By David Blair
The Daily Telegraph; with files from Agence France-Presse
LISBON – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe pledged to uphold “democracy and the rule of law” yesterday when a raft of African autocrats signed a declaration supposedly heralding a new era of open politics.
Their solemn pledge came at the end of the Lisbon summit of European and African leaders.
President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, who seized power in a coup and is waging a brutal war in Darfur, also signed the “Lisbon declaration.” Other signatories included Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian dictator prime minister, who jailed the entire opposition leadership after staging a widely condemned election in 2005, and President Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria, who won an election denounced by every independent observer group for ballot-rigging and violence.
In all, 13 African leaders seized power by force and two inherited their positions from their fathers. None had any reticence about endorsing the declaration.
“We are resolved to build a new strategic political partnership for the future, overcoming the traditional donor-recipient relationship and building on common values and goals in our pursuit of peace and stability, democracy and the rule of law, progress and development,” read the document they signed along with 26 EU leaders.
Observers were skeptical about the sincerity of African leaders. “They commit to democracy and human rights, but do nothing about Zimbabwe,” said Reed Brody, of Human Rights Watch.
“They commit to joint action to protect civilians while the people of Darfur and Somalia are allowed to die. They commit to combat corruption while European banks stash away the ill-gotten gains of African dictators. The question is what difference these wonderful promises are going to make on the ground?”
But Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister who hosted the gathering, said the summit had been an “extraordinary event,” worthy of being “remembered as a milestone in the relations between Europe and Africa.”
During a closed session yesterday, Mr. Mugabe responded to the attack on his human rights record delivered on Saturday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Why was the prime minister of Great Britain not here?” asked Mr. Mugabe. “Because he had his spokesman here from Germany.”
The Zimbabwean leader added that Europe was “arrogant” and convinced of its “superiority over Africans.”
He said Zimbabwe had endured a long struggle for “democracy” after suffering almost a century of colonial oppression. Accusations that his regime abused human rights were “trumped up.”
Mr. Mugabe’s brief speech was his only intervention during the two-day summit. The 83-year-old leader looked tired and repeatedly stumbled over his prepared text.
Baroness Valerie Amos, a member of Britain’s House of Lords, represented Britain after Gordon Brown decided he would not attend in protest of Mr. Mugabe’s presence. With Mr. Mugabe listening, she told the summit that life expectancy for Zimbabwe’s women had fallen to 34 and that one third of the country’s people now depended on food aid — much of it provided by Britain.
Meanwhile, European leaders admitted at the end of the summit that efforts to conclude new trade agreements with Africa were struggling.
“The African countries are more and more afraid to be in some way pushed down by sudden competition, so they are asking for guarantees,” said Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a former head of the European Commission.
Current European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also conceded the Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations were “difficult,” while acknowledging the concerns of African countries.
The EU is seeking new trade deals with African, Caribbean and Pacific nations to replace the current preferential system that has been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
4 thoughts on “Meles, Mugabe, Bashir sign ‘democracy pledge’ in Lisbon”
Well Well don’t we all love political humor.
Dictators “pledged to uphold “democracy and the rule of law” Whhheww way to go !
Dictators will agree on anything conditions on paper to keep international aide coming to their private pocket. Dictators will never exercise or encourage transparent democracy because they would have to give up their beloved power.
Hopping for the TPLF clan to support true democracy and the rule of law is just wishing a mule to give birth. That will never happen
Meles Mugabe and Bashir are #1 criminals!
We don’t buy such kind of a joke unless EU under estimates those people these morons are in control of. What Meles, Mugabe and Bashir deserve will be served in due course. True justice is not completely dead. Sizegey yetefa endaymeslachihu.
USA and EU must know one thing for sure. ALMOST all african’s countries were under their colony ,after exploiting africa’s natural resources, they left the poor africa’s ppl for bloody dictators. instead of pushing these bloody dictators for the peacefull delivery of political power, they are still supporting dictators against the wish of the people.Now almost all africa’s countries have created realtionship with china and china has invested billions of dollars and has already started snatching african’s cheap natural resouses , where as both USA and EU are dancing with africa’s dictators behind the door and with the same old trick and game. after 10 or 20 years africa will be the second china, and USA and UE will not have any place there. in most countries the life of the people has already changed from worst to better like angolla,zambia, sudan, and others. so usa and eu must change their un timely and old trick and try to do some thing good for africa’s people. their help should begin from implementaion of democracy
A Secret Document
While in Lisbon, Portugal, the dictator Meles Zenawi, after he signed a “declaration…heralding a new era of open politics,” or a new era of open oppression, open persecution, open detention, and open killings in Somalia, Ogaden, and in some other parts of Ethiopia, might have signed a second secret document with his two best friends – Omar Hasan Ahmad Al-Bashir of Sudan and Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe – a document that gives Meles a safe passage from Addis Ababa or Mekelle to Khartoum or to Harare in case his régime suddenly collapses in his absence or while he is in office.
Meles’ best choice, however, might have been Khartoum, not Harare, because in Harare he may not come along with the former Ethiopian dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam who have been there for a long time since he left Ethiopia unless Mugabe mediates a peace agreement between the two dictators and counsel them to avoid their differences in governing their country Ethiopia while each one of them was in Ethiopia. Even though his first and best choice is to live in Khartoum, Meles may not get Khartoum without paying a heavy price to Al-Bashir. This time, Al-Bashir, aware of the fact that Meles will not go to Harare because of Mengistu Haile Mariam there, and that Zimbabwe does not want to have three notorious dictators in the same place and at the same time, asks Meles to give him more farm lands from Gondar and one billion American dollars in cash or money order. With little or no hesitation or discussion, Meles the dictator, desperate to flee his country, consents to give Sudan more farm lands from Gondar and a billion dollars in cash from his wife’s bank abroad or at home.
During the crisis in Ethiopia, if Sudan, however, changes its mind and refuses to accept Meles, his family, and his political cronies, to live in Sudan as guests or former close friends of Al-Bashir; then, Meles may think to go to America, but because of the heavy presence of Ethiopians in Washington who oppose Meles, Washington may refuse to accept him. After asking many other countries, such as England, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, China, and even Somalia, and has failed to find any country to take him, Meles will have no other choice but to commit suicide or his fate will be like the fate of the Shah of Iran who died without a country.
Meles may have spent a huge sum of money to go to Lisbon to sign such a secret document. In fact, he did not go to Lisbon to endorse “democracy and the rule of law.” St. Paul asks: “What has darkness to do with the light?” What has darkness – Meles’ governance – to do with the light – democracy? The document Meles lackadaisically signed along with the other African leaders emphasizes “…common values and goals…stability, democracy and the rule of law….” In signing such a document with the other African leaders, Meles is telling to the world that, before he signed such a document, he has been governing his country without democracy and without the rule of law, and as a result there has been no stability in his country. Other wise, Meles should have not signed such a document if he believes that he has been governing his country democratically and according to the rule of law. Since he does not believe that he is governing his country with justice and the rule of law, he has to sign such a document promising from now on that he will govern his country according to the rule of law, and this rule of law is the International Law. Nothing more and nothing less!
Do really all the Ethiopians accept Meles’ pledge in Lisbon that he will govern them according to the rule of law, that he will bring to justice those who slaughtered innocent Ethiopian civilians in 2005 for expressing their concerns and political differences to the world, and that he will end nepotisms and give full freedom to his political opponents? Will he bring the legitimate Abune Merkorios to Addis Ababa and depose Abune Paulos for usurping the patriarchate from Abune Merkorios? No Ethiopian person, Muslim, Christian or Jew, in his/her right mind will believe that Meles will keep his pledge to restore stability, democracy and the rule of law, which means to stop the random or the automatically killings in Somalia and in Ogaden, and to be fair to all ethnics in Ethiopia. When he signed the first document, he is telling us: “Vote for me, ‘I’m a born again’ politician. Since I have signed the document in Lisbon, I’m a changed person, and I will regret for my previous undemocratic actions. I will never interfere in the ecclesiastical affairs again; I promise I will leave such things to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to run its own businesses in appointing bishops and a patriarch.” Some Ethiopians may forgive his past criminal actions, follow him, and vote for him as they did before. This time, however, the election process will be different from the previous one; all the ballot boxes must be guarded day and night by an International army selected by the United Nation’s Election Commission. The money for the ballot boxes guarding army must be paid from Meles’ personal coffer, which is Ethiopian money.