DATE=9/7/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N SUMMIT-AFRICA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-266245
BYLINE=BRECK ARDERY
DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: African leaders are having their say at the U-
N Millennium Summit but one major African leader is
conspicuous by his absence. VOA Correspondent Breck
Ardery reports from the United Nations.
TEXT: The summit of world leaders features a strong
representation from Africa. But Congo-Kinshasa
President Laurent Kabila decided not to attend,
meaning there could be no real progress in attempts to
resolve the problems related to deployment of a U-N
peacekeeping force in Congo.
African leaders who did attend the summit stressed the
problems of conflict, poverty and disease that plague
their continent. South African President Thabo Mbeki
suggested scheduling another U-N summit to concentrate
on those specific issues.
A special session of the U-N Security Council,
attended by the heads of state of Council members, did
approve a resolution promising greater attention to
Africa.
President Ahmad Kabbah of Sierra Leone expressed his
thanks to the United Nations for strengthening
UNAMSIL, the U-N peacekeeping mission in his country.
/// KABBAH ACT ///
I, on behalf of all the people in Sierra Leone,
take this opportunity to thank the Security
Council for giving UNAMSIL
additional responsibilities within its current
mandate. Our thanks also to those countries who
have contributed troops and other resources.
Their efforts give true meaning to the term
"collective security."
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Kabbah noted that, without peace and security,
economic development is virtually impossible.
Ghana's President J-J Rawlings spoke of government
corruption in many African nations. However, Mr.
Rawlings said much of the corruption would not be
possible were it not for the complicity of western
business interests.
/// RAWLINGS ACT ///
A World Bank report recently blacklisted 29
companies for corruption in contract-awarding
procedures in an African country. Which country?
Our sister country Nigeria. The overwhelming
majority, more than 80 percent of the corrupt
companies that were blacklisted by the World
Bank, a western institution, incidentally were
not Nigerian companies but were from the very
western world that condemns us for our
corruption.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Rawlings said Africa's political independence will
be meaningless unless corruption can be eliminated
both from within and outside the continent. (Signed)
NEB/BA/TVM/PLM
07-Sep-2000 20:11 PM EDT (08-Sep-2000 0011 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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