Africa News Digest
Mbeki Draws Closer to American System Economics
South African President Thabo Mbeki declared, in his weekly letter in ANC Today of Aug. 22-28, that government must organize a large-scale "resource transfer" from the country's "First World" sector to its "Third World" sector, without trusting the lie of economic "trickle-down" from one to the other. But, he said, government must sponsor capital formation in the First World sector to make the resource transfer possible.
Mbeki attacked the concept of automatic economic "trickle down" from higher First World sector growth to the country's Third World sector: "None of this is true," he said. He pointed out that there has to be a large-scale, government-directed "resource transfer" because the two sectors are structurally disconnected. "The task we face is to devise and implement a strategy to intervene in the 'Third World economy' and not assume that the interventions we make with regard to the 'First World economy' are necessarily relevant to the former."
Mbeki reiterated the rationale for the decisions announced at the end of the July Cabinet Lekgotla of putting money into road, rail, and air transport; harbors; and other economic modernization; to continue to put the country's First World economy in the strongest position possible. "After the July Cabinet Lekgotla, we also said that the successes we have scored with regard to the 'First World economy' also give us the possibility to attend to the problems posed by the 'Third World economy'the two which exist side by side."
Sustained government intervention is needed, he said, for resource transfers to enable the Third World economy to develop to the point that it loses its Third World character.
ASEAN/African Union Cooperation To Be Established
South African President Thabo Mbeki, on a state visit to Malaysia, said cooperation between ASEAN and the African Union would be established soon. Mbeki led a delegation of 70 on a state visit Sept. 1-3, including business leaders and four Cabinet ministers. In addition to meeting Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, he met Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who succeeds Dr. Mahathir in October, and Yang di Pertuan Agung, the King of Malaysia.
Mbeki "told a business luncheon organized by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute he was confident that economic cooperation between... ASEAN and the African Union would be established soon," according to iafrica.com Sept. 3. "We are going to be starting negotiations between African Union and ASEAN; we want to increase economic cooperation," he said. He also called for developing countries to "speak with one voice" at the upcoming World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
Negotiations are underway for Malaysia to assist in the training of South African public servants.
U.S. Senator Announces U.S. Security Interest in Liberia
U.S. Senator John Warner, in Monrovia, Aug. 28, said a stable Liberia is "in the security interest of our country." Warner, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, had earlier expressed the neo-con view that the U.S. has no national security interest in Liberia, and therefore should not send peacekeeping troops. In Monrovia, however, he said that, "Unless the free world comes in and helps re-establish some form of democracy and a government, it could quickly lapse into a haven for terrorism [that] could be transferred from here to any place in the Western world, and indeed to the United States." Stabilizing Liberia, and nations in similar situations, was therefore "in the security interest of our country," he said. Although Warner is not entirely aligned with the neo-cons, his case for intervention is one that the neo-cons use, when the case for intervention suits their purposes.
Warner said the decision on the UN request for U.S. forces to train a new national army, should wait until a transitional government is in place. But, he said, "there is no cut-and-run in this operation."
Ivory Coast Coup Plot Shows Continued Instability
More than 50 people have been arrested in Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) and 11 in France since Aug. 23, in what Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo called an attempt to assassinate him and his principal aides. Gbagbo spoke in a televised address to the nation Aug. 26. Among those arrested in France was Master Sgt. Ibrahim Coulibaly, a key figure in the 1999 coup that briefly brought the late Col. Robert Guei to power. Coulibaly has also been implicated in other coup attempts. Two Army generals, arrested in Ivory Coast, were also prominent in Guei's military government. The controller-general of the police was also arrested. Those arrested in France include the spokesman for the northern rebels (MPCI) in Europe, and former members of the French Foreign Legion.
The northern rebels (MPCI) say they were not involved, but have launched a vigorous campaign for Coulibaly's release, calling his arrest arbitrary. One party in the government of neighboring Mali has named a lawyer for Coulibaly's defense. (Mali supports the MPCI.)
Meanwhile, the head of Gbagbo's ruling FPI Party, Pascal N'Guessan, has accused both Prime Minister Seydou Diarra (a northerner) and pro-IMF opposition schemer Alassane Ouattara (aligned with the MPCI) of involvement.
A judicial source in France claims that one of those arrested, who is associated with a security firm, said he was contacted about forming a security team for members of the Ivorian opposition, but then the assassination of Gbagbo was broached, and he refused, said AFP Aug. 30.
The arrests and allegations are occurring against a backdrop of stalemate in the attempted normalization of political life in Ivory Coast. According to IRIN Aug. 29, "In recent weeks, the MPCI, [Prime Minister Seydou] Diarra and all the main opposition parties have accused Gbagbo of blocking the peace process..." by refusing to fill the vacant Ministries of Defense and Internal Security with consensus figures.
Synarchist International Former IMF Director Figure in Ivorian Coup Plots
Former IMF Deputy Managing Director Alassane Ouattara continues to be the synarchist mastermind behind the destabilization of Ivory Coast. The French authorities have wiretaps of recent incriminating conversations between Ouattara, and Ibrahim Coulibaly, who was arrested in France. They have also obtained a document signed by Ouattara authorizing unlimited access for Coulibaly to funds in a Fortis Bank account. Ouattara, now living in France, has been called in by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, his former friend, for a conversation.
Coulibaly was Ouattara's family bodyguard when Ouattara was Prime Minister under President Houphouet-Boigny. Ouattara was, in fact, the mastermind of the 1999 coupin which Coulibaly played a key rolethat put Robert Guei in power; he also masterminded the 2002-03 insurrection.
Ouattara, Coulibaly, and their political forces are not the partisans of "democracy" they claim to be, fighting the "dictatorship" of President Laurent Gbagbo. That became even clearer when someone in Coulibaly's entourage told the Pan African News Agency Sept. 2 that she had contacted the French lawyer Jacques Verges to help in the defense of Coulibaly, and he has agreed.
Verges, a marker for synarchism, is the former Communist who had the Nazi Francois Genoud alongside him for advice in his 1969 defense of three PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) terrorists who blew up an Israeli El Al plane in Zurich. Hitler admirer Genoud was in the business of providing arms to terrorists. In 1949, Verges formed an enduring friendship with Pol Pot. In 1960, under de Gaulle, Verges was convicted of "anti-state activities" and was jailed.
The inclusion of Verges in the defense team also indicates the case will be made into a political cause célèbre. Demonstrations in Paris have already begun.
Malaysian Investors To Kickstart Zimbabwe's Agriculture
Malaysian investors are making immediate, large investments to kickstart Zimbabwe's agriculture, according to the Herald of Harare on Aug. 26. This may forestall the Anglo-American takeover of the country. Zimbabwe's President Mugabe met with Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad Aug. 22 in Kuala Lumpur, at the end of a one-week visit in which the Zimbabwean President and his delegation met with officials, investors, and businessmen. During the visit, Malaysian investors pledged to supply agricultural equipment and machinery, chemicals, seed, and fuel for the forthcoming farming season in Zimbabwe. The pledge will prove a relief; with only a few months left before the onset of the rainy season, the country is faced with a shortage of maize seed, fertilizer, and tractors.
The Malaysians are funding the purchase of 1.5 million tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, 500,000 tons of urea, 50,000 tons of maize seed, 20,000 tons of soybean seed, and 10,000 tons of wheat seed. They will also supply 50,000 two-wheel drive and 2,000 four-wheel drive tractors, 100 bulldozers, 500 combine harvesters, 1,000 planters, 10,000 boom sprayers, water pumps, irrigation center pivots, electricity generators, trucks, livestock vaccines, chemicals, and 150 million liters of fuel.
Hero's Welcome for Mugabe at Southern African Summit
Zimbabwe's President Mugabe was hailed with enthusiasm at the annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Aug. 25-26. "The summit has shown overwhelming support for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe the past two days. Mugabe was given a hero's welcome on Monday morning, with delegates cheering and ululating him through two standing ovations," said Sapa-AFP Aug. 26.
There were loud cheers and applause when Tanzanian President and current SADC chairman Benjamin Mkapa called on the Anglo-American powers to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying the quicker they are lifted, the sooner "positive growth and change can emerge." He said the sanctions were unwarranted, ineffective, hurt ordinary people, and "have profound social and economic implications on the region as a whole."
Mkapa said Africans must stop complaining of foreign exploitation of their natural resources and embrace "the concept of smart partnership" to achieve "our shared development," or "we will remain poor." "Smart partnership" is the hallmark of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir's influence.
Mkapa was angry and biting in his support for land redistribution in Zimbabwe. He said his remarks should not, however, be interpreted as support for "arbitrary, illegal, unlegislated, economically unproductive and unbalanced restitution."
In response to the threat from the EU and U.S. to refuse funding for projects in which Zimbabwe is involved, Tanzanian Foreign Minister and current chairman of the SADC ministerial council, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, said, "The EU can either fund us as a group or keep its financial aid." The same goes for the United States.
But the rotating SADC presidency, due to come to Zimbabwe, has been diverted for a second time: The 2004 summit will be held in Mauritius, not Harare. SADC officials told Johannesburg's Sunday Times Aug. 24 that regional leaders fear repercussions if they elect Mugabe.
Surprising Admissions from Think Tank Seeking Mugabe's Overthrow
We trash your economy and destabilize your governmentif you resist, we screech about human rights and support a puppet to overthrow you. That is message to be read between the lines of a report, "Zimbabwe and the Prospects for Nonviolent Political Change," issued in August by the U.S. Institute of Peace. It says the Zimbabwe government "has used its anti-colonial legacy and its role in the war of liberation to build a nationalist platform with a stated commitment to rectify colonial injusticesa theme that garners support from many leaders in developing countries and Zimbabwe's rural populace."
There is "widespread acknowledgment," it says, in Zimbabwe and abroad, that the IMF's structural adjustment program of the 1990s was a major factor in "putting the economy on a steep path of decline." The report omits to mention that Mugabe only attempted large-scale land redistribution when that economic decline hit.
The report says that the IMF's later withdrawal of balance-of-payment support, the imposition of sanctions, and withdrawal of donor support "have crippled the government's ability to resuscitate the economy" and "sanctions have severely undermined the Zimbabwean government's ability to deliver social services."
The authors claim not to know for sure, but admit "it is likely that the [opposition] Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has received significant international donor support" (which EIR has fully reported). The MDC "has repeatedly stated that a resumption of relations with the IMF would be a first necessary step to economic recovery."
The best way to overthrow Mugabe, the report says, "is a combination of increased international and domestic pressure" on the government. It adds, "a prolonged domestic campaign may be necessary to loosen Mugabe's hold on power and to increase the MDC's position at the negotiating table."
Current interventions by China, Malaysia and India to restart Zimbabwe's economy are not taken into account.
U.S. Council on Foreign Relations Invites Mugabe
The U.S. Council on Foreign Relations has invited President Mugabe to address its members. State Department briefer Phil Reeker was taken by surprise Sept. 2 when asked whether he was aware of the invitation. Later in the day, the State Department confirmed that the CFR has invited heads of state attending the impending UN General Assembly to address its members and participate in question and answer sessions. Mugabe was among those receiving invitations.
Egypt Wants Guarantee of Sudan's Unity
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Sept. 1 in Khartoum that Egypt will not take part in the Sudan peace talks simply as an observer, according to Arabic News. Maher apparently did not say how Egypt is achieving a larger role. Talks resume Sept. 10.
Maher met with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and First Vice President Ali Othman Muhammad, and reported that his discussion with President al-Bashir dealt with "efforts to achieve peace and the contacts Egypt is making in support of the Sudanese position."
Maher also said, "It is natural that any friend of Sudan will be worried until an agreement that guarantees the unity of the Sudan is signed." (Egypt is particularly concerned because the Nile, on which its existence depends, flows through southern Sudan.) The Machakos Accord, the ostensible basis for current negotiations, does not guarantee Sudan's unity, and the latest (July 12) draft of a peace agreement virtually guarantees secession. by the South.
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