Mark Thatcher: Manipulations Of Africa’s Affairs

Mark Thatcher: Manipulations Of Africa’s Affairs
Thursday, 13 January 2005

African affairs continues to be manipulated by non-Africans, albeit, with some collaboration and connivance with some Africans who indecently conspire with foreign usurpers in their dirty work of perpetual oppression and subjugation of Africans

Mark Thatcher was arrested in August 2004 for being part of a conspiracy in a coup to violently overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, since then, Mr. Thatcher was granted bail and his travels were temporarily restricted, and you could say he was under house arrest. His next scheduled court appearance was February 18, 2005, but suddenly, this week, the beginning of January 2005, there is some sort of accelerated hearing, this, after a visit from his mother, the former prime minister of Britain Margaret Thatcher;

Mrs. Thatcher was that prime minister of Britain during the time President Reagan was president of America and together, they pursued policies that were entirely antagonistic of Africans. Mark Thatcher has in their footsteps, followed in the well worn pattern of non-Africans’ undermining of African interests for the financial, pecuniary and strategic geopolitical interests of Americans and Europeans!

It is unimaginable to think of an African citizen situated in the same or similar postion as Mark Thatcher, being treated with deference and the sorts of kid gloves with which Mark Thatcher was treated in South Africa, after playing a significant and substantial role in a planned violent overthrow of the government of an African country.

If an African man was in Mark Thatcher’s shoes, the African man would have been found guilty of treasonable felony. Such an African would have been facing life imprisonment, if not capital punishment! If it were an African with a Muslim name, an American or British government would probably invent a connection with Al Queida, between such an African found plotting the violent overthrow of the American or British, a connection between Al Quieda and such an African would have been found, no matter how tenuous or false. At a minimum, such an African would be detained without trial and indefinitely! A la Guantannamo Bay prison or Abu Gharib Prisons in Iraq.

Here now, we have the South African legal system, turned into judicial overdrive, with accelerated hearing and plea bargain to boot, and voila! Mark Thatcher pays a pittance of a fine and he is home-free, after conspiring, conniving and acting in concert to bring about the violent overthrow of the government of a foreign country?

Mark Thatcher’s flimsy defense, is that he had arranged to merely supply an aircraft helicopter to provide ambulance services, air ambulance for what emergency purpose? He cannot argue that he was hiring out such services last year, in anticipation of the tsunamis in Southeast Asia this year, can he? How does he explain the air-ambulance?

The world is also left to wonder why Equatorial Guinea did not seek repatriation or extradition of Mark Thatcher so that he can face the full extent and weight of the law regarding the offense of coup plotting, against the nation of Equatorial Guinea? Mark Thatcher has lived in South African since 1995. Mark Thatcher is just about to escape punishment and move to the United States to join his American wife, who is said to be the child of a Texas wealthy man, Texas oil, Equatorial Guinea oil, I guess it figures?

We are supposed to believe that America and Europe are ardent and fervent believer in democratic institutions, structures, due process, the rule of law etc, whether it is in America, Europe or else where in the world; But here we have Mark Thatcher neck-deep in coup plotting, and he offers a feeble and glib explanations and he is given a slap on the wrist and he is sent to his merry way to freedom in America with his wife and children? How very nice?

Does this not leave us to wonder? And ask? What other coup plotting, manipulations and undermining of African governments are in the works? What other failed or successful coups were similarly planned, funded and executed in similar circumstances?

It is also clear indications that nothing much has changed in the master-servant relationship between African nations and European colonial powers, since slavery and colonial days to the present day. Aristide was summarily yanked and deposed from power and the constitutional presidency of Haiti in February 2004, by America, in the same way and method by which France, Britain and America jointly destabilized Haiti during the slavery, colonial days and the 200 years since then.

In the same “tradition” or pattern, the new Turks like Mark Thatcher of Europe and the George Bush of America, continue to pursue illegal efforts to expand their British and American “empires” with a plan to usurp nations through illegal invasions and occupations, such as nations in Africa, the Middle East or the Caribbean and the consequent appropriations of the resources, for the benefit of America and Europe and at the expense of the peoples of Africa, the Middle and the Caribbean.

And then, the revisionists among Americans and Europeans, on the one hand and their naïve and unthinking Africans supporters, combine to ask why Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean nations, are underdeveloped and unstable? Despite the glaring interference and meddlesomeness of America and Europe, in the affairs of these usurped nations? Instability is planned obsolescence, instabilities benefits the usurpers!

How long can these subjugation and exploitations continue? When will these external interferences and manipulations come to an end? What would Africans, Middle Easterners and Caribbean peoples do, to thwart or put an end to these continued domination? According to two Nigerians, Iyaalata and Otota, “it remains our responsibility to redefine the game, confuse the plan, restructure our team, or cripple the opposing team.” As Bob Marley once asked, how long must the kill our brothers while we stand aside and look? Just as, the world continue to hold Africans in contempt for the abject and sordid conditions in Africa, conditions that are foisted upon Africa by outsiders like Mark Thatcher.

It is regrettable that Equatorial Guinea and South Africa have through their actions in certain respects and inactions other respects, have jointly turned justice on its head, thereby enabling Mark Thatcher to escape punishments or repercussions for his treasonable crime.