As a lifelong journalist, I still am not wholly comfortable in coming right out with an opinion. But I have to admit I had an almost visceral reaction of anger Wednesday night this week when I listened to Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek introduce former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
In the introduction, Meek hailed Clinton for a number of reasons, including this: “As Commander-in-Chief, President Clinton prepared our military to win wars, at the same time working everywhere in the world to make peace in Africa, in Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East.”
This struck me as profoundly wrong -- the notion of then President Clinton working “to make peace in Africa.”
I don't doubt Clinton wanted peace. But here’s what I remember: his administration’s initial refusal to acknowledge that there was a genocide under way in Rwanda and, before the killing, to allow the UN peacekeepers in Rwanda under General Romeo Dallaire to take aggressive steps that could have perhaps prevented and certainly could have mitigated the extent of the slaughter.
And what about Somalia? True, it was former President Bush who committed US forces to Somalia but it was Clinton who made haste to withdraw them after there were American casualties in Mogadishu. As a result, the entire international community pulled out militarily, leaving Somalia a festering, lawless, ungoverned sore.
As you may have read in previous postings here, I was in both those countries at the time all that happened and the sour taste lingers to this day. As much as I might admire Clinton for much of what his administration accomplished, its record vis-à-vis Rwanda and Somalia is, in my view, nothing to give him credit for.
Now, to the topic of militarization of US policy toward Africa. For a critical view, go to this item and check out the links.
And a question: in light of the latest Islamist takeover of the Somali port of Kismayo, and the talk of a possible Ethiopian troop withdrawal from Somalia, can we expect (a) fresh US air strikes against suspected extremist leaders and/or (b) a new abandonment of Somalia by the international community ala 1995? What do you think?
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Brazzaville
Giving a voice to the voiceless -- a reporter remembers
Regrets Only: An Africa Journal
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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Brazzaville
Why?
It is October, 1997. I am standing in a rubble-strewn Brazzaville street as the city returns cautiously to life after a bloody civil war. Armed men are all around me, most of them looting, occasionally firing off bursts of bullets in celebration. But I am not concentrating on this anymore. Instead, with the hand holding my microphone limp by my side, my tape running senselessly. I am looking at another corpse -- this one of a man, perhaps in his 20's, his legs charred. I know there will be no voice to record. But his lips are apart, his arms outstretched, fingers together, as if in prayer. It seems another one of Africa's dead is trying to speak to me. And I feel I owe him this one last consideration. I think maybe he wants to share his anguish, his despair, his pain. Or maybe a last word to a parent or a wife or a child. I feel badly -- because I do not know for sure. I do know though that I have seen corpses like this before -- victims of war, or of genocide, or of famine, or of sickness. A symbolic path of the dead now runs through my mind -- a personal collection reflecting the real path their corpses have left across much of Africa: from arid Somalia in the northeast, across Sudan and into northern Uganda, down through steamy Rwanda, Burundi and Congo in the center of the continent. Some have been young men in uniform, their bodies shattered by a bullet or a shell. Some have been old men, thin beyond belief, weakened by hunger or disease. Some have been women, their dresses in tatters, their faces etched with silent agony. Some have been children, too young to die, their skulls cleaved in half. Some I have met in battle-scarred streets, some in burned-out buildings. Some I have seen sprawled amidst flowers in an open field, some floating, limbs bound, in muddy water. Some I have found in groups thrown into a dirt pit, some alone in the aisles of a gutted church. I have, at times, had imaginary conversations with these dead of mine -- their unrecorded voices playing on endlessly inside my head, sometimes loud, sometimes just a whisper. I tell them I am sorry and if it were in my power, I would restore them to life. But I can't. It's not in my power. Perhaps the only help I can give is to try to tell their story.
The Reporter
Alex Belida has been in international broadcasting since 1971. He spent nearly eight years in sub-Saharan Africa as a correspondent for the Voice of America, based first in Nairobi (1993-1996) and then in Johannesburg (1996-2000). He covered conflicts and humanitarian crises in Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville, northern Uganda, Angola and Lesotho as well as political unrest in Zimbabwe and catastrophic flooding in Mozambique. He suffered gunshot wounds while reporting in Somalia.
While in Africa, he was elected Chairman of the East Africa Foreign Correspondents Association in Nairobi and served as Treasurer of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa during his Johannesburg assignment.
Before going to Africa, he served as VOA's Senior White House reporter for four years following stints as coordinator of the 1988 Presidential Election coverage and as National News Editor. Before those Washington assignments, he was based in Germany, where he served as Soviet affairs, East-West security and German affairs correspondent (1982-1985).
Following Africa, he served as Pentagon correspondent. In 2004 he was named Managing Editor and in 2007 became Senior Advisor for News at VOA. He retired in 2011.
Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich, rising from reporter to Assistant News Director. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. In 2006, he received the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He also has an honorary doctorate in communications from the Somali National University.
The views expressed here are his own.
While in Africa, he was elected Chairman of the East Africa Foreign Correspondents Association in Nairobi and served as Treasurer of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa during his Johannesburg assignment.
Before going to Africa, he served as VOA's Senior White House reporter for four years following stints as coordinator of the 1988 Presidential Election coverage and as National News Editor. Before those Washington assignments, he was based in Germany, where he served as Soviet affairs, East-West security and German affairs correspondent (1982-1985).
Following Africa, he served as Pentagon correspondent. In 2004 he was named Managing Editor and in 2007 became Senior Advisor for News at VOA. He retired in 2011.
Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich, rising from reporter to Assistant News Director. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. In 2006, he received the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He also has an honorary doctorate in communications from the Somali National University.
The views expressed here are his own.
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