The Illegality of Military Coups and the U.S. Imbroglio In Africa

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

“The preservation of order and good government seems to have become a national task to which the military have dedicated themselves. It seems to have become acceptable therefore that it the government is not doing right by, for example, if it becomes a dictatorship or fails to function effectively… The military feel that they could intervene… the military have intervened not because their officers are Sandhurst or… are trained locally, but chiefly because they have identified themselves with the national interest and are today more critical and inquisitive.”

                                                                                Lt.-General AK Ocran

Who said that the era of military coups d’état in Africa was over? Such person does not have a sufficient knowledge of African political realities and the problems that the Judiciary encounters to sanction those who seek power by military means directly or indirectly assisted by western powers. In truth, the wave of military coups that is sweeping the fragile defenses of African civil institutions has deeply affected the social, political, and legal landscape of Africa. Just few years after the independence, the young continent of Africa became largely militarized to the point that today the survival of those democratic regimes led by civilians brings pride to the whole continent.

Whereas the “[t]wentieth-century peoples have, on the other hand, shown a marked lack of interest in monarchies and their paraphernalia . . . Military and other right-wing forces have meanwhile [succeeded] to keep up with popular movements and have used their illegal methods in order to seize power and overthrow regimes. Why have regimes in the twentieth Century proved so fragile? It is, after all, paradoxical that this fragility has increased while the established procedures for securing changes in government have on the whole become more flexible. The political scientist will reply that though the procedures have become more flexible, pressures for change have also become stronger, and that the rate of increase in flexibility has not kept up with the growth of social and economic pressures. Violent methods are generally used when legal methods of securing a governmental change are useless because they are either too rigid - as in the case of ruling monarchies where the ruler actually controls policy formation - or not rigid enough” , comments Edward Luttwak.  

Today, four decades since the independence of the majority of African states , over fifty military coups d’état have occurred, meaning an average of more than one coup per year. According to Samuel Decalo, “[i]f during the 1960s the coup d’état rapidly emerged as the most visible and recurrent characteristic of the African political experience, by the late 1970s quasi-permanent military rule had become the norm for much of the continent. Very few are the states that have not been governed by military juntas or rocked by attempted coups or power grasp”  by the people in uniform. Such a situation leads into a scientific curiosity for lawyers, political scientists, historians, economists, and sociologists.

The African continent has struggled with military coups d’état for decades. The experience of the Ivory Coast - on the eve of the new millennium and in 2002 –, Central Africa republic and the aborted coups here and there, and specifically in the DR Congo on 28 March 2004 and 10-11 June 2004, is an indication that taking power by military force is far from over. The truth is a sad observation that “all evil have given themselves appointment at the cross roads of a dying Africa: recession, debt, deficit of balance of payments, corruption, tribalism, border disputes, political assassinations, military coups d’état, ideological fights, structural dependency, political underdevelopment, and the absence of political will”  and of the rule of law. Thus, one can notice that the political health and stability of Africa is in a very bad shape, since “only its perpetual deterioration breaks the records”  today as forty-five years ago.

So why should a situation like the one described above attract the attention of lawyers. Human beings’ actions, as individuals or in a community, have legal consequences; better, human behavior is governed by legal norms. In other words, principles of law should channel each human conduct for the sake of peace and harmony in a given society. Therefore, a society that lacks law is comparable to a jungle, where only the great ones survive and the greatest rules and reigns.

Such is the case of power originating from a military coup d’état. No wonder that “only, in fact, law which is the body of written and customary principles that regulates the relationships between people (in a given civil collectivity)”  can restore the broken link after a military coup. It becomes almost impossible to achieve this mission of the rule of law after the seizure of power by military coup since the constitution of the country as well as the judicial system are trodden down by the new, strong guys. This is the raison d’être this book was written for.