Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Butcher of Addis Ababa is convicted of genocide [see further down for brief allusion to Pinochet 'getting away']
Finally one that does NOT die before the geriatric arm of human rights law catches up with him. However, he is being sheltered by another butcher, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who says he will not hand him over. http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006- 12-13T081854Z_01_BAN327041_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-ETHIOPIA-MENGISTU-20061213.XML Mengistu ruled from 1974 to 1991 after his military junta ended Emperor Haile Selassie's reign in a bloody coup. Some experts say 150,000 university students, intellectuals and politicians were killed in a nationwide purge by Mengistu's Marxist regime, though no one knows for sure. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003474769_ethiopia13.html ANOTHER ONE THAT GOT AWAY On the other side of the border, another dictator ruled from 1969 to 1991. Siad Barre, who ruled with the support of a troubled US administration, died in 1995 in exile in Nigeria. Barre was also one of the most brutal African dictators of his time. Thousands of people disappeared into his regime's jails, where torture for political prisoners was institutionalised. Barre's support was heavily based on clan affiliation and in playing clans against one another. In the late 1980s, rival factional groups began to make substantial territorial gains, especially in the northern Somaliland region. Barre launched an intense counter-insurgency campaign. According to a 1990 report by Africa Watch, an affiliate of Human Rights Watch, fifty to sixty thousand people were killed in the fighting in between 1988 and 1990. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siad_Barre For the full story (at least one version of it) of US involvement with Barre, you can go to http://allafrica.com/stories/200101080446.html?viewall=1. Normally, allAfrica archive pages require a member login, but for some reason this one does not. Another one who did not have to face justice, was Mobutu, the butcher of Zaire, who died in exile a mere four months after being toppled from his 32-year pedestal. Once again, like Pinochet, in ruled in the place of a great man who would have been leader had he not been killed because he did not conform to Belgian / US interests. That man was Patrice Lumumba. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba Mobutu was a great friend of Bush senior: "As regards George Bush, I've met him thirteen times. We know each other from way back. He was in charge of the CIA and knew Zaire's problems backwards. He received me at his home in Maine with his mother, wife and children and grandchildren. I met him again recently at the funeral of Emperor Hirohito. He is an intelligent, open and sensitive man, with strong convictions." - Mobutu, on his friendship with George H. W. Bush (Meredith, p. 308) "I have come to appreciate the dynamism that is so characteristic of Zaire and Zairians and to respect your dedication to fairness and reason. I have come to admire, Mr. President, your personal courage and leadership in Africa." - Vice-President George H.W. Bush, visiting Kinshasa, November, 1982 (Meredith, p. 307) "Zaire is among America's oldest friends, and its president - President Mobutu - one of our most valued friends. And we are proud and very, very pleased to have you with us today." - President George H.W. Bush (Meredith, p. 308) In 2002 I wrote a letter to the African Union as part of a campaign on media freedom in Zimbabwe. Here is the last line: "Africa will judge us all and history will record that judgement. Let our history be a proud reflection of proud visionaries and not a rogue gallery of butchers and tyrants". Rui ________________________________________________ Rui Correia Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Consultant 2 Cutten St, Horison, Roodepoort, Johannesburg, South Africa Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336 Cell (+27) (0) 83-368-1214 "Quando a verdade é substituída pelo silêncio, o silêncio é uma mentira" - Yevgeny Yevtushenko "When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie" - Yevgeny Yevtushenko -----Original Message----- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Devine Sent: 11 December 2006 16:29 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] it's about time! Sunday, December 10, 2006 Not Dead Enough. posted by lenin http://leninology.blogspot.com/2006/12/not-dead-enough.html Pinochet is dead, but not dead enough. To see him as simply another vile bastard dictator who has snuffed it is to miss the point. He was crucial, inasmuch as he provided the opportunity for advanced capitalist states to test in the periphery a doctrine that lurked in the margins of political discourse back home. -- Jim Devine / "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." -- Bertolt Brecht
