Officially it was the U.S.–Africa Leaders Summit Dinner. The UK Daily Mail dubbed it Obama’s monsters ball. I prefer Dining with Dictators.
Call it what you will, it was truly an unprecedented event. Never before has such a miserable collection of the world’s authoritarian rulers been assembled together and “honored” with a White House dinner.
The Thursday night event was attended by more than 50 African-nation dignitaries and their spouses. “Esteemed” guests included:
EQUATORIAL GUINEA PRESIDENT TEODORO OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO ~
• Shoots or jails virtually all political opponents and rules the country with an iron fist
• Lives in luxury while the average income of the country’s citizens is only $2 a day
BURKINA FASO PRESIDENT BLAISE COMPAORE ~
• Seized power by bloody coup
• In 2011 he watched as protests gave way to calls for his resignation over claims of police brutality and government corruption
CAMEROON PRESIDENT PAUL BIYA ~
• Master of election fraud (no doubt he’s giving Obama some tips)
• State security forces have been accused of a host of heinous acts, including the killing of as many as 100 protesters in 2009 and the use of violence, arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions to prevent opposition political activists from holding meetings [Source: CBS News]
ANGOLAN PRESIDENT JOSE EDUARDO DO SANTOS ~
• Has murdered many, consolidating all political power in the diamond- and oil-rich country under his control
• Torture and repression of ethnic minorities continue to be reported on in Angola [Source: CBS News]
KENYAN PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA ~
• Pled innocent to murder and other charges for an alleged role in organizing violence that left more than 1,000 people dead after Kenya’s 2007 elections
• #43 on Open Doors World Watch list of nations where Christians face persecution
GAMBIA PRESIDENT YAHYA JAMMEH ~
• Accused of countless breaches of human rights
• In 2009 it was reported that up to 1,000 Gambians were abducted by the government on charges of witchcraft – they were taken to prisons and forced to drink poison
RWANDA PRESIDENT PAUL KAGAME ~
• Autocratic government overregulation keeps the downtrodden down
• Auspicious number of public and political opponents have been harassed, disappeared, or have died in increasingly suspicious circumstances.
The government’s commanding presence in Rwandan lives is aggressively maintained by Kagame and a clique of other former Tutsi refugees from Uganda[…]
While government officials are expected to implement policies that cannot be enacted and dissent is out of the question, people are being forced to follow a blizzard of regulations.
[Source: New York Times]
NIGERIAN PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN ~
(Although the Left loves a dictator, you’d think they’d shun this guy…)
• Signed harsh anti-gay laws this year – dozens of homosexuals already jailed
• Accused of pardoning corrupt politicians
• #14 on Open Doors World Watch list of nations where Christians face persecution
To be more fair than the administration deserves, the worst of the African tyrants were left off the guest list ~
Four leaders of the continent’s most notorious autocracies — Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki and the Central African Republic’s interim President Catherine Samba-Panza — were barred from the summit.
Source: NY Daily News
But far too many of those who did attend are Fidel Castro wannabees. And the unfortunate people of the African nations subjected to these “leaders” share the common woes of despotic rule:
• Elections are only held for a pretense of democracy; dictators are inevitably re-elected with 99% of the vote
• Laws serve only to tighten the screws, or preserve the status quo
• A small ruling elite rules over an impoverished underclass; the average citizen never benefits from the fruits of any of their country’s natural resources
• Feigning empathy while living in the lap of luxury, the demagogues have no sincere humanitarian concern for the underprivileged
(What’s not to love? You can certainly see why Barack Obama seems to feel such an affinity with these thugs!)
This travesty was an affront to America’s founding principles and to her people. Let’s hope that this was not only the first – but the last – of such outrageous events.
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Related:
U.S.-Africa summit did not address human rights violations committed by some of the continent’s leaders: advocates
