| ATTACKS ON LIBERTY |
| Human Rights Violations
George B.N. Ayittey
Property is not safe in many African countries where governments have no respect of property rights much less human rights. Even personal property can arbitrarily be seized by governments without any due process of law. The worst offences have occurred under military regimes.
On April 11, 2001, students at Addis Ababa University staged a peaceful demonstration demanding their basic human and political rights. Riot police stormed the university, shot at and injured 50 students. The students took their demonstration outside of the university campus, and Meles Zenawi's special security forces responded by firing live bullets at the students and mercilessly beating them up with clubs. In addition, hundreds of unarmed Ethiopians, mainly high school and university students, were also killed and injured as the regime wages a campaign of repression against its citizens.
Ato Tewfik Lalle, a member of the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) in Addis Ababa, was killed. Another member, Ato Famy Alke, was injured, and an Executive Committee member, Ato Tamrat Tarekegn, and 40 other EDP members were arrested by President Meles Zenawi's special security police.
The following anecdotal evidence is not scientific but is at least suggestive of the pervasiveness of lawlessness:
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Torture, mass detention, execution, human rights violations, confiscation of private properties and the prohibition of all political parties became widespread. In all parts of Somalia, the military regime of Mr. Barre has the ultimate carte blanche to either detain or execute any Somali citizen the regime is not satisfied with. In fact, for the past 20 years, hundreds of thousands of innocent people were put to death or imprisoned without going through the legal court procedures. Many politicians, businessmen, religious leaders and young students disappeared and their whereabouts are not known to date. The number of prisoners of conscience is quite enormous in Somalia and international journalists were long banned from reporting on such situation (The African Letter, April 16-30, 1990; p.3).
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Ethiopian troops fired on thousands of drought victims who refused to participate in a resettlement in the northern town of Korem. Sources in Addis Ababa said at least 20 people were killed. The UN is investigating the incident (The Wall Street Journal, Feb 12, 1988; p.1).
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On May 12, 1988, Comrade Mengistu's army entered the town of She'eb, in north-eastern Eritrea, and rounded up a large group of about 400 people, men, women and children, including the elderly, the disabled and the blind. Accusing them of collaborators of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), they drove two tanks over the people while simultaneously machine-gunning those who tried to escape.
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Eighty thousand people escaped from She'eb that day. All the shops were looted and burned by the Ethiopian army, who also slaughtered 10,000 sheep, goats, cattle and camels, putting some of the carcasses down the towns only well, thus polluting it for ever (New African, October 1988; p.24).
Liberia: In one incident today in July 9, 1990, three soldiers drove a man to Monrovia's Atlantic Ocean shore, ordered him out of the car and shouted: "Go to the beach." The man waved his identity papers.
All three then pumped bullets into his head, back and legs from their US-supplied M-16 automatic rifles just outside the front gate of the home of Dennis Jett, second-in-command at the US Embassy. The soldiers told reporters who watched: "This man is a rebel." The troops said they believed the man was a rebel because he said he was going to buy rice but had only $1.15 in his pocket. A cup of rice now costs $2 (The Washington Post, July 10, 1990; p.A15).
Most northern Ugandans in exile still bear Museveni's troops a grudge for robbing their families of their crops and cattle. Atrocities committed by the National Resistance Army (NRA) are never exposed by the government because they are not good public relations material. In the past few months, NRA soldiers have been using their uniform as cover for armed robbery. They snatch cars at gunpoint and drive them around after changing the registration numbers. In June, two soldiers stopped a prison officer on the Kampala-Jinja road and took away his car... (Early in 1988), 20 diplomatic cars were snatched in Kampala alone" (New African, Oct 1988; p.17).
Incidents of rape, looting, slashing of food crops, razing of homes and food stores, theft of livestock has been going on unabated at the hands of the troops of the NRA...Already 150,000 people in the north and east have perished at the hands of the NRA and over 4,000 have been forced into exile (New African, November 1989; p.23).
Zairean agents tried to kidnap a Mobutu opponent in exile in Arua earlier in 1989. But they found his pregnant wife Fatuma who was seized and taken to Bunia in Zaire. The woman's 3 million Uganda shillings were stolen by the security agents...Fatuma was sighted in October, 1989, at the Makala Prison in Kinshasa.
In that same prison is another Zairian refugee James Mundoni, an MNC-Lumumba activist, who was kidnapped in Uganda in 1967 by Mobutu's security men (New African, December 1989; p.19).
Nigeria: In Lagos, on January 19, police stormed the chamber of a Senior Magistrate, Mrs. Opeyemi Oke, angry that she acquitted a truck driver whom they claimed had not stopped when challenged by a senior police officer.
On January 22, soldiers went on rampage at Oshodi, Lagos, burning at least 7 cars of unsuspecting road users when the wife of a soldier was knocked down by another driver. She was trying to cross the Express motorway, instead of using an overhead bridge meant for commuters. Many innocent civilans were also severely beaten up (New Africa, April, 1988; p.10).
Ghana: Mr. Mintah, 55, was taken from his home by agents of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) on July 18, 1988. At the time of his death, no charges had been preferred against him, and according to informed sources, he had not even been questioned during his six months of detention. His 78 year old mother has reportedly been in a coma since she heard of the death of her only child. The BNI is reportedly still using his two private cars a Mercedes Benz and an Opel Kadett which they allegedly took from his home when they arrested him" January 30 February 5, 1989; p.164).
On July 17, 1988, elementary school teachers in Ghana decided to stage a 3 day strike. The teachers' action was triggered by the beating and shaving of six teachers at the Michael Camp military barracks elementary school on July 13. According to the protesting teachers, as part of activities marking the inauguration of the Greater Accra GNT Ladies Society, July 13 was set aside for the cleaning of schools and their grounds. The five teachers together with another teacher arrived at the school slightly late. Major Blake attacked them and had their heads shaved. They were then lined up before the pupils who were ordered to hoot at them. After this treatment, they were locked up in a military guardroom till 6.00 pm that evening (West Africa, August 1, 1988; p.1413).
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Even this constituted "an improvement in military civilian relations." Back in l982, during the heady days of
Ghana's "Revolution", common courtesy and decency were constant casualties:
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At Nyinahim in the Nkawie District, a number of farmers who had queued in front of banks in the area to cash their government checks were assaulted by policemen on duty. Police used canes on them, some farmers showing scars of injuries, for allegedly being disorderly in the queue" (Daily Graphic, Dec. 4, 1984; p.1)
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Military personnel bundled innocent civilians into articulated trucks and seized 'tro tro' vehicles at gun point to load fertilizer at Tema harbor (Daily Graphic, Dec 11, 1982; p.4).
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The Pioneer has lamented the fact that certain uniformed men think the revolution has give them a carte blanche to terrorize civilians on the flimsest excuse.
The newspaper mentioned four recent incidents: the Kumasi Technical Institute student who was shot dead by a soldier at a barrier; the soldier who shot and killed a porter at Ejura, Kumasi; a civilian beaten to death by soldiers for (jumping a queue for soap); and some policemen who attacked the people of Adunku, Ejisu District on their farms, injuring many of them (West Africa, Jan 13, 1983; p.295)
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In Kumasi, a civilian, Mr. Daniel Amoah, was beaten to death for challenging soldiers not to jump a tro tro (passenger vehicle) queue. After beating Mr. Amoah violently in front of hundreds of timid civilians, the soldiers took him in a taxi to the Two Brigade headquarters, where some soldiers advised them to take him to hospital. On the way, the soldiers dumped Mr. Amoah in the bush and he died soon afterwards (West Africa, April 25, 1983; p.1043).
During Ghana's inane enforcement of price controls over the l981 83 period, much private property was confiscated and destroyed by military vagabonds. Markets were burned down in Accra, Kumasi, Koforidua. In Feb 1982, the Tamale Central Market was set ablaze, causing the destruction of large quantities of foodstuffs, drugs and imported spare parts (West Africa, March 8, 1982; p.684). A month earlier, "Air Force personnel destroyed over 400 tables and chairs belonging to traders at Apampam Store in Takoradi Central market in a bid to enforce price controls" (West Africa, Feb 1, 1982; p.286).
For some strange reason, development experts, aid agencies and multilateral institutions assumed that such lawlessness and banditry by African governments had no effects whatsoever on economic development. In recent years, they have grown more and more blatant. For example, the former military government in Ghana declared in the 1980’s its willingness to allow private sector participation in the economy after decades of socialist management and ruin. But its actions proved incongruous with its own pronouncements. In its economic liberalization measures, it had sought to entice foreign investors by assuring them of the safety of their commercial properties and a commitment to private sector development. But no such assurances were forthcoming to domestic investors. In 1989, there were three reported cases of arbitrary seizures of the commercial properties of burgeoning indigenous entrepreneurs without due process of law by the same military government.
Looting and arbitrary seizures of property by undisciplined soldiers have become rampant in much of Africa, discouraging not only foreign but domestic investment as well. Finally a courageous voice spoke out. At the African Business Round Table in Cairo (March 1, 1990), Babacar Ndiaye, president of the African Development Bank, warned:
In order to improve the flow of foreign investment into Africa, he urged African governments to focus more on areas such as ownership law, settling of disputes, exchange controls, incentives and political stability (West Africa, March 12-18, 1990; p.423).
These laws and concepts existed in various rudimentary forms in the supposedly "primitive" African societies. Even the so-called "backward and illiterate" peasants of Africa recognized the importance of rule of law and private property rights but no so much the "educated" leaders of today. The arbitrariness and lawlessness that characterize modern African governments are inexplicable and unjustifiable upon the basis of African tradition.
Of the 52 African countries, 26 are ruled by military dictatorships. Only 6 (Botswana, Egypt, Mauritius, Namibia, Senegal and The Gambia are multiparty democracies. (Cape Verde and Benin will soon join this pitifully few list). The rest are farcical "democracies" where one candidate runs for president under a one-party state system and always wins to declare himself "president-for-life."
On Jan 26, 1991, Siad Barre, under siege from rebels from all sides, fled Somalia in a tank but the rebels have had little success in restoring law and order.
In indigenous Africa, the military played little or no role in day to day government administration. In fact, most traditional African states did not even have standing armies. The people were the army. Only in a few African kingdoms, such as the Asante, Dahomey and Zulu, were the military given a prominent role in governance. In the Islamic empires, military officers were appointed as nominal provincial heads. But other than that, the role of the military was to defend the tribe or empire against external threats, not to rule. Historical evidence does not show Africans being ruled by soldiers under the native system of government. Military rule, therefore, is without question as alien as colonial rule and therefore un African.
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