A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Joseph Kony, the shadowy leader of the Northern Uganda militia known as the Lord's Resistance Army who has spearheaded a reign or terror for the past 20 years, recruiting thousands of children as fighters and sex slaves and hacking off the lips of its war victims.

And perhaps the "unkindest cut of all"—depending on your perspective: Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, of Blood Diamonds infamy, who used the precious rocks for the unprecious pursuit of the brutal war in neighboring Sierra Leone, where children were also abducted a la Kony, injected with cocaine to make them wildly vicious little weapons of unprecious war, driving them to big jobs—hacking  off the limbs of "enemy toddlers", as well as their parents and others. Taylor is now on trial before the ICC for crimes against humanity, the first ousted president to be so charged. Initially, to get him out of the way to make room for a democratically elected president, a deal was struck that allowed him to live in exile in Nigeria. But no sooner had new Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf been installed that she called for his extradition, and he was removed from Nigeria and transported to The Hague, where he is now on trial for gross violations of human rights.

Some African leaders and analysts worried about this precedent and the impact it would have to entice to leave future leaders who had stayed too long and done too much wrong.

And then there's the case of Mengistu Haile Mariam aka The Butcher of Ethiopia,  so named after his Red Terror Campaign, a  purge  in which his forces tortured and murdered more than a million Ethiopians. Mengistu, a Marxist, justified as being necessary to eliminate the "very backward, archaic and feudalist system" of Emperor Haile Selassie, was overthrown in 1974, as the Star newspaper of South Africa reported in an interview with Mengistu from Zimbabwe.

In the interview, Mengistu even denied having ordered the death of Haile Selassie, saying: "He was 80 years old and a very weak man. We tried our best to save him, but we could not keep him."

Before he fled into exile in 1991, I got a rare interview with Mengistu in the capital Addis Ababa for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. And as I conducted the interview in the room in the Palace where he is said to have once mowed down members of his Cabinet, I ever so delicately put the question to him about the charges that he had murdered countless numbers of Ethiopians. He looked me dead in the eye, with his dead cold eyes and said: "Who me? I wouldn't hurt a fly."

And even after all these years, whenever I am in the United States and get into a cab driven by an Ethiopian in exile because of him, once they hear my voice, unfailingly, they say, almost without deviation: "Ah, you are the one who interviewed Mengistu. You are the one he told he wouldn't hurt a fly."

Last month, a court in Addis sentenced Mengistu to death after being convicted of genocide.  Since he fled Ethiopia, Mengistu has lived—some say comfortably—in Harare, although I have never seen his abode. But he must be a bit uncomfortable now, as the prospect of a defeat for his host and protector, Mugabe, looms.

But is this one of the reasons Mugabe runs—to continue to protect Mengistu from extradition? Or is it to avoid the same fate as Mengistu? Or the fate of Charles Taylor, Jean-Pierre Bemba and Joseph Kony? Is Mugabe worried at all by the words of Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler (among others), who has said: "President Robert Mugabe is responsible for the perpetration of crimes against humanity, including state-orchestrated murder, torture and massive sexual violence."

Or is it none of the above?

Well, all of the above is food for thought…especially if you live in Zimbabwe, where there is no food on the table.

Also on The Root:

Charlayne Hunter-Gault on xenophobic rage in South Africa. Marjorie Valbrun looks for good reception in Haiti. David Matthews braces himself for a looming catastrophe.

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