WASHINGTON: Barack Obama has urged young African leaders to bolster democracy on the continent.
He has slammed Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and other independence-era leaders who were elected but clung to power.
Welcoming more than 100 young Africans to the White House yesterday for a forum marking the 50 years since 1960, when many former colonies on the continent gained independence, the US President said he hoped “some of you will end up being leaders of your countries”.
He hailed the “burst of self-determination” that helped rid Africa of colonialism after the 1960s.
But, Mr Obama continued, “what’s been happening is that when you’ve been in power for a while, you say, ‘Well, I must be such a good ruler that it’s for the benefit of the people that I need to stay here.’ And so then you start changing the laws, and intimidating and jailing opponents.
“And pretty soon, young people just like yourselves, full of hope and promise, end up becoming exactly what they fought against.”
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Mr Obama said: “One of the things that everybody here needs to internalise, is that ‘you have to be the change that you seek’.”
He said he was “heartbroken” about Zimbabwe.
And the President said that Mugabe was “an example of a leader who came in as a liberation fighter, and I’m just going to be very blunt: I do not see him serving his people well.”
“The human rights abuses, the violence that has been perpetrated against opposition leaders, I think, is terrible.”
Mr Obama said Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who came into government in a unity deal following the disputed 2008 presidential election, “has tried to work despite the fact that he himself has been beaten and imprisoned”.
“I would love nothing more than to be able to open up greater diplomatic relationships and economic and commercial relationships with Zimbabwe, but in order to do so, we’ve got to see some signals that it will not simply entrench the same past abuses, but rather will move us in a new direction that will actually help the people,” said Mr Obama.
Mugabe, 86, lashed out on Sunday over Western sanctions on Zimbabwe.
“They say: ‘Remove so and so.’ Of course they mean: ‘Mugabe must go before we can assist you’,” he said. “To hell with them — hell, hell, hell with them.”
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