Resolving the Darfur Crisis -- An African Proposal

The Boston Globe has a piece by Ketumile Masire, former president of Botswana, arguing that the pressing problems in Africa, most importantly the ongoing genocidal attacks by Arabs against Black Africans in Darfur, must ultimately be solved by Africans themselves, and not by Western intervention.

President Masire points to several interventions by Africans to resolve crises:

In Togo, the Economic Organization of West African States brokered an agreement to avoid bloodshed and encourage a peaceful transition after the death of President Gnassingbe Eyadema. In Burundi and Ivory Coast, Africans led by South Africa arranged cease-fires and peace agreements that led to a peaceful shift in governance in Burundi and seem to be smoothing bitter relations between north and south in Ivory Coast. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, too, South Africa helped operationalize an accord that is beginning to bring stability to that massive and conflicted country.

Perhaps he overestimates the progress being made in Congo and and Burundi, and of course he neglects to mention Western intervention in Ivory Coast. Altogether the accomplishments of the African states in this regard are pretty small beer.

African states understandably want to take charge of their own destinies and resent Western interference, but their efforts have often simply provided opportunities for kleptocracies to skim funds or for oppressive rulers to undermine and obstruct needed reforms. The failure of African states to rein in Mugabe's insanity in Zimbabwe stands as a case in point.

The problem of accountability remains, as always, a major obstacle to meaningful action to solve Africa's continuing crises. I fear that African states are not very likely to provide a solution to the one in Sudan.

Read the proposal here.