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Offering immunity to leaders of countries or rebel movements was never a popular idea, but it has taken a battering this year. There are currently a handful of cases under review: Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, the Lord’s Resistance Army’s leader Jospeh Kony and Tanzania’s ex-President Benjamin Mkapa. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor finds himself sitting in lock-up in the Hague as Special Court prosectors chase after his hundreds of millions of dollars previously held in foreign banks. It now seems that prosecutions will become the norm, even if promises of asylum are given.
But not all cases can be treated in the same way. Taking a lesson from Taylor, leaders facing charges of corruption or extrajudicial killings may choose to hold on to power if they face prosecution. Few leaders give up power voluntarily in Central Africa.
The MDC had offered to allow President Mugabe to retire in peace, but changed its tone as the situation deteriorated. Even if Mugabe were given immunity, it would raise questions about what would happen to the people who planned and carried out the Matabeleland killings in the early 1980s. Kony has been unwilling to sign the latest peace deal because there are few guarantees that President Museveni can offer when there are outstanding warrants for Kony at the International Criminal Court and Uganda’s High Court.
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Click on the special report title to see the full text of that report.
LIBERIA | EDUCATION
Liberia's big challenge
Abraham Conneh of Oxfam, Liberia, talks to Africa Confidential about education in post-conflict Liberia
Africa Confidential, January 2009 KENYA
Inside Kenya's elections 2008
An eyewitness account of the announcement of the results at the Kenya Conference Centre
Africa Confidential, January 2008 AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
Interview with ADB President Donald Kaberuka
China accelerates its fast growing role in Africa
Africa Confidential, January 2007 ZIMBABWE
ZANU-PF National Conference December 2006
Special reports from the conference
Africa Confidential, December 2006 SUDAN | BRITAIN
On her Majesty's secret service
Is Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) training Sudanese
spies?
Africa Confidential, January 2005 ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe Elections 2005
What happened in Matebeleland?
Africa Confidential, April 2005 AFRICA
Holding Gleneagles to account
Africa Confidential post-G8 summit report
Africa Confidential, July 2005 EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Mercenary fandango
The South African mercenaries detained in Bioko and Zimbabwe
were en route to Malabo to oust President Obiang - but at whose
instigation?
Africa Confidential, March 2004 AFRICA | UNITED NATIONS | IRAQ
Caught in the crossfire
Africa Confidential's Special Report on Africa/Iraq and the United Nations Security Council
Africa Confidential, March 2003 RWANDA | CONGO-KINSHASA (DRC)
Interview with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame
Patrick Smith, Editor of Africa Confidential, and William Wallis, for the Financial Times, spoke to the Rwandan President, General Paul Kagame, at the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane, London, UK, on 18 October 2002, about the Report of the United Nations Expert Panel on the Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo
Africa Confidential, October 2002 SIERRA LEONE | DIAMONDS
Chronology of Sierra Leone
How diamonds fuelled the conflict
Africa Confidential, April 1998
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