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Military

African Peacemakers Want U.S. Support -- Not U.S. Troops

 
 By Linda D. Kozaryn
 
American Forces Press Service

 CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Defense Secretary William S. Cohen's 
 visit here was to strengthen military ties with South Africa, 
 but that does not mean U.S. service members will deploy to 
 African hot spots.
 On the contrary, said South African Vice President Thabi Mibeki, 
 African nations are determined to resolve their own conflicts 
 rather than turn to the United States or other nations for help. 
 Cohen and Mibeki talked briefly with reporters after a Feb. 10 
 meeting at the presidential office building here. 
 "There is general agreement around the African continent that it 
 needs to build its peacekeeping capacity, which would then be 
 integrated into the U.N. system," Mibeki said. "All of us agree 
 that we need support from countries like the United States to 
 enable us to build that capacity."
 U.S. support for exercise Blue Crane "is an indication of the 
 U.S. government's own commitment to support the building of that 
 African capacity for peacekeeping," he added. The United States 
 is providing funds and airlift for the upcoming peacekeeping 
 exercise, sponsored by the Southern African Development 
 Commission. South Africa is hosting the training in April, and 
 up to 3,000 African troops from 12 nations will take part.
 The African Crisis Response Initiative, set up by the United 
 States in 1996, also trains African peacekeepers. To date, U.S. 
 trainers have taught troops from such nations as Senegal, 
 Uganda, Malawi, Mali, Ghana and Ethiopia. South African Defense 
 Minister Joe Modise said that although his country has not 
 signed up for the program, it has international obligations as a 
 U.N. member to assist where help is required.
 Modise hosted Cohen's visit to Cape Town Feb. 10 to 12. The two 
 defense leaders had met previously in Washington in 1997 when 
 Vice President Gore and Mibeki established the U.S.-Africa 
 Binational Commission. Since then, members of a joint defense 
 committee had focused on identifying mutually beneficial areas 
 of cooperation. Their efforts produced a memorandum of 
 understanding on military environmental cooperation which Cohen 
 and Modise signed after their first meeting here.
 At a press conference following the signing ceremony, Modise 
 said Cohen's three-day visit to South Africa, the first ever by 
 a U.S. defense secretary, manifests the new standard of 
 cooperation between the United States and South Africa. He also 
 said U.S. support for his continents' peacekeepers is "very 
 significant and very valuable."
 "It's support in the form of an exchange of experience and 
 training," Modise said. "Our knowledge is broadened." The United 
 States provides funding and equipment, he noted, such as two 
 U.S. Air Force C-130s slated to airlift African troops to and 
 from exercise Blue Crane. 
 "It's at great cost that those planes, plus crew, are flying, 
 Modise said, "and they will be here throughout this exercise. 
 This is the type of support the United States is giving, plus 
 more, which we value."
 In Cape Town, Cohen talked with Modise and other South African 
 defense officials. At a banquet in the city's 17th century 
 Castle of Good Hope, Cohen hailed his South African counterpart 
 for helping his nation eliminate roadblocks to progress.
 Both nations, he said, are now working together to build a new 
 era between the two militaries. One in which, he said, "dialogue 
 and cooperation is not remarkable, but routine." Both defense 
 leaders hope to forge peace across the African continent through 
 the power of freedom, Cohen said. 
 

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb1999/n02111999_9902113.html



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