AFRICA NEWS DIGEST
'Sudan Peace Act' Follows Imperial Model
The U.S. Congressional legislation, the "Sudan Peace Act," signed into law by President George W. Bush on Oct. 21, could in fact be a prescription for perpetual war. As EIW has reported, U.S. and British covert support for Sudanese rebel forces against the government Khartoum, has kept the war simmering for years. (See the INDEPTH section of EIW's Sept. 16, 2002 analysis of the imperial resources grab in Sudan.)
The legislation specifies that the President of the United States must certify every six months that the government of Sudan and the United States' own puppet, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA), are negotiating a permanent peace agreement in good faith, or, once that is achieved, are complying with the agreement. These conditions mean that the U.S. can "pull the plug" on Sudan's economic and political stability at any time.
If the Sudan government is found to be "not acting in good faith," the U.S. will oppose loans, credits, and guarantees to the government of Sudan by international financial institutions and take "all necessary and appropriate measures" to deny the government access to oil revenues. (If the SPLA is found not to be acting in good faith, these sanctions do not apply to the government.) In light of the wanton U.S. bombing of the al-Shifra pharmaceuticals plant in 1998, "all necessary and appropriate measures" could go very far.
Ominously, the Act authorizes the appropriation of $100 million in each of the fiscal years 2003, 2004, and 2005 for assistance "to areas outside government control, to prepare the population for peace and democratic governance, including support for civil administration, communications infrastructure, education, health, and agriculture."
The U.S. Secretary of State is required to collect information about incidents which may constitute crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes by all parties to the conflict, giving the U.S. powerful leverage.
The Act declares that its intent is "to facilitate a comprehensive solution to the war in Sudan, based on the Declaration of Principles of July 20, 1994 and the Machakos Protocol of July 2002," according to a U.S. government Fact Sheet, and commends the efforts of Presidential mediator former Senator John Danforth and his team. A statement of intent is not binding language for the purposes of an Act. Nevertheless, it puts a card of sorts in the hands of the government of Sudan in negotiating with the SPLA.
First Truce Signed by Sudan Government and SPLA
The first-ever truce was signed Oct. 15 by the government of Sudan and the SPLA in Machakos, Kenya, as talks resumed after recent fighting, but the outlook remains poor. Negotiations for a permanent peace resumed Oct. 16. Sudanese government forces had retaken the town of Torit during the week ending Oct. 12, which led the SPLA rebels to agree to the government demand for truce as a condition for resuming talks on an overall settlement.
The government of Sudan had also demanded as a condition for returning to negotiations that the SPLA not raise issues already settled in the July 2002 talks, such as the six-year wait before a referendum in the South. But, Anglo-American pressure forced the government to return to negotiations without this condition. In September after seizing Torit while also negotiating in Machakos the SPLA suddenly sought to renegotiate just such issues, already resolved in line with the Danforth recommendations in the Machakos Protocol signed in July.
Mercenaries in Ivory Coast War
There are now apparently mercenaries involved on both sides of the war in Ivory Coast, according to statements by Ivorian officials. Angolan troops and equipment were arriving to support the Ivorian government in the week ending Oct. 18. But, according to President Gbago in his interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro and allAfrica.com of Oct. 17, these are supplied by private companies based in Angola, not the Angolan government. Note that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter Kansteiner was in countries near Angola in the days before the private forces departed for Ivory Coast.
As long ago as Sept. 30, Reuters reported that the Ivorian Ambassador to the UN, Djessan Philippe Djangone-Bi, speaking at UN headquarters in New York, indicated that his government had been able "to determine that at least some of the mercenaries fighting alongside the rebels come from West African neighbors Burkina Faso and Liberia, as well as from nearby Sierra Leone, but it has so far been unable to determine where the rebels got their weapons or their money."
Imperial Oil Politics in West Africa
In the Gulf of Guinea, boundaries will be redrawn and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will be defined in the ocean where none were defined before, as U.S. planning for oil exploitation develops there, according to recent issues of the Africa Energy Intelligence daily newsletter. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner spent the first two weeks of October visiting Sao Tomé and Principe, Gabon, and Ivory Coast. Kansteiner has been active with U.S.- and Israeli-based think tanks that want to break up OPEC, and are therefore eyeing African oil as a new looting source.
The following are thumbnail situation reports:
Sao Tomé and Principe: Coincident with Kansteiner's visit to Sao Tomé and Principe, President Fradique de Menezes dismissed Prime Minister Guilherme Posser da Costa and the rest of the seven-month-old government and appointed Minister of Trade Maria das Neves as Prime Minister Oct. 3. She is an economist who worked for the World Bank and UNICEF before her appointment to the trade post. BBC reported Oct. 14 that das Neves "supports continuing austere budget measures 'even if it causes pain and is unpopular,' to adhere to the World Bank's debt forgiveness program.... She said cutting foreign debt would be her government's 'priority of priorities' in 2003...."
BBC added, "Plans to build a 'sheltering port' for the U.S. Navy, to patrol the Gulf of Guinea and its oil resources, and become a trading post for the region also form key legs of her economic policy. 'A deep-water port will be part of our medium-term strategy to turn Sao Tomé into a platform of highly qualified services, for a region which represents a market of 500 million people,' she said.... Kansteiner told Sao Tomé's leaders that U.S. companies were interested in searching for oil off the coast." Sao Tomé and Principe consist of two small islands off the coast of Gabon.
Gabon: Kansteiner "said his five-day stay in Gabon focussed on ways the United States can support that government's plans to set aside wide areas of the Congo River basin for parks and nature reserves," according to Voice of America News Oct. 15.
Angola: It is not known what contact Kansteiner had with Angolan leaders during his visit to the Gulf, but he had a good deal to say about Angola in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs Oct. 16. "Angola will become more 'prominent' in international affairs over the next two years in its role as an African regional representative on the UN Security Council," he said, according to allAfrica.com. Angola also became president of the Southern Africa Development Community at its September summit. Kansteiner also said the U.S. will be actively engaged in efforts to secure the peace in Angola, and "will also train 'civil society actors' and political parties there, 'including Unita, to transform it from an armed rebel movement to a constructive opposition party.' " according to allAfrica's report.
allAfrica also reports that Kansteiner revealed that "the U.S. European Command [EUCOM] plans to invite the Angolan armed forces chief, Gen. Cruz Neto, and an Angola delegation to EUCOM headquarters for briefings." Kansteiner reportedly said, "The goal is to build a rapport to allow U.S. Defense Department officials and military personnel access and influence with Angolan civilian and military officials to help them to develop an apolitical and transparent institution."
UN Report Names British, Israeli Diamond Firms as Criminal Cartels
A United Nations expert panel report on the Democratic Republic of Congo, released on Oct. 21, reports on criminal activities of diamond-related businesses, says Business Day of Johannesburg.
Army chiefs from Uganda and Rwanda are mentioned as well as the speaker of Zimbabwe's Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa. East London (South Africa) Israeli businessman Niko Shefer, whose SA Tandan Holdings diamond company is cited in the UN report, this week claimed he has retired from business. (Shefer, a former commodities broker, is now on parole, having been sentenced to 14 years in jail after the South Africans applied for his extradition from Switzerland.)
Two British-South African companies, the Anglo American conglomerate and De Beers diamond company which of course have denied any involvement in unethical activity in the DRC were among dozens of multinationals listed in South Africa, Europe, and the U.S. "that violated ethical guidelines in conflict zones stipulated by the OECD," according to the report. Anglo American issued a statement claiming it has no operations in the DRC and hasn't "for several years."
The report recommends that the firms and individuals named be given four to five months to halt the illegal activities, after which time, sanctions, including freezing of assets, barring them from access to banking facilities, and travel bans, would be imposed. There are 29 companies based in Belgium, Rwanda, Uganda, DRC, Zimbabwe and South Africa listed in the report.
Alex Yearsley, of the international lobby group Global Witness, notes that the report, among other things, "shows how the majority of independent diamond dealers from Belgium to Israel to New York are still operating outside of the law...." Yearsley then defended Anglo American and De Beers.
Malawi's Food Shortages Worsening
Johannesburg's Business Day provides an update on the famine in Malawi, one of the countries worst hit, in the second of three articles on the regional food crisis. It reports, "Food shortages in Malawi are very severe and will only worsen in the months ahead as scarce stocks from the harvest run out and food aid, reaching 2 million out of 10.6 million people [total population], becomes more difficult to distribute" because of the rainy season.
According to the UN World Food Program's Malawi director Gerald van Dijk: "By December, we need to feed 3.2 million people, which requires about 30,000 tons of maize a month. It will be a struggle to mill and move that amount during the rainy season."
The bulk of donations are genetically modified (GM) maize from the United States, which may "only be distributed if it is milled [to prevent it from being planted]. This process will delay food distribution as Malawi lacks enough spare capacity to mill large amounts of WFP relief maize. Milling also adds more than 20% to the cost of relief operations, which are about 36% funded at present." Until the rains begin, Malawi, unlike Zambia, is allowing the distribution of whole-grain maize, believing people are too hungry to plant any of it.
At the same time, 19% of the country's population is infected with HIV/AIDS, says the report, which adds that malaria is rampant and a cholera outbreak took 1,000 lives this year.
Last year, reports Business Daily, people exhausted their assets to get food, selling bicycles or goats at a quarter of their value. This year, when food shortages peaked ahead of the harvest, thieves were mutilated and beaten to death.
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