Hot air, luxury travel and inflated expenses

and their occupants of babes-in-arms, small children, and their mums and dads, are literally left in the streets destitute. How amazing in a country where the police violently beat up on women and men taking part in peaceful gatherings, simply protesting against hunger joblessness and tyranny.
So who is this over worked and unsympathetic chairperson, who can’t find a few hours over lunch to assist in putting a stop to gross human rights abuses in Zimbabwe?
He is none other than the former president of the Republic of Mali, professor Alpha Oumar Konare.
It wasn’t that long ago in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, when the day of the African child was commemorated, that the good professor made a hard-hitting speech insisting that violence against children must cease.
The good professor ended up his address with the words, ‘together we will win.’ I say together with whom, ZANUPF or the Human Rights Commission in Zimbabwe? On his next visit, and if he does find time in his busy schedule to seriously and objectively discuss human rights, let him ask the people of Zimbabwe who he should consult with. They’ll willingly provide the answer.
Just a few years ago, June 2004 to be exact, during the 7th summit of the Heads of States and Government of the African Union in Banjul The Gambia, the African Commission on Human Rights and People’s Rights (ACHPR) and the African Civil Society Organisations (CSO), celebrated the 25th anniversary of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
Needless to say Louise Arbour the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights was also in attendance.
After decades of expensive African Union jaunts throughout the length and breadth of Africa there must be massive volumes of agendas, declarations, decisions, reports and speeches filed away in the archives. The many distressed and deprived citizenry of Zimbabwe must wonder: what’s it all about?
Hot air, luxury travel, and inflated expenses is what it’s all about, with very little to show for it at the end of the day.