In this issue:

Likud/Neo-Conservative Front Behind Push To Grab African Oil

Mugabe Suggests NEPAD Should Be Rejected

South African Unions Critique NEPAD

'HIV/AIDS Could Lead to Collapse' of Mozambique

Andrew Young Agrees With Mbeki On AIDS

Negotiations for Congo/Rwanda 'Understanding' on Peace Agreement

Breakthrough Agreement Between Sudanese Government and SPLA Mediated by U.S.

From the Vol.1,No.21 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
AFRICA NEWS DIGEST

Likud/Neo-Conservative Front Behind Push To Grab African Oil

On July 22, SAPA (the South African wire service) reported, "Nigeria Will Not Leave OPEC, Says National Oil Firm," strongly denying stories that Nigeria plans to sever ties with the OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It turns out that the institute pushing Nigeria to leave OPEC is a creation of a racist, far-right Israeli Likud front, the Institute of Advanced Strategic and Policy Studies (IASPS). According to information being analyzed by EIR, IASPS created a group called the African Oil Policy Initiative Group (AOPIG), to pressure Nigeria and others to leave OPEC.

IASPS is part of an Anglo-American-Israeli intelligence operation, dominated by Likud crazies in Israel and the U.S., which is pushing "clash of civilizations" wars to destroy Islamic countries. IASPS also overlaps with U.S.-based institutions that are advocating a neo-imperialist U.S. military assault to seize the oilfields in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, under the guise of "reducing U.S. dependency on Middle East oil."

IASPS' involvement in the oil operations in Africa emerged after the news wire service SAPA and Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that Nigeria has no intention of quitting OPEC, as had been reported.

EIR has noted that Ndu Ughamadu of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation told AFP that a group of U.S. lobbyists had floated the idea on a recent visit to Nigeria, but that it had not found favor with the government. "OPEC is of tremendous importance to us; we are not contemplating pulling out." Similarly, responding to a report in a British weekly that Nigeria was on the verge of pulling out, Nigerian President Obasanjo's special adviser on the budget, Oly Ezekwesili, told AFP: "They are just flying a kite."

The references to "a group of U.S. lobbyists," referred to representatives of the AOPIG who visited Nigeria in late June and reportedly encouraged Nigeria to break from OPEC to supply the West's oil needs. Said AOPIG in a recent report: "With Middle Eastern suppliers openly discussing the possibility of an embargo ... increasing and diversifying supply is a matter of national security. It is a prerequisite to freedom of action in U.S. foreign policy. West Africa offers the quickest, most secure and least complicated potential for such an increase."

Mugabe Suggests NEPAD Should Be Rejected

According to the Harare-based paper the Herald of July 19, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, speaking for the first time on NEPAD (New Economic Policy for African Development), told African ambassadors accredited to Havana and leaders of the Cuban government that, because of the differences of opinion on NEPAD shown at the African Union meeting in Durban, it was not at all clear how the plan could be implemented. "It's up to us to remain vigilant in any process of cooperation with them [the West] and reject any tendencies to subject us to their whims." Africa must reject any Western aid under NEPAD if it comes with conditions, Mugabe insisted.

Nigerian Ambassador Ngam Nwochukwu, in the dialogue with Mugabe, insisted there was no way the West would fund NEPAD and let Africa run its own affairs. "Mr. President Olusegun Obasanjo is one of the founding fathers of NEPAD but he still has doubts and reservations. One thing which is of great concern is why our leaders still tend to trust the West," Nwochukwo said. He added, "If we go back to history, these particular people have done everything to demonize us, colonize and make us slaves and they still are doing everything to keep us down.... Why do we believe that NEPAD will work?... So if we engage NEPAD shall we try as much as possible to keep them out, because he who pays the piper dictates the tune."

South African Unions Critique NEPAD

According to the July 21 issue of the Sunday Times of Johannesburg, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) now has an 18-page document, "COSATU Critique of NEPAD" that was circulated to COSATU affiliates and discussed at the Federation's executive committee meeting last week. COSATU says NEPAD's analysis of the causes of poverty and underdevelopment in Africa are flawed, and do not address the unequal nature of globalization. The Union Federation says that while the emphasis on strong, democratic, and corruption-free states as a basis for good governance is positive, NEPAD limits states by restraining spending and looking to the private sector to provide basic services. COSATU said it is naive of the NEPAD architects to expect an influx of foreign investment.

South African Communist Party General Secretary Blade Nzimande joined the chorus of criticism of NEPAD, noting a real danger that it would be "hijacked" by the world's most powerful nations and their "lackeys." Nzimande told the Sunday Times that NEPAD put more emphasis on Africa being accepted into the global marketplace than on the "fundamental partnerships between the people of Africa and their governments." "This cannot be a partnership between the elite on the continent and the West," Nzimande continued. "Multiparty democracy must not be turned into a fetish. It is not what it presents itself to be.... Political parties have become the views of the elite. It is multi-elite democracy."

'HIV/AIDS Could Lead to Collapse' of Mozambique

Mozambique's Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi has warned that his country will face collapse if measures to halt the spread of AIDS are not taken. Speaking at a Maputo press briefing on July 18, he admitted that the AIDS epidemic will throw out all calculations of the amounts needed to recruit and train staff for areas such as education and health services and the police force. "Hence the government's concern for the future of the country, if this disease is not checked," Mocumbi told reporters. "We could face the collapse of the state, the collapse of companies, the collapse of your newspapers...."

Mocumbi confirmed that generic anti-retroviral drugs, produced in India, will shortly be available in both public and private health units.

Mocumbi had attended the recent UN conference on AIDS in Barcelona. He said this conference had clearly shown that "if there is a lack of political will, it's not on the part of African leaders." He pointed out that last year's commitments by the developed nations, had not been fulfilled.

Andrew Young Agrees With Mbeki On AIDS

In an interview with AllAfrica.com reporter Charles Cobb, Jr., on July 22, Andrew Young, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said that British and U.S. "arrogance literally forced [South African] President Mbeki to try to give [Africans] these drugs, which proved to be very toxic to Americans, who are having two or three thousand calories a day," and that "Whether to give those same toxic drugs to Africans who get two or three thousand calories a week is a legitimate medical question." The British and U.S. "literally forced Mbeki to come to the political position where the government is giving drugs to people without fully knowing the impact of them," Young, also a former Mayor of Atlanta, charged.

In a wide-ranging interview, Young, who has extensive involvement in Africa, consistently "swam against the tide," as AllAfrica.com termed it politely. He strongly supported President Mugabe as "the only one who is making any effort to deal with poverty in Africa," and supported President Mbeki's perspective on AIDS.

On the Mbeki position, Young was almost lambasted by the interviewer: "Well, they do know that anti-retrovirals for pregnant women do save the lives of children!" Young's response: "Well they know that they don't die of AIDS. But they don't feed them. Keeping children alive without mothers is a major political problem when you're talking about millions of children."

Question: But their lives shouldn't be lost because of that political problem. You certainly cannot be making that argument?

Young: No. But I am making the argument for good, solid nutrition for those children. I've been working with a group of AIDS orphans in South Africa, and the first five years I worked with them they were not taking the medicines. We were sending them money and they were getting a good diet, going to school and being cared for. In the meantime, the little boy who was being used as the poster boy [12-year-old Nkosi Johnson] to harass Thabo Mbeki, and who was getting the drugs, died [June 1, 2001]. I'm not saying that there is any cure for AIDS, but I am saying that a loving, nutritious environment for children, even if they are HIV-positive, might be better than anti-retroviral drugs."

Negotiations for Congo/Rwanda 'Understanding' on Peace Agreement

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have reached an "understanding" on a peace agreement, according to numerous media sources July 23. The five days of negotiations in Pretoria "were centered around the withdrawal of the Rwandan forces from the DRC, and the disarming and dismantling of the Ex-FAR (former Rwandan armed forces) and the Interahamwe (Rwandan Hutu militias] forces currently stationed in the DRC," a statement from the office of South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma said.

In announcing that an agreement had been reached on Monday, Zuma was flanked by DRC Minister in the Presidency Mwanke Katumba, and his Rwandan counterpart, Patrick Mazimbaka, the chief negotiators in the talks.

Those talks, which had been scheduled to last only one day but kept going for five, were a continuation of discussions held two weeks ago in Durban, between Presidents Joseph Kabila of the DRC and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, on the sidelines of the inaugural summit of the African Union. Central to those discussions—brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, according to UNIRI, was the proposal to create a security zone along the DRC/Rwanda border to prevent Hutu rebel incursions into Rwanda.

Zuma declined to divulge details. The Presidents of the two countries had to be briefed first, he said.

The DRC ambassador to South Africa, Bene M'Poko, was quoted by the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir as telling the news conference that "this is the beginning of the end of the war in the Congo."

Mazinhaka told the media briefing that the agreement met the requirements for taking forward a difficult process. "We have no doubt that if we can diligently execute this broad agreement we shall bring to an end this conflict that has been engulfing our countries for several years, sooner rather than later."

Zuma said the Presidents of the two countries would decide on a date for the signing of a final agreement.

Breakthrough Agreement Between Sudanese Government and SPLA Mediated by U.S.

The breakthrough agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA), was possible through U.S. mediation, said a Sudanese diplomatic source, confirming wire reports. Although the deal is not final, it does constitute a major development, as the most important points at issue have been agreed upon: that there is a federal state, and that Islamic law (Sharia) will be applied to the majority-Muslim northern part of Sudan, while other (custom, or African) law will be applied in the non-Muslim south. One open question is whether the south will consist of three or ten states. The south will elect its own state parliaments.

Round two of the talks, scheduled for mid-August, should lead to a ceasefire. Six months thereafter, a six-year period will begin, at the end of which a referendum will be held in the south, regarding union or secession. This will be decided by the two parties (the government and SPLA) only. The second round should also decide a formula on wealth-sharing.

The diplomatic source stressed that there is nothing new for the government in the accord, in the sense that all the clauses agreed upon, had been included in the 1996 talks, and even incorporated into the Sudanese draft Constitution. What is new, is that the SPLA has agreed, and this is to be attributed to the U.S., whose representatives were on the scene in Nairobi, where the talks took place.

Many believe that Sudan's significant oil reserves, and the possibility of American development of these, induced the U.S. to finally help broker the peace.

According to AFP, Sudanese political analyst Adlan Hardlallu said what is crucial here is the "interests of the United States in a stable area, particularly when it comes to oil production and other economic interests" in Sudan. "They want to compete with the Chinese, Malaysians and the others who are working in the area," he said. "I don't think the Americans would like these people monopolizing this particular thing."

The most important point is that the Sudanese peace developments show that, if the U.S. wants to put pressure on one party, in this case, the SPLA, to comply, it can do so.

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