NYERERE VS AMIN

...Surely honor is with Nyerere...

...Amin and his government deserve the title "tyrant...

...We can only do it by honest thinking, honest talking and honest living...

...These crimes against African people have been exploited by the enemies of African freedom for their own purposes...

...One recalls that imme-diately upon independence, Nyerere led his nation into breaking diplomatic and economic relations with Portu-gal because of its racial policy of oppression in Mozam-bique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau...

...In that same month, Nyerere delivered a major address to the Tanzanian national assembly and delineated his charges that Great Britain had not shown serious determination in negotiating with Ian Smith's government to effect majority rule in Rhodesia...

...South Africa and its illegal ward, Namibia, are embroidering new garments of revi-sionism toward independent black Africa, all the while waiting to see what happens in Rhodesia in the coming year...

...The Tanzanian censure of Uganda and the OAU main-tained that when people of international organizations with commitments to human justice try to discuss with African leaders clearly documented outrages against hu-manity, it is often the tragic lot of the African statesmen to sit in awkward silence, if the case involves an African State acting against African people...

...Amin then banned the newspapers and threatened to expel all Kenyans living in Uganda because they were spreading rumors of "unrest...

...The current crisis demonstrated at the OAU meeting in Kampala, Uganda, is clear enough...

...Twenty-four leaders of various governments sent delegates to represent them...

...Militant Arab members such as Algeria's Houari Boumedienne, Libya's Muammar Kaddafi and Egypt's Anwar Sadat, along with the un-official observers Yasir Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization, called for a united OAU front on the immediate suspension of Israel from the United Nations...

...Yet the total membership voted for the staid continuation of pressure on Israel to observe the UN resolutions on a planned withdrawal from occupied Arab lands...

...The Ugan-dan affair was seen in the light of ultimate principles of integrity and justice...

...The world press and media have neglected it also, but this is a par for its coverage of Tanzania...

...While only nineteen heads of state attended the OAU in Kampala in person, forty-three African nations did send some type of representation...

...At the OAU conference in Rabat, Morocco in 1972, Nyerere again published a major address after the visit of the Pearce Commission to Rhodesia destroyed the facade that Smith was trying to promote-namely that a majority of Zimbabweans were willing to negotiate the principle of majority rule over a long period of time...

...It delegated a committee of conciliation to troubled Angola, which is embroiled in a three-faceted tribal and political civil war on the eve of its independence from Portugal this November...

...Freedom and Socialism, [1968...

...But in the long run, the Tanzanian government believed that its presence in Kampala would be a betrayal of the prin-ciples of human justice, equality and dignity...

...Three weeks after the Kampala OAU meeting, the various,leaders of Africa, not to mention the OAU itself, have not yet made an official statement about the stinging criticism of Tanza-nia...

...He then vowed Tanzania's commitment to the liberation movements and Tanzania's own breaking of diplomatic relations with England for its dereliction of justice in Rhodesia...

...As the peoples of the world fathom the man, they will wait to see how the home lands of Africa speak...

...He called upon all African nations to realize they must support the cause of justice in Southern Africa with specific political ac-tions, or they would not indeed be free and independent nations representing the dignity of all Africans...

...In the past year, the walls of Southern Africa are beginning to crumble...

...they are its style and means of existence...

...Not only would they no longer be able to speak with authenticity about Southern Africa, but the Tanzanian government believed that the OAU would face the charge of being labeled an organization of hypo-crites, if it did not bear witness to the brutality of Amin's government...

...Developing the theme that the OAU's acceptance of hospitality of General Amin and the present Ugandan government was tantamount to acquiescing in crimes against the Ugandan people, the Tanzanian statement warned that Africa was in danger of becoming unique in its refusal to protest against the crimes committed against Africans, when such actions were accomplished by African leaders in inde-pendent nations...

...In 1966, Nyerere wrote a major policy statement for the journal Foreign Affairs ("Rhodesia in the Context of Southern Africa," April, 1966), in which he branded the Smith government as openly committed to a policy of racialism by its unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from Great Britain...

...It is with a teacher's insight and wisdom that he acknowledges the necessity of a non-interference clause in the charter of the OAU, and similar organizations, such as the United Nations...

...Citing the tragic events of the Sharpesville Massacre of 67 people in South Africa in 1961, the Portuguese Massacre of 245 people at Wiru-yamu, Mozambique, 1972 and the present practice of "villagezation" and total war against the people in Rho-desia within the general repressive policy of apartheid, racialism and colonialism in Southern Africa, the Tan-zanian government praised the record of the OAU since its founding in 1963 for articulating and taking effective action against injustice...

...However, the Tanzanian statement manifested the license of a Mwalimu, when it raised a number of Socratic questions about using the non-interference clause to justify silence in light of Amin's massacres...

...In February 1973, there were reports of other Kenyan "disappear-ances," among them, Okech Amara, an EAC railway official who was later found murdered...

...Yet much of the unrest and criticism of Amin and the OAU meeting was galvanized by President Nyerere's and the Tanzanian government's lengthy and .strongly-worded statement explaining the reasons for Tanzania's non-attendance at the Kampala meeting...

...The manifesto of the reasons for Tanzania's non-attendance at the OAU meeting in Kampala indicated that it was morally damaging enough for African leaders not to protest African crimes against African people, but now it seemed that African statesmen would give an aura of respectability to one of the most murderous administrations in Africa by their presence at the con-ference...

...The Europeans have had the initiative and all the opportunities for two hun-dred years and everywhere they have succeeded in producing interracial chaos...

...in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh and a keen devotion to the social and eco-nomic development of Tanzania and all Africa, Nyerere has long been honored with the title of Mwalimu, or Teacher, by his fellow Tanzanians...

...But we cannot reach the goal ( of social harmony) by hypocrisy or wishful thinking...

...The second betrayal is because by that attitude you are undermining the validity of Africa's demand that justice, equality and dignity should prevail in South-Africa, and wherever people of African descent are discriminated against on the grounds of color...

...Over the past fourteen years since Tanganyika's inde-pendence (Tanganyika merged with Zanzibar in 1964 to form the Republic of Tanzania) in 1961, President Nyerere and the Tanzanian government have accom-plished much in acting as a catalyst to enlighten and direct African and world opinion about injustice and oppression in Southern Africa...

...Kenyan news-papers protested that such murders were threatening the very life of the EAC...

...Not only Ugandans themselves, but several Kenyans and Tanzanians have been known to "disappear" in Uganda...

...Sometimes we even attack as imperialists those who hold up to public scrutiny the immoral actions of Africans in a posi-tion of authority in Africa...

...Twenty-three years ago he said: A world seething with hatred is an intolerable place to live in...

...General Amin seized power in an overthrow of the Milton Obote government in 1971...

...Why is it legitimate to call for the isolation of South Africa because of its oppression, but ille-gitimate to refuse to cooperate with a country like Uganda where the government survives because of the ruthlessness with which it kills suspected critics...

...Tanzania was going Red," was, and still is, a digestible herring for those without gourmet political taste...

...Finally the OAU also admitted several new members to its ranks-Mozambique, the Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome and Principe and the Comoro Islands...

...Oxford University Press) can be traced in the drafting of the Tanzanian government statement...

...and most importantly at a great risk to itself, it allowed its southern borders to be used as training grounds and staging area for the liberation military forces entering Mozambique and Rhodesia...

...Since the early 1960s the OAU has endeavored to bring the world's attention to real injustice and oppression in Southern Africa...

...With an M.A...

...The OAU is flirting with the nomenclature, "organization of hypocrites," if its members do not see and proclaim that the murders and oppression of Amin are one and the same brand of crime and life style as the governments of Southern Africa...

...The first betrayal is because you are saying that it does not matter if these principles of humanity are ignored, and thousands of people murdered, pro-vided it is done in an African independent State...

...Without a doubt, the pattern of Nyerere's and the Tanzanian government's involvement and contri-bution to justice in Southern Africa for the past decade and a half reflected integrity, political acumen and seri-ous concern...

...Yet we know that many of the allegations which have been made about the inhuman oppression within independent Africa are true...

...Tanzania's recent censure of both the Ugandan government under the leadership of General Idi Amin Dada Salongo for its periodic massacres of its people, as well as the unique silence of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) about these atrocities perpetrated in an independent African country, has reconfirmed for many Africans and African observers Nyerere's position as one of the most courageous and judicious statesmen on the African continent...

...Employes and job-seekers in the East African Community (EAC) have simply "vanished" while in Kampala...

...and Freedom and Development, [1973...

...we ignore the report if it produces twice as much evidence against an inde-pendent African government...

...It read: When such information is submitted to international meetings by agencies of affiliates of the United Na-tions, we endeavor to exclude the item from the agenda...

...A solemn agreement not to interfere in the internal affairs of another nation is seen as a sine qua non for the survival of such an organization of common States...

...In July 1974 a leading Kenyan businessman of the EAC, Kung'u Karumba, attended a conference in Kampala and has not been seen since...

...Seven Tanzanian youth, who were in Kampala for job inter-views with the EAC Post and Telecommunications Centre, also "disappeared...

...The Tanzanian government consequently decided to sever diplomatic relations with England and in the process lost a 7.5 million pound interest-free loan for development...

...President Nyerere deliberately delayed the publication of Tanzania's refusal to attend to the last week before the conference, so that his decision would not be seen as an effort to persuade other nations not to attend...

...Tanzania cannot accept the mockery of condemning colonial-ism, apartheid and fascism in the headquarters of a murderer, an oppressor, a black fascist and a self-confessed admirer of fascism...

...And I appeal to my fellow Afri-cans to take the initiative in this building up of a really harmonious society...

...In December 1965 the OAU met in Addis Ababa and unanimously passed a resolution calling for all African nations to break diplomatic relations with Great Britain, if that nation did not take concrete steps to force the Rhodesian government to adhere to the principle of No Independence Before Majority Rule (NIBMAR...

...Only nineteen of the forty-six heads of state in Africa attended all or part of the summit...

...Tanzania has consistently supported the liberation movements of Southern Africa, both with finan-cial resources through the Liberation Committee of the OAU...

...A relative of Amin, who was Ugandan's Foreign Minister from 1971-72 and then sought exile himself, estimated that 80,000-90,000 people have died at the hands of Amin's government...

...It has supported an educative program with active guerrilla warfare against the oppressors themselves...

...but the crimes were there to be exploited...

...When independent agencies publish their findings about mass murder or blatant inhumanity we rush to condemn, if the accused government, in our eyes, is imperialist...

...Assuring the African delegates that Tanzania is fully committed to the cause of African unity and the OAU as a viable institution, the statement cited that Tanzania was up to date on all its subscriptions to the OAU and the Liberation Committee and that Nyerere had himself attended seven of the past eleven OAU meetings...

...The statement reads in part: We are convinced the OAU will deserve the con-demnation of the world and the peoples of Africa as an organization of hypocrites, if it acquiesces, or appears to acquiesce, in the murders and massacres which have been perpetrated by the present Ugandan government...

...The hand of Julius Nyerere, who is noted for his in-tegrity and wisdom, (see the collected works of his major speeches and writings since 1952 in Freedom and Unity, [1966...

...This decision not only ran the risk of military threats to Tanzania, but had a total impact of Western financial and political disillusionment with Nyerere's Tanzania...

...However, it was precisely at this juncture of maintaining credibility in condemning the injustices pf colonial Southern Africa that the Tanzanian government was afraid that the silence of the OAU about the massacres in Amin's Uganda would completely discredit any statements by African leaders about South-ern Africa...

...N. Sithole and Joshua Nkomo about the eventual independence of Rhodesia -in good faith or not, remains to be seen...

...At this critical juncture, Nyerere has charged his fel-low African leaders with shouldering the burden of de-claring the murders and massacres in Amin's Uganda for what they are-a gross violation of human life and justice...

...Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front government is surrounded by hostile independent African nations and is presently negotiating with the Zimbabwean leaders, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Rev...

...Three nations in particular, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana, previously announced they were boycotting the confer-ence to protest General Amin's presiding as the chairman of the OAU for the coming year, despite his well-known persecution and slaughter of thousands in his homeland of Uganda in the past four years...

...For these murders and massacres have not been a temporary aberration...

...The metanoia for the Euro-pean in Southern Africa might be occasioned by the independent African, whose conscience is overwhelmed by the tyranny of Amin's Uganda.the tyranny of Amin's Uganda...

...The twelfth annual summit meeting of the OAU in Kampala, Uganda, during the first week of August ac-complished some notable achievements of a conciliatory nature in African affairs...

...We have a great chance in East Africa, let us use it well...

...Nyerere called for active enforcement of the United Nations Mandatory Sanctions against Rhodesia, a dis-crimination against governments and business firms who were breaking the Rhodesian boycott, an extension of the sanctions to the communications field and other ex-empted areas and more increased aid to the liberation movements...

...Few responsible Africans deny these facts among themselves...

...But why is it good for States to condemn apartheid, and bad for them to condemn massacres which are committed by the independent African govern-ments...

...In reality, only Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania, much for the same reasons, did not attend the OAU...

...This is the style of govern-ment of every fascist regime in the world...

...Amin at first denied that the Tanzanians were even in Kampala, but later accepted responsibility for their "disappearance" and promised compensation for their families...

...The OAU membership also decided to continue further peaceful negotiations with Ian Smith's regime in Rhodesia (Zim-babwe) for the independence of that country, and to prepare for full-scale guerrilla warfare from the inde-pendent bases of Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia, if the European leaders of the Rhodesia Front government do not negotiate in good faith concerning the freedom of 5,000,000 African people...

...A low estimate is that 50,000 people, who were considered "enemies" of the regime, have been murdered and another 50,000 have been forced into exile...

...In the same year the Tanganyikan government decided to boycott all trade with South Africa and to stop a very profitable migrant labor policy because of its general policy of apartheid and racialism...

...The evidence is too strong...

...the cases have been too numerous...

...However, the most significant event at the recent OAU summit was judged by many delegates to be the failure of numerous heads of state to attend the meeting...

...Other African leaders were legitimately concerned about social and political unrest in their own countries, as was borne witness by the overthrow of Nigeria's Head of State, Major General Yakubu Gowan, while he was attending the OAU summit in Kampala...

...Fourteen years of continual warfare in Por-tugal's colonies, vast expenditures and the loss of thou-sands of lives, helped to bring down the reactionary Portuguese government of Marcello Catano in April 1974 and led to the turmoil in that nation today...

...AMIN JOSEPH P. CARNEY Taking a stand against governmental brutality President Julius K. Nyerere of the United Republic of Tanzania has long been noted for his abhorrence and condemnation of racialism and colonialism in Southern Africa...

...Undoubtedly many statesmen did not want to be iden-tified with these massacres or Amin's penchant for noto-riety whether it be his awarding himself the rank of Field Marshal for the occasion of the OAU meeting, his fulsome praise for Adolf Hitler as a statesman, or de-manding a letter of apology from Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth before he would consider commuting the death sentence of British author Denis Hills, who made The mis-take of comparing Amin to a "village tyrant" in print, (even though the book has yet to be published...

...Recently the Inter-national Commission of Jurists published a 63-page re-port of offenses against human rights in Uganda, with some horrifying details of the persecution and murder of individuals and total local communities within this African State...

...The swift departures of the Congo's Marien Ngouabi, Niger's Seyni Kountche, Gabon's Omar Bongo and the Cameroon's Ahmadou Ahidjo soon followed...

...In 1952 while still a graduate student at the University of Edin-burgh, Julius Nyerere wrote a paper on the race problem in East Africa...

...It bluntly stated tbiit: "For this meeting will be assumed to have thrown the mantle of OAU approval over what has been done, and what is still to be done, by General Amin and his henchmen against the people of Uganda...