Libya: African Leaders Divided on Attacks By Allied Forces

By Henry Neondo

East Africa’s neighbouring states of Rwanda and Ugandan leadership have sharply disagreed on the move.

While Paul Kagame, Rwandas’ President is supporting the move, his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni disagrees.

Approving the move, Kagame said the situation in the North African country had degenerated “beyond” what the African Union could handle.

Ugandan President Museveni on the hand criticized the UN over Libya and said he preferred Africans tackled the Gaddafi situation.

Museveni wrote a missive to media outlets on Sunday, saying military action against Gaddafi’s regime lacked “impeachable logic”, showed the West’s “double standards” and could trigger an arms race.

Supporting the move Kagame said the UN Security Council, including African countries that sit on it, decided.

In Kenya, Kalonzo Musyoka, the Vice-President had also expressed opposition to the ongoing attacks against Gaddafi by Western countries. Speaking in Parliament, Musyoka told MPs he would have preferred negotiations with the embattled strongman rather than the aerial bombardments by the French, British and United States armies. “This is the time for Africa,” said Musyoka.

In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabeon Monday blasted western countries imposing a ‘no fly zone’ to protect civilians in Libya. He termed the western powers as ‘bloody vampires.’

"There is no reneging on the resolution anymore, it's there, it’s a mistake we made...we should have never given the West (the go ahead) knowing they’re bloody vampires of the past all this room to go for our people in Africa and try to displace a regime,” Mugabe said after a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier, Wang Qoshan.

Mugabe accused the West of double standards, saying they were only interested in Libya’s oil. He said the West was interpreting the UN resolution to mean permission ‘to bombard any places of their own choice in Libya.’

In Botswana, President Ian Khama said while the United Nations Security Council’s resolution calling for a no-fly zone over Libya is “well intended” and should be supported by all countries, he however hoped that regime change will be brought about by Libyans themselves.

The UK and France, under American central command, began bombarding and disabling Libyan air defence systems.

Col. Gaddafi’s 42-year rule became shaky since last month, after peaceful demonstrators-turned-rebels, took control of significant parts of the oil-rich Libya, demanding their President step down.

Col. Gaddafi allegedly responded with brute force, firing missile and heavy artillery, and succeeding in pushing back the advancing rebels.

He vowed on the eve of the ongoing blitz, to show “no mercy” in home-to-home military operations in Benghazi, the de-facto capital of the insurgents, but columns of battle tanks his troops powered to launch assault on the rebels were by the weekend charred metal crafts, demolished by superior fire-power of allied forces.

The twin crises in Libya and Ivory coast have however exposed the African Union’s weaknesses.

Political analysts say what has consistently emerged from the AU leadership is some support for Qaddafi and highlights sub-Saharan Africa’s strong opposition to outside military intervention.

“This is not entirely surprising”, they say. Gaddafi has been an important financier of the AU in the past, and he has backing within the organization, notably from Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

There is probably some implicit support as well among at least a few African strong men who have an interest in the failure of North Africa’s popular uprisings.