Time Magazine, one of the most prestigious American magazines has designated the persons who mattered during 2012. The list includes powerful people across the political, social, and economical landscape. From heads of state, to entertainers, via policy makers, academics, entrepreneurs, activists and more.
Some names on the list are those that are widely described in the media around the World as dictators. Time list includes the following notorious dictators:
1) Bashar Assad of syria. This how Time puts it “He may be the most reviled world leader at the moment, … The world has watched in horror as the 47-year-old strongman has waged a vicious military campaign against his opponents in a 20-month-long civil war that has already claimed upwards of 30,000 lives.”
2) Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Time notes that critics “point to Kagame’s questionable human rights record, and claim the gaunt 55-year-old has an authoritarian streak. Kagame was in the news in 2012 for his government’s alleged backing of rebel fighters in neighboring Congo, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced in the chaos. ”
3) Kim Jong Un according to Time Magazine, “Some had hoped that the Switzerland-educated basketball fan, who is believed to be 29 or 30, would change his country’s tragic course by rebuilding the economy, fighting hunger or dialing back nuclear gamesmanship. He has not. Young Kim may one day prove a great reformer, but for the vast majority of his subjects, fear and repression reign”
As Time Magazine puts it well when talking about Bashar Assad, their [dictators'] “political survival, and the dilemma it poses for the international community, is one of the major news stories of the year 2012″
There is another leader on the list of people who have mattered in 2012 who could perhaps serve as an example for the dictators. It is the President of Burma Thein Sein. Until recently, he was classified among the notorious military junta who led the Burma dictatorship. He decided to make a change, talked to his long term opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Now, according to Time Magazine “he just may be the Southeast nation’s Gorbachev. Thein has steered the gradual passage of democratic reforms—and while myriad challenges remain, not least the bloody ethnic strife in the country’s west, the rest of the world is taking note. President Barack Obama made a historic visit to Burma in November, with the U.S. promising to “normalize” trade relations with the resource-rich state and drop an import ban on Burma.”
For more visit Time Magazine here on
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Mwenze Kisimba,
I am the one who wrote the article. This is another piece I posted on Congosiasa, answering a Rwandan chap, Gisa Rebero:
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Unknown said…
@Gisa Rebero.
We keep circling around but the issue remains that same: what the “root cause of the conflict” is.
Obviously, since you stated: “I was born and raised a Rwandan Patriot”, it will be difficult to convince you that the root cause is the undemocratic institutions in Rwanda.
*Your argument was the same used in 1990, when everybody, except the Habyarimana’s regime diehards and Mobutu, did not want to agree that the root cause of the problem of Tutsi refugees was the lack of democracy in Rwanda. If I recall correctly (please correct me if I am wrong), both General Habyarimana and Mobutu Sese Seko said that the problem is the Rwandan Tutsis refugees who wanted to disturb peace in Rwanda. They thought they were going to win the war. When they realized they could not, it was too late.
General Habyarimana pointed to a few Tutsi who were co-opted into the government, the same way RPF is pointing to a few Hutu (Rwarakabije, Marcel Gatsinzi, Kagame’s cousin, and the other guy who is now prime minister, I do not know his name).
This is not how you resolve a deep rooted problem. You do not do it by buying or corrupting a few individuals from your opposition. You go to the root. In view what General Paul Kagame needs to do the following: ask the Rwandan rebels to put forward their leaders, and engage in a genuine peace process, by starting with the negotiations with these leaders, with the mediation of the UN Special Envoy. I do not understand why General Paul Kagame’s advisors have failed to tell him that, or if they did, why he does not listen and spends his time cursing and challenging the West.
Regarding Joseph Kabila. It is another problem. His leadership skills do not match the complexity of leading the DRC. He is just too weak, too insecure, and perhaps, he lacks vision. And he seems to keep the East burning, so that the attention does not focus on his weaknesses.
Is the UN, AU, ICGL going to help him in that sense? I doubt it. Congolese need soul searching. Meanwhile, let UN, AU, US, UK, Tanzania, Angola, South Africa help General Paul Kagame and his Rebels and Joseph Kabila and his rebels resolve the problems in the Eastern DRC first. Then Joseph Kabila will not be able to hide his weaknesses. At the same time, by negotiating with his opposition, General Paul Kagame will have won the democracy challenge he currently faces.
James
JANUARY 4, 2013 9:55 AM
This is a good piece. I also read on congosiasa that Kagame made the list of the 2012 worst dictators in Foreign Policy Magazine. This is what is in Congosiasa, in comments about UN Special Envoy.
Unknown said…
muancongo,
I agree with your point 2. In your point 1 and 3, I think you miss the point.
Your Point 1: war has never and will never solve much. Let us take FDLR, for example. Why does it exist? Because of political problems in Rwanda, including repression (By the way Kagame just made the list of the Foreign Policy Magazine most repressive leaders in the World, just behind Bashir Al -Assad and Kim Jong Un). Rwanda government can continue to use the 1994 excuse, but this is a tired argument. Kids who left Rwanda in 1994 on their mother’s back now form the bulk of FDLR and Other Rwandan rebels and Some rebels were not long ago RPF members. The international community must push Rwandan Government to find a political solution to its FDLR problem, instead of creating militia in DRC. Why is DRC government asked to negotiate with the Congolese militia/rebels and Rwandan government is not asked to do it? Why Karzai of Afganistan is asked to negotiate with Talibans? and so on.
Your Point 3: UN and US Envoys have failed because they do not deal with the real problem: Rwandan government repression against its citizens that is at root of endless flow of refugees in Great Lakes region, and ultimately the perpetuation of FDLR and other Rwandan rebel groups.
This is how I see the peace coming back to the region:
1) As long as the Special Envoy is not able to bring Rwandan Government to the negotiation table with its armed opposition, then Special Envoys will continue to fail. John Prendergast of Enough nailed the requirements of a Special Envoy during his last testimony in front of the US Congress.
2) Rwandan Government, DRC Government, Rwandan Rebels, Congolese Rebels, the UN Security Council P5 (especially USA, GB, France), Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Angola, and Norway (that funds most of the peace keeping activities in DRC), a few NGOs such as Enough, ECC, HRW, must be at the table.
3) Rwandan Government and its Rwandan Rebels on one side and Congolese Rebels and its Congolese rebels on the other, must agree on their respective roadmap to peace.
4) The Special Envoy will then have the role to make sure these roadmaps are executed and propose sanctions to UN SC if one party fails to honor its share of obligations.
5) Rwanda, unlike the DRC is a dictatorship. The democratic requirements on Kabila must also be on Kagame.
James.
DECEMBER 29, 2012 10:58 AM