African agony

The U.S. and Britain are finally given some credit for their intense pressure on the UN and countries involved in Sudan to do something. It wasn't from the New York Times but from Africa. The editorial from Mmegi also reveals a lot about African politics.

African leaders have seen it fit to reward the man who presides over the Khartoum regime - Omar el-Bashir - with the chairmanship of the African Union next year.

And you wonder why the African Union has not seen fit to exert pressure. The NYT and Canadian Globe and Mail conveniently don't remember what Africans can't forget.

It brings to mind another sad joke from Africa’s immediate past when the AU’s predecessor the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) passed its chairmanship to the late Ugandan tyrant, Idi Amin.

John Kerry is having media-highlighted flashbacks this week on Vietnam. Chances are he doesn't remember Oct 1, 1975 when Ugandan President Idi Amin delivered a message to the United Nations calling for the "extinction of Israel as a state. Few online sources and no elite media refer to his speech, given in in the local Lugandan tongue rather than in English. The son of Uganda's ambassador to the U.S. remembers the standing ovation.

More Idi Amin reading. Here
BBC Idi Amin obituary. Here

The BBC refers to Amin as the Buffoon Tyrant in his obituary, never once noting his U.N. speech or his friendship with Yassir Arafat and the PLO.
Like the Marxist Mugabe, Amin waged war on the economy of his country.
He was personally involved with the PLO hijacking of the french airliner in Entebbe.
In his profile at the CNN site, that doesn't mention either Entebbe or Amin's U.N. speech, they acknowledge his brutality. An estimated 500,000 people disappeared or were killed under Amin's rule. They see fit, however, to mention that Amin wished Nixon a speedy recovery from Watergate.
CBSnews mentions the 500,000 but with the qualifier "Human rights groups say...". Irony. A banner at the top of the page pictures Leslie Stahl and an ad for 48 Hours Investigates. No mention whatsoever of Entebbe, the PLO, or the U.N. speech.

In an article reminiscent of the CNN mea culpa for reporting half the story in Iraq, Allan Hogan recalls his interview for Australian Broadcasting. Five years later he was able to tell the "full story." As the acting head of television at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, presumably he can pass on those journalistic ethics to his students.

This sums up the response of a lot of academia.

But Amin "committed grave political mistakes. He caused a lot of shock when he massacred people in the open, thereby rendering the country to international ridicule and isolation," according to Ken Lukyamuzi, a Ugandan political scientist.

The Guardian obituary also omits Amin's U.N. speech.

"When he assumed the chairmanship of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1975, he made four white residents in Kampala carry him on a palanquin." is how this Indian obituary remembers him. (In this report as well.) They also recall Amin letting the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) open an office in Kampala. [It was the former Israeli embassy.] They fail to mention the hundreds of thousands of Ugandans murdered. Which is why they describe him as "among the most colourful and controversial figures that strode on the African political stage."
Few articles address the militant muslim aspect of Amin's rule. Here
Forgotten by most, there is this. "In 1975 Amin declared Uganda an Islamic State though only 3% of the population were Moslems, only the Catholic and the Anglican Church was tolerated."

Interestingly, Idi Amin is in Time magazine's GENOCIDE'S HALL OF SHAME along with Pol Pot and Joseph Stalin.
If they were so shamed, why hasn't Time campaigned for a trial for either Pol Pot or Idi Amin? Strangely, the U.N. never did either.

In tabloid fashion, The Mirror interviewed one of his widows. "Their wedding in 1975 was lavish, with a banquet costing £2million, Yasser Arafat was best man and Colonel Gaddafi among the guests." Today she organizes weddings for others and Arafat is still under house arrest after two years.

United Nations resolution vote. Text of Resolution.
Text of resolution.


PLO terrorist Yasir Arafat and Saddam Hussein connection.

BBC - "infamous resolution"
The resolution was not rescinded unti 1991.
Kofi Annan speech.

Let us acknowledge that the United Nations’ record on anti-Semitism has at times fallen short of our ideals. The General Assembly resolution of 1975, equating Zionism with racism, was an especially unfortunate decision. I am glad that it has since been rescinded.