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WHY DOES THE BBC IGNORE AFRICAN WARS?

Tools For Solidarity and the Black Youth Network commemorated African Liberation Day outside the Bedford St offices of the BBC on Tuesday 25 May from 5 ­ 6pm.  We asked the BBC when it is going to start reporting the 22 ongoing forgotten wars of Africa.  There was some street theatre from 5pm and at 5.30pm there was a 3 minute silence for the forgotten dead.  There were 22 gravestones representing 22 ongoing conflicts in Africa.  People were asked to wear something black as a mark of respect for the dead.

Estimates of the dead in the Congo are 4 million since 1998, the worst casualties in any conflict in the world since the 2nd WW. Despite peace deals this war continues in the east of the country and under the smokescreen of war, western based multinational corporations loot precious minerals essential for the running of our economy.

African wars receive less than 5% coverage of global conflicts in UK TV news programmes.  Of this limited coverage only 4.4% is about the worst conflict in the Congo because British TV focuses on bombs in Kenya or the situation in its previous colony Zimbabwe.  Wars without the direct involvement of the western nations do not seem newsworthy and the little coverage given only focuses on the brutality of the conflict and not on possible solutions.

But we are involved because the wars are fought by proxy on behalf of western commercial interests. Rebel and government armies trade diamonds, hardwoods, oil, coltan (used in everything from mobile phones, play stations to space stations) with western corporations. Western and east European arms companies sell everything from AK47s to helicopter gunships. UK exports £400mn of arms to Africa annually and companies receive export credit guarantees.  Tanzania, one of the poorest countries on the earth, bought a £28mn air defence system from UK when there exists no real Tanzanian air force or real enemy from the air. Allegedly this was a sweetener/bribe enabling Tanzania to reach HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Country) status and thus qualify for some limited debt relief. British companies sold arms to both rebel and government forces in Sierra Leone and to all principal protagonists in Congo war.  The ordinary people receive no share of the wealth looted by African elites and their masters in the west.  On the contrary they flee their villages, abandon their fields of crops and hide in the ‘bush’ to avoid rape and torture.

While there are now independent African states economically the Africa is still controlled by western governments or institutions (World Bank/IMF) and corporations controlled by western governments.

  Tuesday 25 May commemorates the founding of the OAU, Organisation of African Unity, which set about under the inspiration of visionaries like Nkrumah (Ghana) and Nyerere (Tanzania) to liberate the African continent economically and politically from the European colonies.   Nkrumah was deposed in a coup when he tried to use the country¹s diamonds for the benefit of his country.  Lumumba, the first elected PM of the Congo was assassinated with the collusion of the Belgium government & CIA when he tried to do the same.

  This is why Africa needs liberation and why it is important that we get fair and decent reporting of the events taking place.  Similar events took place in London and across the African continent.

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