Prometheus 6   

On Africa

Don't forget the BBC's The Story of Africa site.

New Threats and Opportunities Redefine U.S. Interests in Africa
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

…In his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president, Mr. Bush will visit Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria before returning home on Saturday. Each of those countries is an economic or political success by African standards, and Mr. Bush's presence is intended both to celebrate their progress and to encourage other African nations to continue the struggle toward free elections and free markets.

His trip comes at a time when Africa is looming larger in calculations of American interests. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the United States is eager to keep poor nations with shaky governments from becoming breeding grounds and safe harbors for terrorists. It sees Africa as the world's last largely untapped market. It holds out hope that Africa's substantial oil reserves could play a larger role in fueling the American economy and perhaps serving as a counterweight to the influence of OPEC.

…It is striking to African leaders and to many analysts in the United States that Mr. Bush, a conservative Republican who won less than 10 percent of the black vote in 2000 and has fought to hold down social welfare spending at home, has pushed this year for large spending increases to fight AIDS in Africa and to help poor nations nurture their economies.

They said they saw in Mr. Bush's engagement with Africa the hand of his two senior foreign policy advisers: Ms. Rice and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, the two highest-profile African-Americans in government. Neither Ms. Rice nor Mr. Powell has made a secret of the desire to have Washington play a more active role in a part of the world that American foreign policy long addressed only fitfully or as a pawn in the cold war and to acknowledge more fully the ties between Africa and the United States.

"Africa is part of America's history," Ms. Rice said. "Europeans and Africans came to this country together, Africans in chains. And slavery was, of course, America's birth defect. And we've been trying to deal with the consequences of it ever since."

There is still considerable skepticism, in Washington and in Africa, about the depths of Mr. Bush's commitment, diplomats and analysts said. There is concern among some Africa hands that Mr. Bush's interest will wane after he makes the point to the world that he is more than the unilateralist gunslinger he is often, fairly or unfairly, made out to be. With presidential politics increasingly coming to the fore at the White House, there is also grumbling among advocacy groups that the trip is little more than a way for Mr. Bush to flesh out his "compassionate conservative" platform for his re-election race.


Liberian Leader Announces That He Will Step Down
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

MONROVIA, Liberia, July 6 � Charles Taylor, the guerrilla leader who became president and was then indicted as a war criminal, announced today that he would leave his country and accept refuge in nearby Nigeria

Pentagon Seeking New Access Pacts for Africa Bases
By ERIC SCHMITT
Basing agreements and training exercises are being developed to help counter Africa's increasing attractiveness to terrorist groups

U.S. Military Experts Arrive in Liberia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 7:10 AM ET
An American team arrived in the Liberian capital to assess whether to deploy U.S. troops as part of a peacekeeping force.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/7/2003 08:18:31 AM |