Africa News Digest
Bush Visits Africa
The centerpiece of President George Bush's tour of Africa was his visit to South Africa, because of its weight on the continent. John Stremlau, an expert in international relations at Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, wrotebefore Bush's arrivala column titled, "Mbeki Has the Edge in Talks With Bush" (Business Day July 8). And perhaps he did.
South African President Thabo Mbeki appears to have obtained Bush's acquiescence in his approach to Zimbabwepersuasion without threatsin the course of a four-hour private discussion. (Later, in Botswana, Bush criticized "bad governance" in Zimbabwe, adding, "Therefore we will continue to speak out for democracy in Zimbabwe.") This news was followed the next day by Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai asking for the resumption of talks with the government that he broke off weeks ago in favor of an attempted mass strike.
Mbeki and others shaped the environment of Bush's visit in significant ways. In an interview with CNN just hours before Bush's arrival in the evening of July 8, Mbeki criticized the Bush Administration's approach to Zimbabwe, saying of Colin Powell's June 24 op-ed in the New York Times, "I don't think it was well-advised to give the impression of directing what South Africa should do."
Mbeki, instead of meeting Bush in person, sent his Foreign Minister to meet Bush and his entourage at the airport.
An article by Mbeki challenging progressive political forces to dump free-market ideology, appeared in the Guardian (U.K.) on July 9, the day Mbeki and Bush met.
The ruling African National Congress partythat is, Mbeki's partysponsored a demonstration of 2,000 persons in Pretoria July 9, protesting Bush's visit, that marched to the U.S. embassy. Demos were also held in major cities.
Indian warships were present at Maputo, Mozambique, South Africa's neighbor, for the African Union (AU) summit of July 9 to 12, at Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano's request; they projected an image of a continent with friends in the East. No such demonstration of friendly force was ever associated with a summit of the AU's predecessor, the Organization of African States.
In Uganda, regarding the last decade of genocide and warfare in the Great Lakes region, Bush praised President Yoweri Museveni in these words: "And your country... is strategically located in the heart of Africa. And therefore, you're drawn into a lot of disputes. And you've done an excellent job of using your prestige and your position to help resolve those disputes. And we I will continue to work with you to bring peace on the continent." Because Museveni has been, in fact, a major figure contributing to a decade of genocide and war, Bush's offer of help is chilling.
Aspects of President Bush's visit to Africa are reported in more detail in some of the following stories.
Bush Appears To Support Mbeki's Approach to Zimbabwe
In Pretoria, President Bush praised Mbeki for his diplomatic efforts to assist neighboring Zimbabwe, saying, "The intention was never to second-guess President Mbeki's tactics. The U.S. supports him in his quest." On the same subject, Mbeki said: "We are of one mind that there is an urgent need to address the problems facing Zimbabwe.... Ultimately, though, the principal responsibility for Zimbabwe lies with the people there." In this same joint press conference, the two addressed the Liberia situation, with Bush suggesting that U.S. aid may consist mostly of advisers and trainers: "We won't overextend our troops, period." Mbeki said, "We need a lot of support, logistics-wise and so on." He added that the military burden in Liberian peacekeeping "really ought to principally fall on us as Africans." With these words, Mbeki became the first African leader and world leaderat least publiclyto oppose the proposal that the U.S. should lead a largely African peacekeeping force Liberia.
Mbeki: Powell Should Not Tell South Africa What To Do
Mbeki criticized Colin Powell July 8 on the issue of Zimbabwe. Referring to Powell's attackin a June 24 op-ed in the New York Timeson South Africa's "quiet diplomacy" over Zimbabwe, Mbeki told CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault: "It came as a bit of surprise." Mbeki added that South Africa had been in constant contact with Zimbabwe over the African initiative to secure a peaceful transition. "They [the Bush Administration] are familiar with what we are doing," he said, adding that Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had been in regular touch with her American counterpart. "But I don't think it was well-advised to give the impression of directing what South Africa should do," Mbeki said, referring to the Powell op-ed. Mbeki went on to welcome the offer of the U.S. government to eventually provide economic assistance for the reconstruction of Zimbabwe, once the Zimbabweans had worked out their current crisis.
Mbeki recalled the meeting he had with Bush in Austin, Texas in 2000, before Bush became President; he said that Bush made commitments at that time to Africa's development, and that he thought Bush has been consistent in "wanting" to carry through on them.
On Iraq, Mbeki said he and Bush simply don't agree, but "that doesn't mean that we go to war with each other."
Mbeki: Progressives Must Break with Free-Market Economics
President Mbeki dropped a bomb on free-market economics in an op-ed in the Guardian (U.K.) on July 9during Bush's visit. Mbeki's article is entitled, "The Icy Ideological Grip," and carries this teaser: "If progressive politics is to have any meaning, it must start from the reality that you can't overcome global poverty through reliance on the market." Mbeki reviews the internal logic of the free market dogma and its conclusion that "the market" must be given free rein. But, he says, "To ... have any real meaning, progressive politics has to disagree with these propositions.... Do the progressive politicians have the courage to challenge this injunction?"
He points to the practice of the European Union of setting aside "structural funds" for the poorest European regions, precisely because they cannot develop through the market. "If poor regions within the EU need 'structural funds,' how shall the far greater need of Africa be met? The progressive politicians must... [recover] their historic character as champions of the poor, and break the icy ideological grip of rightwing politics. The African masses are watching and waiting."
Raenette Taljaard, finance spokesman for South Africa's neoliberal party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), said that it was incomprehensible that Mbeki should have this article published on the day of Bush's visit.
African Union Stands by Mugabe
Speaking at the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo, Mozambique, July 10, Zimbabwe Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said that the AU had maintained its stance, after a closed-door session July 8, that it would hold no meetings with the European Union on development issues if it excluded Zimbabwe.
New AU Chairman Is in Pan-African, Dirigist Tradition
Former Mali President Alpha Oumar Konare was elected Chairman of the Commission of the African Union (AU) at its summit in Maputo July 10. Konare will be responsible for day-to-day leadership of the AU. Leading governments, including Egypt, Libya, South Africa, Nigeria, and Senegal, reportedly decided in favor of Konare beforehand, and brought most of the lesser countries with them. South African President Thabo Mbeki is said to have backed him. Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano succeeds Mbeki in the AU rotating Presidency.
African politicians had stressed the need for a candidate with enough clout to resolve conflicts; Konare is seen as able to speak to heads of state as an equal.
Konare was influenced by the outlook of his mentor, the father of Mali's independence, Modibo Keita, a militant pan-Africanist and socialist. As Mali's President in the 1960s, Keita was "viscerally anti-colonialist, but not anti-French," according to the Modibo Keita website. But he did break relations with France and orient toward the Soviet Union. De Gaulle said that he was "the only head of state before whom people were not obliged to bow their heads in speaking to him."
Konare served as elected President of Mali from 1992 until 2002. According to SAPA, Konare's reputation as a leftist did not hurt his relations with "France, Libya [sic], and the U.S." during his Presidency. He holds a doctorate in archaeology from Warsaw University.
German MPs Tell Uganda, Rwanda To End Covert Role in Congo
Uganda and Rwanda are still supporting Congolese rebels and must desist for the sake of peace, German MPs said in a visit to Uganda. Dr. Friedbert Pflueger, a CDU MP and foreign policy spokesman of the German Parliament, told the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Edward Ssekandi, that Uganda and Rwanda are still supporting Congolese militia in the Ituri region. Ssekandi, who met with the German MPs July 9, denied that Uganda is still offering support to the Congolese rebels and militia. Ssekandi claimed: "Our troops were withdrawn from Congo. Maybe it is some individuals but not the government."
Pflueger, accompanied by Ruck Christian, a CSU MP, said in a speech to the Ugandan Parliament that Germany had received convincing intelligence from diplomats and journalists that Uganda is supporting Congolese militias. "Our voters are asking why Germany for the first time has sent its soldiers to keep peace in Africa by assisting the French in Congo, yet Uganda and Rwanda are undermining those efforts," Pflueger said.
On July 8, the two parliamentarians met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and delivered the same message.
With Oil Discovery, Oil Multis May Fuel Congo Conflict
A new Human Rights Watch report blames Uganda and Rwanda for the Ituri violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and warns that the discovery of oil in the Semliki Valley, an area straddling the border between Uganda and Ituri (in DR Congo), could keep the conflict going with the involvement of powerful international corporations. Bunia is in this area. The 57-page report, titled "Covered in BloodEthnically Targeted Violence," was released in New York July 8. The report says: "In 2002 agents of the company [Heritage Oil] started to make contact with local chiefs in Ituri, including several Burasi as well as Chief Kahwa of Mandro." The report notes that in addition to its contract with the DR Congo government, Heritage Oil "maintains close links with Ugandan authorities." The report claims there are ten armed political groups in Ituri. "Since 1998 most of these groups have at one point or another been armed, trained or politically supported by the Ugandan authorities. Uganda has played a major role in launching or support at least five of these groups."
EIR identified the dirty operations in Africa of Heritage Oil and Gas, in combination with the Privy Council-connected mercenary firm, Executive Outcomes, in its Jan. 31, 1997 issue. Anthony Buckingham heads both.
'Diamond Pat' Robertson Defends Liberian President Taylor
In recent broadcasts of his 700 Club, televangelist Pat Robertson openly defended Liberia's Charles Taylorhis business partner in the "blood diamond" tradeas a "freely elected" "fellow Baptist" who is being overthrown by U.S. State Department fanatics who are out to install a radical Muslim regime in his place. "What Robertson has not discussed in these broadcasts is his financial interests in Liberia," the Washington Post reported July 10. Robertson was exposed by the Washington Post's Colbert King in 2001, for his diamond and gold dealings in Liberia, in partnership with Taylor. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention, told the Post, "I would say Pat Robertson is way out on his own, in a leaking life raft, on this one."
Sources have told EIR the prospect of President Bush sending 1,000 American peacekeepers to Liberia to oversee the transition from Taylor to a new government, is tied to Robertson's business interests there. "Rather than leave the situation solely in the hands of the French, the President is prepared to send in American troops, to assure that Robertson's interests are not damaged," the source claimed. Bush and Karl Rove are said to want to keep the Christian fundamentalists happy, at the same time that the President pushes ahead with the Israel-Palestine peace process, a line in the sand issue for the Christian Zionists. Helping Robertson keep his hands in the dirty diamond business in Liberia and Sierra Leone may be a cheap way to buy off a portion of the evangelical crowd.
Collapse of Cote D'Ivoire Unity Government Averted
In Cote D'Ivoire, the collapse of the government of national reconciliation, and a return to opposing armed camps, was barely averted July 2. The rebel movements (aka "the New Forces")which have been participating in the governmentwent back to their demand that the defense and security portfolios must be given to them. They also have demanded the dissolution of partisan militias. President Laurent Gbagbo had filled the two posts with interim appointees months ago and left the issue unresolved.
The New Forces declared a "state of emergency" June 30 and declined to participate in the upcoming disarmament process. They were prepared to order their respective cabinet ministers to return to the territory they control, unless the two ministries were assigned to them.
These threats were triggered when pro-Gbagbo militant youth, opposed to concessions to the New Forces, attempted to lynch Communications Minister Guillaume Soro on June 27. Soro is the ranking leader of the MPCI ex-rebels in the government. Pro-Gbagbo student leader Charles Ble Goude called the attempted lynching "a non-event" June 30. He has been accused of orchestrating it.
The military chief of staff of the New Forces told IRIN July 2 that "The UN Security Council has given us reassurances on our various demands." The Council asked the New Forces to propose alternative names for the defense and security posts.
U.S. Covert Counter-Terrorism Operation Planned for Africa
The U.S. is planning a covert counter-terrorism operation in Africa, possibly for use in Sudan, according to Stratfor. The Crisis Watch web site of Fundacio CIDOB, included the following in a July 4 report on continuing rebel operations in Sudan: "While there is no unequivocal evidence of links between the rebels and al-Qaeda, Washington is, according to Stratfor, planning a covert counter-terrorism operation in Africa, possibly in Sudan. The base of operations would be Djibouti, where a combined joint taskforce-Horn of Africa was created in May. The birth of rebel groups in Sudan since the Khartoum government began cooperating with the U.S. has aroused concerns in Washington."
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