13 May 1998
New Labour's Gunboat Ethics
Barry Crawford from Africa Direct reflects on whether the Sierra Leone
crisis reflects badly on New Labour's ethical foreign policy
The last fortnight has seen the British foreign office come under severe
criticism for its involvement in a counter coup in Sierra Leone. The
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Menzies Campbell, uncovered the
dirty deed while surfing the net. And when the questions about the
arms-to-Sierra Leone affair were first put to the foreign secretary Robin
Cook, he squirmed and fudged. The prime minister Tony Blair maintained a
stony silence and the Conservative press crowed. For a moment it appeared
that a serious scandal was erupting - Britain had backed a mercenary
operation in an African country in violation of international law. Senior
heads looked set to role. That was until Blair's spin doctors realised that
this counter-coup was widely perceived an intervention of which they could
be proud.
Suddenly the whole approach changed. On Monday 11th May Blair described the
affair as 'overblown' and a 'hoo-ha!'. "Come on, come on!" cried Cook the
gladiator in the house of commons the day after, "I'm enjoying this, let's
have another hour!". New Labour's revised message reads like this: Britain
has reason to feel proud about taking principled and resolute action in
defence of democracy in a suffering land. An apparently damaging scandal
was turned into a heroic operation.
Conservative opinion has it that revelations about mercenary activities and
covert preparations to overthrow governments harm the credibility of New
Labour's ethical foreign policy. They couldn't be more wrong. This is
ethical foreign policy at work, and among the circles that count, it is
succeeding.
Cook is quoted as saying he knew nothing of the affair until 28 April and
would not, as foreign secretary, have needed to know earlier. (Observer
10.5.98) In fact, within weeks of President Ahmad Tajan Kabbah's ousting
from office by Johnny Koroma in May last year, Britain began preparations
for his reinstatement. Cook claimed on June 5th last year that "The coup
leaders have nowhere to go, they have no friends outside Sierra Leone, they
have no friends among their neighbours, no friends in the region nor in
Europe ... they must see that ultimately military force may be something
that will have to be considered."
The real scandal here is not that the Foreign Office bent United Nations
rules, nor that it failed to inform Customs and Excise of its deals. It is
that New Labour has been up to its neck in a dirty war in a West African
country. The counter-coup was not about restoring democratic government to
Sierra Leone. It was about installing a government on British terms
(although quiet support from the United States was also important). This
was not about respecting the choice of the Sierra Leonean electorate, it
was about installing Whitehall's man in Freetown.
Despite the widespread glamorising of the role of some mercenaries,
especially Sandline International, the most important local actor in this
affair was Nigeria. In fact Nigeria's role in Kabbah's reinstatement was so
prominent that most commentators, especially African, saw the whole
intervention as a Nigerian affair rather than the western coup it really
was. For its part, Nigeria welcomed the invitation to front the
intervention as an opportunity to overcome the isolation from the West
which it has experienced on the basis of Western attacks on its human
rights record.
Kabbah's first act as Sierra Leone's restored 'standard bearer of
democracy' was to give the go-ahead to a breach of the constitution and
institute rule by a military council for the first two months or so until
he was ready to be installed in office. In Freetown, orders were given to
shoot looters on sight.
There is little difference between New Labour's ethical foreign policy and
the gunboat diplomacy for which Britain is famous. The principle ethic
behind New Labour's foreign policy is that Britain has a moral duty to
intervene in developing countries in order to civilise their inhabitants
and teach them Western ways. It is because nobody questions the underlying
assumption that countries like Sierra Leone are incapable of achieving
democratic institutions without the helping hand of the West that
interventions such as this one earn praise. For those of us who believe in
the principles of equality and self determination, this intervention is
more than a scandal, it is an outrage and an affront to democratic values.
Africa Direct can be contacted at africadirect@easynet.co.uk or by
telephone: +44 (0) 973 326302
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