On March 22nd and April 4th I posted articles speaking against the way the western governments have taken part in Libya crisis. More than anything its the way things are handled by the security council under the influence of what we may call NATO top members.
Africa has always been treated as a continent with no voice in international forums, and where it is given a chance to speak-its views are not given seriousness they deserve. I have always believe one of the things encouraging this situation is the way our leaders and AU keeping quiet even when we can say Africa has been mistreated and sovereignty of its members abused.
As we still count the cost of that habit, I am proud of what South Africa has been doing recently. South Africa has shown a good stand against various issues were Africa has been mistreated. President Jacob Zuma has strongly speak against NATO involvement in Libya and now we have a former president, Thabo Mbeki doing so. And more than anything is that he has been very explicit in his words. Easy to understand and direct to the point.
My best moments from his interview includes the following;
"As Africans, we need to look at ourselves and say what it is we need to do to defend our interests. The question we need to ask ourselves is: why are we so quiet? What happened in Libya might very well be a precursor of what might happen in another country. I think that all of us need to consider this matter, because this is a major disaster.
"We can't say that we can't stop these Western powers from acting in the way that they have been acting because they will do it again tomorrow. I think we can, provided that we act and they can see that if they take this kind of action, they are going to meet the resistance of the entire African continent.
Read more about his analysis of the situation at http://www.businesslive.co.za aricle and Africanoutlookonline.com article
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