Home / The list of wanted ex Presidents grows The list of wanted ex Presidents grows
Farayi Munyuki Only two weeks ago, there was a call that Zimbabwe should send back Ethiopia's former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Zimbabwe wisely rejected the call. A couple of years ago, the current regime in Ethiopia sent two heavily armed men with the aim to assassinate him. The plot collapsed as they were arrested before they could carry out their mission. Today he remains on the wanted list of his country. The other leader wanted in his own country was Muhammad Siad Barre of Somalia. Having been deposed from power he fled to Nigeria where he later died of a heart attack. He would have remained on the wanted list had his heart not failed him. Barre eliminated his opponents by a special firing squad. He fled his native country when the rebellion was closing in. Sustaining the fragile peace in Sudan, the worst culprit among African leaders who have been dethroned, General Jaafa e-Nuemeri who posed as a communist but was in fact a butcher of his own people. He was saved by Egypt, which has harboured him for all these years he has been on the wanted list. While part of Sudan is burning he is living in comfort and luxury and globe trotting around Arab countries. He has tried to return but the Sudanese in general have not forgiven him. He is still on the wanted list, together with the men and women who aided him in the repression of the Sudanese people. Under his rule, Christians endured a lot of suffering. The other leader who was removed from power by the Americans was Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. He died in Guinea, under the care of Ahmed SÃÆ'Æ'Æ'ÃÆ''šÃ‚©kou TourÃÆ'Æ'Æ'ÃÆ''šÃ‚© of Guinea. He was not on the wanted list of the people of Ghana but that of a clique of soldiers who had been influenced by the American CIA. To this very day, he remains the darling of the African people. SÃÆ'Æ'Æ'ÃÆ''šÃ‚©kou TourÃÆ'Æ'Æ'ÃÆ''šÃ‚© of Guinea was one of those leaders who were badly misunderstood. He was never on the wanted list. But the West, especially France and the United States wanted him removed violently. In Southern and Central Africa, Mobutu Sese Seko would have gone without any doubt on the wanted list. In fact he fled Zaire and died in Morocco. The other would have been Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi. He showed no mercy to those who opposed him. Crocodiles in Lake Malawi even became tired of eating Malawi opposition leaders. For this is where they ended, in the bellies of those reptiles. Age and death spared him being on the wanted list. Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi of Inkanta would have qualified judging by the mayhem and suffering his party caused in KwaZulu Natal prior to the elections that brought Mandela to power. Southern Africa is spared the mayhem that West Africans experienced under some of its despotic leaders. The return of Charles Taylor of Liberia to Sierra Leone has shown that the list of wanted men can be diminished. Although he was not alone in the civil war that ravaged his country, he financed it.
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