By Stephene Lwetutte
LONDON-UNITED KINGDOM/NEWSDAY:
“Bwe baba babuulirira aba bwobwe, ng’omunaku okutu okunkumula”(Luganda losely for “snoop around and heed privileged advice”), goes popular Baganda wisdom. None can be indifferent to the circumstances and developments around the war in Ukraine, not least to the misery that it has wrought, first and foremost, to the Ukrainians, the Russians, their neighbours and the world in that pecking order.
Everyone is being affected in some way, shape or form, with variations only in degree of impact. This just goes to confirm how interdependent our global village has become and to draw into sharp focus the axiom “a threat to peace anywhere is a threat to peace everywhere”. As a result, the world has acted and reacted almost in chorus in one voice, regardless of the stature and status of the belligerents.
As Every dark cloud has a silver lining, the aftermath of this war will likely be a strengthened international voice and regime for enforcement of customary international law. The world would like to hope that the era of breaches of accepted international norms of behaviour with impunity is getting behind us. We have observed how, with political will, the full force of measures of important actors has been unilaterally, bilaterally and multilateral been brought to bear, regardless of consequences. Noone, friend or foe, should be immune to action and to being held accountable!
Next in the line of fire must be the tin pot dictators littering the globe, particularly in Africa, who have blighted the lives of their people in no less severity than the situation obtaining in Ukraine – at the time of writing this column just under 700 civilians are reported to have been killed in the war in Ukraine – at least 5 million have died in wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a direct result of wars, disease and famine, yet no similar reaction as in the Russia-Ukraine war was seen.
In just one day in November 2020, Ugandan security services mowed down hundreds of unarmed protesters, and demands by the international community for effective investigations have been ignored, followed by token targeted sanctions against regime officials. Ugandans now know, following the eruption of war in Ukraine that, with political will, the world swiftly can deploy in unison several economic measures in its toolkit to subdue even the mightiest of recalcitrant actors.
Yet, almost 40 years down the line, Ugandans are stuck with an unaccountable, murderous and kleptocratic regime, enjoying the patronage of powerful western powers, the very ones now seen acting decisively with regard to the invasion in Ukraine. The same attitude is replicated across Africa where longevity of dictators is observed. African feel let down and disappointed, after evidently discovering that they are just being treated differently and less favourably, denoting racist undertones in attitude.
The two-tier world must end, where the lives and well-being of the white Caucasian people is more important than that of the black negroid race. In what is a highly controlled immigration regime to the wealthier countries, Ukrainian refugees have been allowed to cross international borders even without passports, whether they share a border with Ukraine or not. And the numbers allowed to cross is uncapped. Nothing of the sort has been observed in recent times with regard to other serious humanitarian crises.
The world must confront these blatant double standards, and value the life and well-being of Africans. President Museveni must be brought to account and placed on notice for the atrocities committed on his watch. The world must demonstrate its determination to seek redress for Ugandans and other Africans, and deploy the same measures in their toolkit that are observed following the invasion by Russia of Ukraine.
If that can at last happen, a new chapter will have been opened almost akin to the establishment of the United Nations in the aftermath of the Second World War. There should really be no more excuses and justification for acting otherwise! For President Museveni and fellow dictators, this should serve as a wake-up call, and the need to pay heed when compliance measures are being administered, before they arrive at their doorstep.
The writer is a Multilingual Human Rights Practitioner, formerly at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London for over 20 years and now Legal and Human Rights Consultant.
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