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Jan. 25, 2007 Before diving into the theme of this treatise I must ask for your permission to drop a poser to the teeming readers of the UK: what on earth does Chile, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Congo-Kinshasa and Rwanda have in common politically? And before the reader of this article begins to hazard some guesses that may well be incorrect let me come to his/her rescue. These unfortunate nations' leaders at one critical point or another in their various nation's existential history eliminated the incumbent presidents and rode to power on their blood! Chile represents here the odd one out because the country is millions of kilometers away from Africa; Chile with Santiago as capital city is a little known nation in Southern America. The late General Augusto Pinochet was appointed the Chief of army staff by the late President Salvadore Allende whose nationalistic policies and politics was discomforting to the West especially America. Today another 'enfant terrible' of latin American politics Hugo Chavez of Venezuala is giving President Bush and the American policy makers some cause for worry. Hugo Chavez is a political terror to America; he once described President George Bush as 'a devil' right in a UN General Assembly meeting in New York! Chavez is a communist new generation revolutionary leader with enough venom in his verbal arsenal. He castigates America at any given opportunity and counts radical left-wing presidents like ailing Fidel Castro of Cuba and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as best friends who share the same revolutionary goals and anti-American disposition. They are united in their deep-seated anti-American feelings. While visiting Iran the other day Chavez was qouted as declaring: "Imperialism [meaning Washington] won’t rest in its effort to weaken us, and one of the strategies is to weaken the price of oil". He sees in Bush's America a very meddlesome domineering formidable force out to rein in smaller nations especially when it comes to nuclear armament. The late President Allende was assassinated by the late president Pinochet in the heat of the coup d'etat instigated by America. America was against the marxist penchant of Allende so they prevailed on Pinochet to violently remove Allende thereby rubbishing his Marxist belief and hold on power. And Pinochet as a hatchet man went about the task prepared and ready to spill blood. Before life was snuffed out of Allende he sent a message across to his people that he was about to be killed by forces against his patriotic stance. Pinochet and his military adventurists in power in Chile backed by the US thus came to power after killing Allende and his followers. The history of Chile will never be complete without mentioning the dicatorial role played by Pinochet. While his reign of terror lasted Chileans were counting their dead ones and many more missing loved ones in the vengeance fury by the maximum ruler and his surrogates in order to consolidate power. Augusto Pinochet is dead now but the memories of his gory decades of wielding power can never be forgotten in a hurry. He was made to taste the bitter side of justice in London when he went there for a medical check-up; the Spanish judges investigating his murderous rule launched an international warrant for his arrest and so the British police complied with the warrant placing Pinochet under arrest as his plane landed in British soil in London some years ago. In the end he was released after some global ridicule on humanitarian grounds by the British authorities. Back home the opposition kept up the pressure for him to be 'de-immunized' since he had held on to the immunity clause after reluctantly surrendering the presidency preventing any judicial inquest into his atrocities while in power. When the cold hands of death came calling and embraced the dictator he had been able to escape justice but not the judgment of the Most High which awaits him in hell. Today Chile is a new nation under a new progressive democratic government. But the innocent blood of Allende shed by Pinochet has refused to be atoned for. The price of blood could be terrible and unimaginable as it haunts both the killers and the nation under whose soil it was shed! Ditto Liberia. The 'liberty Area' country of freed African slaves from America founded on the principles of 'the search for liberty brought us here' a century and half ago (making it the oldest Republic in the continent) made history for wrong reasons when a young blood-thirsty sergent in the army indigenous Samuel Kanyon Doe mounted a violent coup d'etat that saw the brutal elimination of William Tolbert as president. Late Samuel Doe soon took over power and began setting back the whole ideals of good governance which democracy is known for. He consolidated power by bulldozing any opposition to his visionless leadership bothering on myopia and naivety. In the end Liberians were made to witness a president who went about drinking and womanising while abandoning leadership to his cronies of equal myopic hedonistic creed. Monrovia and the rest of other Liberian cities became the African capitals of bliss where prostitution and other social vices reigned supreme! It took the intervention of an American political fugitive Charles Taylor to challenge Doe's excesses; the civil war Taylor started soon metamorphosed into an avenue for blood-letting and banditry of the worst kind. Taylor, a maverick eccentric man full of himself prevailed at long last though Doe was murdered gruesomely by Prince Yormie Johnson who broke ranks with Taylor's NPFL. Samuel Doe was killed piece-meal with his ears and manhood cut off leaving him to die a painful death after series of physical torture. The price of blood could be terrible and unimaginable. Today Liberia under Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as democractically-elected president has never recovered from the shock and gory realities of years of war fought without any conventional adherence by every party to the conflict. Liberians today are refugees scattered all over the world; the blood of William Tolbert has refused to be atoned for! While Doe is dead Taylor is behind bars waiting for Saddam-like justice! Ditto Burkina Faso (BF). When the young pan-Africanist president like Thomas Sankara took charge of a poor country like BF he was purposeful in his presidential duties drawing the envy of 'old schools' like late president Felix Houphoeut Boigny of neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire. In the end Boigny whose political deftness and dexterity saw the over-all development of his native country with proceeds from coffee and cocoa took it as an insult when his expansionist drive was rebuffed by Sankara. To tame the 'small rebel' Boigny recruited Blaise Compaore who organized a violent overthrow of Sankara's government killing him in the process. Sankara was Compaore's best friend in the army and when the former rose to power he made the latter his second-in-command! Today BF has not fared any better in the global human development index though Compaore has consolidated power enmeshed in the smuggling of 'blood diamonds' and armaments. The price of blood could be terrible and unimaginable! The blood of Sankara has refused to be atoned for and radical fellows out to obtain a modicum of justice like journalist Nobert Zongo has been murdered in the process. Here in Cote d'Ivoire the population of Bukinabes (out on menial economic sojourn) are in the neighbourhood of three million! And they constantly face harrassments by their hosts and police extortion. Ditto Congo-Kinshasa. When late Mobutu Sese Seko connived with American and Belgian neo-colonialists to eliminate in bizzare cruel manner airborne the young radically-prone Patrice Lumumba Sese-Seko rode to power and in the end he became the worst leader ever to bestraddle the African political landscape. His obscene deeds and atrocities in power has been recorded by history and posterity. It took a Kabila out of a 'maquis rebellion' to send Mobutu into exile where he died in Morroco few years back. Though Desire Kabila himself was shot dead at close range by Rashidi of a bodyguard Kabila was credited with ending one of the worst political nightmares of mankind in the African continent in former Zaire. Today his son Joseph is in power but the damage to Congo's economy and reputation has been done. The price of blood could be terrible and unimaginable but that of Mobutu, the late Lord of the Manor could be said to be well shed! The spirit of Lumumba has refused to rest in peace prowling and seeking for vengeance. Congo reels from years of internecine war opposing different warlords; though there's a semblance of peace and orderliness with the organization of a general election which gave victory to Kabila Jnr things are still rough and tough indeed on the ground. Ditto Rwanda. The genocide that saw the killing of over 3 million Rwandese was provoked when the sitting president was killed in a plane crash which was later discovered to be the handiwork of sabotueurs. The Hutu-Tutsi fratricidal war that followed that assassination ranks today as the worst human tragedy after the Hitler-inspirred world war 11. Today Rwanda is yet to recover fully from the consequencies of that genocide. Ditto Siad Barre's Somalia, Gnasingbe Eyadema's Togo, Jonas Savimbi's Angola, Foday Sankoh's Sierra Leone and even Obasanjo's Nigeria where bloods of victims of circumstances like plane crashes, pipeline explosions, politically-motivated assassinations, armed robbery commando-like raids and Niger-Delta insurgency are still crying for a change of attitude and system. These are the prices of blood; the price of blood could be terrible and unimaginable! Life is a sacred gift from God and blood keeps life going. Procreation is one of the wonders of creation. Whoever sheds blood must reap blood in return. And I hold that God who is an epitome of wonderful creation in His omnipotence is in perfect accord. ------------ About the author: Sunny Chris Okenwa is a new U-K contributor based in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. Email: soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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