AFRICA NEWS DIGEST
International Sanctions Are Not Isolating Zimbabwe
The fact that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and other Zimbabwean government officials spent a week in New York, during which the President addressed the UN General Assembly Special Summit on Children May 10, and the delegation suffered no restrictions on its movements at all, proves that the so-called smart sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU on that nation "have failed to work," said Minister of Foreign Affairs Stan Mudenge, as quoted in the Zimbabwean paper The Herald on May 13. Mugabe also held talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former U.S. envoy and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young.
Mugabe reportedly received a standing ovation after his address, which "highlighted Zimbabwe's achievements in alleviating the plight of children." "He castigated the racially imbalanced distribution of land in Zimbabwe, which had impacted negatively on the ability of the country's children to fully enjoy their rights," reported The Herald. Said Mudenge, "We wanted to demonstrate that the sanctions will not stop us from carrying out our diplomatic functions ... our international intercourse is not affected by the sanctions." Mudenge said it was only Zimbabwe's relations with the European Union that may be affected by the sanctions, but pointed out that Mugabe, on his way to and from New York, had used Paris to get connecting flights, where "everybody on the delegation was free to go into town."
London's IISS Foresees Intervention Against Zimbabwe
The International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), based in London, issued a report May 9, which foresaw aggressive diplomatic, economic, or military internvention in Zimbabwe, saying that peaceful political change is "almost inconceivable." The IISS report identified Zimbabwe as the continent's "prime concern," according to SAPA, the South African Press Association.
The IISS report said that, "Despite condemnation as well as diplomatic and economic isolation by virtually all major powers, the refusal of regional leadersin particular South African President Thabo Mbekito seriously question the [election] result helped Mugabe to remain unrepentant for his coercive land seizures and gross economic irresponsibility." "Either humanitarian disaster or a further deterioration in security could prompt aggressive outside diplomatic, economic or even military intervention."
In fact, there is still an impasse in negotiations between the parties within Zimbabwe, but this impasse itself is directly related to foreign interference and pressure on that nation.
Congress Shows Interest in Chad-Cameroon Oil
The Chad-Cameroon Oil Development Project was the subject of Africa Subcommittee hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives April 19. Africa Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif) testified that "The U.S. has many interests in the success of this project. At $3.7 billion, it will be the largest U.S. investment in Africa. Our country has a growing interest in Africa's energy development. By 2015, up to 25% of U.S. oil imports are expected to come from Africa.... This project holds the promise of learning lessons and establishing precedents important to Africa at large and the United States." Oil is expected to start flowing through the pipeline of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project, in 2003.
The Chad-Cameroon project, which broke ground in 2000, is expected to produce approximately 1 billion barrels of oil over the 25-30 year life of the project. The partnership involved in the $3.5-billion effort "between energy companies, the World Bank and the governments of Chad and Cameroon is unprecedented," noted Royce. Donald R. Norland, a former U.S. Ambassador to Chad who also testified, said that the World Bank "has helped to design an effective revenue management system, and that Chad's government has approved strict legislation designating how the revenue can be used." Subcommittee chairman Royce added that an oversight committee "including Chadian civil society members will monitor project revenue."
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, a former Ambassador to the U.S. from Mauritania and now executive secretary of the Washington-based Global Coalition for Africa, in his testimony referred to the plans for extensive control over revenue and chortled that "now there is a new paradigm for oil development in Africa." He said the project "could rightly be considered one of the first concrete operations of NEPAD [the New Partnership for Africa's Development]." But Committee chairman Royce, in his prepared statement for the Congressional Record, stated that "It will be the role of the World Bank and the U.S. to help Chad's government honor its commitment, even if it should resist."
U.S. Looking Toward Oil Supplies from West Africa
It's not just the Congress that is looking at West African oil. According to an influential European figure who just returned from Nigeria, and spoke to our report May 13, the U.S. is making a big strategic shift toward procurement of crucial oil and gas supplies from West Africa, in anticipation of future disruptions of supply from Saudi Arabia and environs. This individual is personally close to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, and is playing a role in this "reconfiguration." He said:
"There is no question that the Americans are very much focussed now on Western Africa. There have been important new finds, in recent weeks, of not only oil, which gets more publicity, but also gas. American oil companies are very much involved in this." He continued: "Obasanjo has just created a new 'Association of the Gulf of Guinea Oil Producers.' It includes Gabon, Angola, Cameroon, and Cape Verde. All these countries have very good relations with Nigeria, and Nigeria, of course, is the key. It will be a powerful bloc, and provides the Americans with a future alternative to the Middle East."
According to this individual: "The 'signal' article on this theme, appeared in Time magazine in late April, under the headline, 'Can We Do Without the Saudis?' The answer was, emphatically, 'Yes.' The alternatives will be Russia, which plans to build tankers for future shipments to the U.S., and which has almost limitless reserves, and West Africa." The source added: "The Americans are also looking at Venezuela, but that depends [here he chortled] on the second coup against Chavez. Do you think those demonstrations on the streets are spontaneous? Washington is planning the next phase."
Asked when he expected the "disruptions" to begin in Saudi Arabia, he responded, "Yesterday." He insisted that the Israelis would "help cause mayhem," to ensure "disruptions" in the Middle East, and that the Israelis have been hyperactive in Washington, pushing the "West Africa alternative."
Others of our sources have expressed tremendous skepticism about the practicality of such a perspective.
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