

Gerald Caplan delivers an absolutely devastating and scorching review here.

Hat tip to Terry Glavin.

What More Can I Say?

There is precious little that I can add to Ben Brantley's review of Fela! from six months ago other than to echo it.

I do not believe that I have had a more rewarding experience at a Broadway show in the years I've lived here. Sahr Ngaujah is a revelation; he completely inhabits the character in a role that surely must be one of the most strenuous I have ever seen.

Don't miss it.

The Best Ex-President

The next time someone on the right decides to bash Jimmy Carter, they should read this column in Thursday's New York Times by Nick Kristof:

Guinea worms grow up to a yard long inside the body and finally poke out through the skin. They cause excruciating pain and must be pulled out slowly, an inch or two a day. In endemic areas like this district in Lakes State of southern Sudan, people can have a dozen Guinea worms dangling from their bodies.

[...]

For the last 24 years, former President Jimmy Carter has led the global struggle against the disease. When he started, there were 3.5 million cases annually in 20 countries. Last year, there were fewer than 3,200 cases in four countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali and Sudan. The great majority of the remaining cases are here in southern Sudan.

How horrible is this parasite? See for yourself (warning: photos require a strong stomach). This is in addition to the Carter Center's efforts on River Blindness, which have resulted in the eradication of the disease from Ecuador and the expectation that the disease will be gone from the Americas in two years.

Inspiring work that will no doubt have little impact on the pathological naysayers on the right, but means everything to those at risk.

The Bashir Indictment

Is the indictment of Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir bad for Darfur? Perhaps in the short term, as Bashir has engaged in some ugly tit-for-tat by kicking out some aid organizations, but in the long term, some movement had to take place on this issue. This should result in pressure on Bashir and will restrict his travel.

I'm inclined to share the position of Bishop Desmond Tutu as described here.

I'm also inclined to believe this Darfuri woman:

Stay tuned.

That Old Chestnut

Matthew Yglesias links to this post by Timothy Burke in which Burke, using Robert Mugabe's hanging on argues convincingly against the argument that the risk of prosecution can only prevent the likelihood of dictators leaving office voluntarily. In Yglesias' comments section I make the following points:

What has always bothered me about the argument that serial human rights abusers like Pinochet should be guaranteed no prosecution because they may not be willing to cede power are two things:

1. What does one tell subsequent dictators: it was okay to grant dictator A amnesty in return for stepping down, but not acceptable for you to get an amnesty?
2. It ignores the deterrent effect the proponents claim that it has. To wit, if one believes that a.) Mugabe's possible prosecution might prevent him from leaving office, then one should acknowledge that b.) the threat of prosecution could very well be a preventative against human rights abuses. I cannot recall anyone accepting both a.) and b.).

Personally, I don't believe that the threat of prosecution prevents anyone from leaving office, nor do I believe that the threat of prosecution - at its current weak stage - has a deterrent effect upon the commission of human rights abuses. I do believe if more teeth were put into the possibility of prosecution, it could have a deterrent effect.

I might also add that using Pinochet as an example is more likely to display the person making the argument's ignorance of Pinochet's leaving office. Pinochet left office kicking and screaming. On the night of the plebiscite that removed him, he was convinced that he could still remain in office. So convinced, in fact, that in spite of the evidence indicating that he had lost the plebiscite, he expressed his intentions to unleash troops on the street. The rest of the junta, led by General Matthei, the head of the air force, all told him that they would not agree to it. Some months later, Pinochet, in a speech made reference to the plebiscite and commented that"Don't forget that in the history of the world, there was a plebiscite, in which Christ and Barabbas were being judged, and the people chose Barabbas."

Another point worth making is how Pinochet, when he was still commander of the military, sent troops out on the street - purely as a show of force - when his son and some military officers were being investigated for  financial misdoings that had nothing to do with his human rights record. The investigation was quickly scuttled.

In addition, when Argentina's junta finally left power, there followed a series of revolts conducted by soldiers called the carapintadas whenever there were investigations of the military's record during the Dirty War. This is not a negotiated solution to leaving office. This was an attempt at extorting an amnesty.

Good News...

Last night I was privileged to attend a screening of some Frontline World short documentaries that deal with "social entrepeneurs" around the world. Two of the highlights among the stories: a South African former ad exec, Trevor Field, who's devised the "play pump", combining a children's merry-go-round with a well and pump to vastly improve and simplify access to fresh water in remote villages - and Luis Sarazan, conductor of the Paraguay National Symphony, who has set up a "network for social change", organizing orphans, street children and other poor kids into music schools that are at least as much about bringing hope into their lives as teaching music.

You can access these stories and the videos at the Frontline World web site, which has a huge archive of excellent global journalism. The Play Pump is HERE and maestro Sarazan and his kids are HERE. Check them out. They'll brighten your day.

Progress

Senegal's National Assembly adopted a law last week that will enable it to try Hissene Habre, the vile former dictator of Chad.

Habré was first arrested in Senegal in February 2000 on charges of crimes against humanity and torture stemming from his 1982-1990 rule in Chad. Senegal refused to prosecute him in 2001 or to extradite him to Belgium in 2005, but in 2006, Dakar agreed to abide by an African Union decision that Habré should be put on trial in Senegal. Wednesday’s law allows such a trial by permitting Senegal to prosecute cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, even when they are committed outside of Senegal.

At the same time Human Rights Watch took issue with an estimation by Senegal’s Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio on Tuesday that Hissène Habré might not be brought to trial “before three years.”

“Senegal has taken an important step in the right direction,” said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch, who works with Habré’s victims. “If the Senegalese government moves forward quickly to open an investigation, and takes advantage of the years of work already done by Belgium, a trial could be held relatively soon.”

This is remarkably good news: an African nation, at the urging of the African Union agreed to provide a framework to try one of the continent's worst former dictators. Here's some of Habre's handiwork:

In its report, published in May 1992 after 17 months' work, the Commission said:  "It is only fair to draw the reader's attention to the fact that this investigation covers only a minute proportion of the acts committed by the Habré dictatorship. Neither time granted to the Commission, the means at its disposal nor the availability of victims enabled it to conduct an exhaustive investigation." The Commission drew up a list of 3,806 people, including 26 foreign nationals, who had died in detention or been extrajudicially executed during the period 1982-1990, and calculated that the total could reach 40,000 deaths. It counted 54,000 prisoners (dead and alive) during the same period. The Commission's considered that the work it carried out represented no more than 10 per cent of the violations and crimes committed under Hissein Habré. [emphasis in original]

He makes Pinochet seem like a piker. There's still some way to go before he pays for his crimes, but senegal and the AU should be saluted for this. It's a significant step.