DATE=2/10/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=COHEN - AFRICA PEACE KEEPING (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-259040
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=MARRAKECH, MOROCCO
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Defense secretary William Cohen is ruling out
any US military peace keeping role in Congo or other
African trouble spots, saying the US military is
already stretched too thin by commitments in Bosnia,
Kosovo, Haiti, and elsewhere. But Mr. Cohen says
Washington is trying to aid peace keeping on the
troubled continent with a program to train thousands
of African troops is peace keeping work. VOA
Correspondent Jim Randle reports from Marrakech,
Morocco.
TEXT: Mr. Cohen says he will discuss peace keeping
and other matters with the leaders of Morocco, South
Africa, and Nigeria during his current week long visit
to Africa.
Morocco has sent peacekeepers to Bosnia and a field
hospital to Kosovo. South Africa has done
peacekeeping work in other parts of Africa and the
United Nations is considering a five thousand member
peace-keeping force to monitor a rarely observed cease
fire in Congo.
Some thirty-five thousand soldiers from six nations
are fighting inside Congo while nine diverse rebel
groups are fighting from inside Congo to overthrow
neighboring governments. Meantime, some members of
the US congress question the effectiveness of UN
sponsored peacekeepers after guerilla forces disarmed
several such units in Sierra Leone in the past month.
On a flight to Morocco, secretary Cohen said inspite
of such problems, he will not dispatch U-S troops to
help African peace keeping work that American soldiers
are already over committed. He says Washington will
do what it can to help though and continue a 100-
million dollar training program for the African Crisis
Response Initiative (ACRI) over the next couple of
years.
ACRI has given training to several battalions of
peacekeepers from a number of African nations. A
senior defense official says the program could
eventually help organize a multi-national brigade of
some 12-thousand skilled peacekeepers.
Then Mr. Cohen says the training focuses on cooling
conflicts, not conquest.
/// COHEN ACT ///
It's not the United States trying to intervene,
or trying to dominate in any way of the
African continent, but rather to promote
stability, economic reform, and generate
prosperity.
/// ENE ACT ///
Mr. Cohen is in Morocco where he is scheduled to meet
with King Mohamed for talks on relations with Iraq,
Libya, Algeria,the Middle East peace process and other
topics. (Signed)
NEB/JR/TVM-T/PT
10-Feb-2000 20:47 PM EDT (11-Feb-2000 0147 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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