Whatever the wisdom of executing Saddam Hussein, it was a foregone conclusion that the man who had tyrannized Iraq for nearly three decades would eventually meet the fate he did. Once Coalition soldiers found Saddam cowering in that spider hole in December 2003, there was little thought that a new Iraqi government, composed of the very people he had terrorized, would allow him to survive. Indeed, amid the violence that has engulfed Iraq since the 2003 invasion, it seemed perverse that the deposed dictator, of all people, should have kept on living as long as he did.
But as Saddam swung from the gallows on December 30, another ousted tyrant–who probably killed many more of his subjects than the Butcher of Baghdad, and over a shorter span of time–remained free. Though convicted of genocide after a 12-year trial, and no longer in control of any country or armed forces, Mengistu Haile Mariam, who ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991, is living in comfort in Zimbabwe. The international community should have him brought to justice.
Many human rights organizations and foreign governments deem Mengistu the worst dictator in the history of the African continent. In the late 1970s, the Communist tyrant launched what he called the “Red Terror” against all opponents, real or perceived. Tens of thousands were killed. It became a regular occurrence in Mengistu’s Ethiopia to see corpses hanging from street poles in the morning. In the 1980s, he helped orchestrate and prolong the devastating Tigray famine that took an estimated one million lives. It was for these and other sundry crimes that Mengistu became known as the “Pol Pot of Africa.”
Ousted from power in 1991, Mengistu managed to escape to Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe, who has ruled that country since 1980, has protected him ever since. While millions of Zimbabweans starve as a result of Mugabe’s reckless farm- seizure policies, Mengistu resides in a mansion and is afforded government security, luxury cars, and a stipend. He is said to be a security adviser to Mugabe, and rumored to have offered his expert advice on human immiseration to his host’s 2005 “Operation Wipe Out Trash,” the politically motivated slum-clearance plan that left some 700,000 people homeless.
Despite the Ethiopian government’s repeated requests for Mengistu’s extradition, Mugabe has refused, citing his fellow tyrant’s support for Zimbabwean rebels in their 1970s civil war against the white-ruled government of what was then Rhodesia. But on December 12, an Ethiopian court found Mengistu guilty, in absentia, of genocide. Last week the court sentenced him to life in prison.
The international community cannot expect cooperation from Mugabe, who has repeatedly shown his disregard for human rights, freedom of the press, and private property. But the situation presents a challenge for Mugabe’s African neighbors: How will they deal with this former liberation leader who has gone horribly bad? For years, African leaders have ignored entreaties from Zimbabwean exiles to pressure Mugabe to step down; apparently these leaders prefer a mistaken “stability” (which has produced the world’s largest refugee crisis, mass starvation, and civil unrest) to the rule of law.
To be sure, America’s history with Mengistu complicates matters. In 1991, in an attempt to stave off a massive and potentially destabilizing civil war in Ethiopia, Washington helped arrange Mengistu’s escape to Zimbabwe. But 15 years have passed since that flight, and Robert Mugabe is no longer a friend of the United States and the West. He has quit the British Commonwealth and snubbed the Western democracies at their every insistence that he help his starving people or allow outsiders to do so unimpeded.
That Ethiopia and Zimbabwe have no extradition treaty would not prevent the latter’s returning Mengistu to his home country if Mugabe wanted to; in fact, there is precedent for this. Charles Taylor, the former ruler of Liberia, sought refuge in Nigeria in 2003. The government there offered him asylum in hopes this would quell the Liberian civil war–but with the express understanding that a new Liberian government could request Taylor’s extradition after two years even though the countries had no formal treaty.
At Congress’s initiative, the United States offered a $2 million reward for Taylor’s capture and secured a U.N. Security Council resolution freezing his assets. Interpol gave governments the right to arrest him. Taylor tried to escape to Cameroon but was captured by Nigerian authorities and is now in the dock at The Hague. There is no good reason the United States and the international community cannot apply the same screws to Mugabe and Mengistu that they did to Taylor.
At a time when America’s global popularity stands at a low ebb, the United States still enjoys much goodwill in Africa. By spiriting Mengistu out of Zimbabwe, Washington could improve its credibility as a foe of tyrants and champion of human rights.
When I traveled to Zimbabwe in August, everyone I spoke with had favorable impressions of the United States, and even hopes that America would effect positive change in their country. (Zimbabweans have given up on South Africa, which has supported Mugabe to the hilt.) Several impoverished people expressed gratitude for America’s attempts to subvert Mugabe’s manipulation of Western food aid.
And another indication of untapped pro-American sentiment in Africa came just last week: the Somalian president’s strong statement in support of U.S. airstrikes on suspected al Qaeda targets in his country.
The Ethiopian government did the West a great service in December by defeating the Islamist insurgents (with possible links to al Qaeda) who had seized the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in June. Thanks to the Ethiopian intervention, Somalia–with its geostrategically critical location on the horn of Africa–has a potentially capable government in place, with Western support, for the first time since 1991. The United States, which was humiliated by its 1993 humanitarian intervention in Somalia, owes Ethiopia a debt of gratitude. Doing whatever we can to get Mengistu Haile Mariam out of Zimbabwe and into the hands of his countrymen would be a fitting reward.
James Kirchick is assistant to the editor in chief of the New Republic. He reported from Zimbabwe for THE WEEKLY STANDARD in August.
