In this issue:

U.S. Centcom Moves Toward Political Legitimacy in Africa

Libya Invites U.S. Oil Interests To Return, and Privatizes

Afro-Asian Cooperation Planned at High-Level Bandung Meet

India To Give Mozambique AIDS Drugs at No Charge

Japanese Project To Improve African Math-Science Teaching

Iranian, South African Oil Companies in Joint Investments

Neo-Con Proposal To 'Save' Liberia Mimics British Empire

Washington Post Roasts Bush Administration over Liberia

Robust Troop Strength Needed To Bring Peace to Liberia

Sudan: Mubarak Attacks U.S.-Backed 'Peace' Proposal

Neighbors' Looting Keeps Congo Fighting Going: Ambassador

African Union To Send Military Peace Monitors to Somalia

From Volume 2, Issue Number 31 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Aug. 5, 2003
Africa News Digest

U.S. Centcom Moves Toward Political Legitimacy in Africa

General John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command since July 7, announced in Addis Ababa July 30, that a regional task force is being set up to combat terrorism and handle disasters in Egypt, the Horn of Africa, and East Africa. It has the backing of the U.S. military, he said. The task force will not physically fight terrorism, he said, but would "provide the basis of a response" when an attack occurs. It would also respond to such disasters as floods and airplane crashes. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi expressed enthusiastic support for the initiative.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Tanzania, and the Seychelles Islands are participating. The only countries in that band of Africa not involved are Sudan and Somalia.

The initiative followed the Golden Spear Symposium in Addis Ababa, sponsored by the U.S. Central Command to promote "dialogue between African countries" on security.

Libya Invites U.S. Oil Interests To Return, and Privatizes

The Libyan government has arranged for the return of U.S. oil interests, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem said in an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper. Ghanem said, in part, "Many U.S. companies used to enjoy advantages in huge oil fields and produced hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day. We have reached an agreement with these companies ... to return to Libya." He did not elaborate.

Libyan President Muammar Qadaffi last month called for state-run companies to be scrapped and for the oil sector, banks and airports to be privatized. At that time he named a new government headed by Prime Minister Ghanem, an economist, to pursue a more "open economy."

Afro-Asian Cooperation Planned at High-Level Bandung Meet

Thirty-six Asian and African countries were represented at a Bandung, Indonesia planning conference July 29-30 on expanding and strengthening ties between the Asian and African continents. "We must unite, not only in the political sector but also in economic and sociocultural fields," Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri said in her opening address to the Asia-Africa Sub-Regional Organization Conference (AASROC). She said that rich nations continued to force their will upon the developing world not only in the political area but also in economic fields.

South Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma followed the Indonesian President and noted that for Asia and Africa, "it is imperative that they strengthen their collaboration in fighting for a more equitable international economic order, eradication of poverty, and the easing of the oppressive and debilitating debt burden of developing countries." She continued: "We have to act in solidarity in all areas, using our combined strength to take our destiny in our own hands."

The AASROC meeting, which drew the 36 countries' foreign or deputy foreign ministers, is seen as a step toward reviving the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and as a preparatory meeting for a conference of Third World countries in Bandung in 2005, the 50th anniversary of the founding of NAM in Bandung.

The final communiqué reflected the importance of greater cooperation in such areas as infrastructure development, agriculture, transportation and preferential trade. It adds the goal of "Identifying existing difficulties and challenges ... and ... areas of cooperation and specific projects to address those challenges."

AASROC suggested the establishment of focal points within the respective secretariats of regional and sub-regional organizations to strengthen the mechanism for consultation, according to Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda, who chaired the meeting with Dlamini-Zuma. The communiqué noted this "new partnership can play a meaningful role in supporting the implementation of NEPAD, the Tokyo International Conference on Africa's Development (TICAD), [and] the Sino-Africa process."

India To Give Mozambique AIDS Drugs at No Charge

The Indian government is prepared to help Mozambique "at zero cost" with HIV-retarding drugs, outgoing Indian High Commissioner to Mozambique, Avinash Chandra Gupta, told Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano, according to Agencia de Informacao de Mocamibique July 31. He noted that India is a quality producer and exporter of HIV-fighting drugs.

Japanese Project To Improve African Math-Science Teaching

A five-year Japanese project to improve mathematics and science teaching in Africa has begun in Kenya, according to The Nation (Nairobi), July 26. The project will be expanded to include 13 other African countries including Malawi, South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia and Burundi.

The project in Kenya, sponsored by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, is based at the Centre for Research and Training in Karen, Nairobi. It will train more than 3,500 science and mathematics teachers from across Kenya. Already 400 teachers from 15 districts have gone through a course on new teaching methods. The Kenyan educationalists, once trained, will help replicate the program in the other African countries. Speaking in Nairobi after the launch of the Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education Project in Africa July 26, the Kenya head, Bernard Njuguna, said the course will start on a larger scale next March.

Iranian, South African Oil Companies in Joint Investments

Iranian and South African oil companies are planning joint investments worth US$2 billion, which may treble in years to come, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said July 21 in Pretoria. "Oil companies from both sides discussed a number of projects with maximum investment of $2 billion. Such joint investments may increase by $4 billion in the years to come," he said. More than 40 Iranian government officials and 20 businessmen are in South Africa for the seventh joint commission meeting of the two countries. Last year, South Africa bought 40% of its oil from Iran.

Neo-Con Proposal To 'Save' Liberia Mimics British Empire

Neo-con Max Boot, op-ed page editor for the Wall Street Journal, calls for "enlightened imperialism" to "save" Liberia, in a commentary in USA Today July 28. In Liberia, the United States should follow the example of the British Empire in the 19th century, urges Boot, when it used non-British enlisted men led by British officers, e.g., Gurkhas in India, or Kitchener's use of Egyptian and Sudanese forces in Sudan. Liberia would provide soldiers, and the U.S. would supply the logistics and training, much like the approach used in the Afghanistan war.

After the civil war ends, the U.S. should turn Liberia and other "failed states" into international protectorates, says Boot, to be run by a foreign administration, likely under United Nations auspices. Special Forces would remain to train a Liberian military.

Such an "enlightened imperialism, dressed up in multilateral clothing," Boot rants, is the only way to "protect" the people of Liberia, and other countries, from local warlords.

Washington Post Roasts Bush Administration over Liberia

A July 31 Washington Post editorial refers to the horrific conditions in Monrovia, and says, "a Bush Administration strategy toward that poor West African country is emerging: The president is giving the appearance of responding to the UN's desperate pleas for U.S. military assistance without actually providing any." It says the 4,500 U.S. troops sent to Liberian waters (not currently intended to go ashore) could "quickly put a stop to the fighting ... saving many innocent lives."

The editorial concludes, "Mr. Bush could put an end to this misery; he chooses not to. Instead, as Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo pointed out to the BBC in London, he is like the person who arrives at a burning house and 'says, "Here I am, I have my water, my fire engine. Now, when you put the fire out in your house, I will come in." ' Mr. Obasanjo added: 'I wonder what sort of help that is, with all due respect.' Americans who recently heard Mr. Bush proclaim his Administration's commitment to Africa should be asking the same question."

In an Aug. 1 New York Times op-ed, Chester Crocker, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa during the Reagan years, hit the Administration where it hurts the most. Arguing from the geopolitical standpoint, Crocker favors putting U.S. troops on the ground in Liberia. "Yes, American forces are stretched—but.... If we worry about being able to keep the peace in Liberia for a few months, we should worry even more about the conclusions being drawn from this uncertainty by our rivals and allies alike—particularly the Chinese, the North and South Koreans and the Japanese."

Robust Troop Strength Needed To Bring Peace to Liberia

"It looks like both the U.S. and Nigeria want one party or group to take over" in Liberia, so there will be no need for expensive peacekeeping, said Henry Boshoff, a senior analyst of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, in an interview with Radio Nederland July 31. This explains the constant passing of the buck among the U.S., UN, ECOWAS (the organization of West Africa States), Nigeria, Liberian President Taylor, and the Liberian insurgents of LURD, he says.

"The bottom line in Africa," he says, is that "none of these countries have got money.... America has already said it will provide $10 million to the Nigerians, but that is nothing.

"It looks like both the U.S. and Nigeria want one party or group to take over the whole country, which means there's no need for a ceasefire and ... a peacekeeping force.... [T]hey are waiting for the rebels to destroy the armed forces of the government and push Taylor out ... then they will come in ... to oversee the implementation of the new government."

Boshoff told BBC July 31 that at least 3,000 well-equipped and well-trained soldiers are needed in Monrovia alone: "It doesn't help you to put in troops that are not competent, that are not robust," he said. The former head of the ECOWAS Military Operations Group (ECOMOG), retired Nigerian General Victor Malu, told BBC that it would take 5,000 troops to secure Monrovia and 12,000 for the whole country. "It's a costly mistake to send just two battalions to Monrovia. You'll be putting the lives of those troops in danger," he said. BBC recalls that ECOMOG peacekeepers spent 12 years in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1980s and '90s. Hundreds of peacekeepers were killed. Nigeria spent "well over $12 billion," according to President Obasanjo.

Sudan: Mubarak Attacks U.S.-Backed 'Peace' Proposal

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says that granting southern Sudan independence would "tear the region to shreds" and would be "dangerous" for both sides. He is responding to the draft "peace" agreement put forward by the U.S.-backed Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). "Unilateral separation of the South from the North, not based on the will of the people, would tear the region to shreds," he said in a meeting with students in Alexandria, according to AFP July 26.

"The South is only a strong entity when joined to the North as one state," he said, in remarks broadcast on TV. "Any agreement aimed at partition ... should be put to a public referendum," he said, again stressing that "division is a danger for the North and South."

Mubarak is expressing his concern that the plan recently presented to the Sudanese government, and rejected out of hand by President Omar Bashir, could lead to partition, with the devastating consequences he mentioned. The "peace" plan calls for separate central banks, armies, and cabinets.

Neighbors' Looting Keeps Congo Fighting Going: Ambassador

Neighboring states bent on looting natural resources are still behind the fighting in the Democratic Republic Of Congo, the country's ambassador to South Africa, Bene Mpoko, told an Africa Dialogue seminar at University of Pretoria, according to SAPA July 31. Mpoko accused Ugandan troops of provoking tensions between minority Hema and majority Lendu in the Ituri region. Mpoko said the Congo, with its abundance of natural resources, had always been seen as a country waiting to be plundered. "If you destabilize it enough, you can almost do anything there. You can get your gold, your diamonds and so on."

African Union To Send Military Peace Monitors to Somalia

The African Union (AU) plans to send 81 observers to Somalia to monitor a cessation of hostilities agreement signed by Somali faction leaders last October, according to Amdour Kambudzi, a member of an AU team on a nine-day tour of Somalia. "So far, the African Union has sent requests to seven countries to provide the military observers," he told Associated Press July 28. The AU expects to have responses from Algeria, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Botswana by the end of August, Kambudzi said. The countries were chosen at the request of the Somalis attending peace talks in neighboring Kenya, he said. The first observers are to be deployed by the end of September.

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