CHEGE MBITIRU: Time for Mengistu to face justice

Good news came from Zimbabwe last week. Constitutionally, President Robert Mugabe and his archrival, MrMorgan Tsvangirai, will form a unity government.

In addition to re-creating Zimbabwe, pressure is needed for Zimbabwe to surrender former Ethiopian ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam, for trial. He deserves one!

Not all members of Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF are ululating over the new arrangement. The same goes for Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC membership. Both groups sought total power.

Assault tactics

Knowing Mr Mugabe’s rhino-like assault tactics, celebrations need wait. One thing is certain. Mr Mugabe gleefully waits to swear in Mr Tsvangirai on Wednesday. The president relishes humiliating opponents. Remember Joshua Nkomo.

One of the reasons Mr Tsvangirai gave for joining the government is telling. Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC) leaders told M&T, “Enough!” The duo didn’t say, “Let’s do it.” That’s inauspicious.

The deal makes nonsense of South African President Kgalema Motlanthe’s assertion SADC member nations “take our cue from the people of Zimbabwe…” Nearly a half of the electorate wanted Mr Mugabe out last March. In the runoff, Mr Mugabe whipped voters into voting for him.

The cowed-like manner in which a majority of SADC presidents handled Mr Mugabe casts doubt about their determination to ensure he doesn’t weasel out.

Lacked courage

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan is on record saying SADC lacked courage to act on the basis last March elections were the only one free and fair, otherwise “we probably would be facing a different situation.” They now have given Mr Mugabe an additional butcher knife.

Possibly, the new arrangement will stymie Zimbabwe’s descent to a cartographer’s lines. Already, the country has abandoned its currency. Tinkering with zeros on currency notes is fiscal management. Inflation rate is more than 300 trillion per cent. As for food, Zimbabwe as a granary is ashes. Cholera kills daily. At 39 years, Zimbabwe’s life expectancy is depopulation.

Most woes that can befall a people have befallen Zimbabweans. Not so long ago, Mr. Mugabe declared, “Zimbabwe is mine.” A country of world’s hungriest billionaires isn’t much to boast possessing.

The African Union and SADC are demanding the US and the European Union lift sanctions against Mr Mugabe, some cronies and companies associated with them. Equally, they should tell Mr Mugabe that Mr Mengistu’s time is up. Mr Tsvangirai’s party should add his voice.

In addition to ruining Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe harbours one of Africa’s notorious leaders, assuming only five per cent of Mr Mengistu’s alleged misdeeds are true. Colonel Mengistu was among a group of officers who ousted Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. He shot his way to the top of the ruling council, and remained head of state up to 1991.

Allegations were made Mr Mengistu was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Ethiopians between 1975 and 1978. During his reign, Ethiopians paid for a “wasted bullet” to collect bodies of relatives the state murdered.

In 1991, Mr Mengistu fled an insurgency. After a 12-year trial in absentia, Ethiopia’s High Court convicted Mr Mengistu to life in prison. Last year, the Supreme Court enhanced the sentence to death.

Because of Ethiopia’s death penalty law, international sentiments would work against Ethiopia were it to seek Mr. Mengistu’s extradition. That’s where the International Criminal Tribunal comes in. Statutes of limitations for murder don’t exist.

Using evidence Ethiopian authorities gathered, the ICC ought to find grounds to try Mr Mengistu, once described as “the butcher of Addis.” After all, compared with Mr Mengistu, Sudan’s President Omar el-Bashir, whom the ICC has indicted over the Darfur conflict, emerges as a deviant Sunday school teacher. (cmbitiru@hotmail.com)