Cape Town — Zimbabwe's "downward spiral" was "intolerable and unsustainable," former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Johannesburg on Sunday.
Delivering the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture, Annan deplored the fact that half of the world's armed conflicts were in Africa. "Millions of Africans are still at the mercy of brutal regimes, gangs and rebels," he said. In Darfur, people were being driven from their homes, villages were being burned and murder and rape were commonplace.
Beyond Sudan, in places such as Zimbabwe, "less visible but no less devastating conflicts cry for action by Africans and others... Stability in Africa may be spreading, but a continent at peace... remains a distant goal."
Yet the goal was achievable, Annan said.
"The Africa of my youth, the Africa I knew, the Africa that I remember, was not this violent Africa. Yes, there was repression, brutal repression, in South Africa and elsewhere. Yes, there were conflicts. But on the whole, the Africa of my youth was tolerant, it was conciliatory, it was forgiving."
Such attributes were "not a relic of the past," he emphasized. "We see the power of tolerance and reconciliation not only in remarkable individuals like Nelson Mandela, or nations like South Africa, but in Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone - nations reclaimed from the ashes of violence."
Annan also pointed to progress in economic and social development, and in respect for the rule of law.
"Today, inflation is at historic lows in many countries, and 27 African economies are projected to grow by more than five percent this year. Direct investment has increased more than 200 per cent in the past five years. Exports are also rising...
"Africa has also made headway toward the UN Millennium Development Goals. The latest report from the UN shows that today, halfway to the 2015 target date, we've achieved positive change in several crucial areas. We are not excelling, but we are advancing."
On human rights, he said that in the past decade, "Africans have increasingly shown that human rights are African rights, and that democracy has deepening roots in this continent."
