Military

DATE=9/23/03

TYPE=DATELINE

NUMBER=7-37877

TITLE=U-S POLICY AFRICA

BYLINE=SARAH WILLIAMS

TELEPHONE=619-2659

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=CAROL CASTIEL

CONTENT=

DISK: DATELINE THEME [PLAYED IN STUDIO, FADED UNDER DATELINE HOST VOICE OR PROGRAMMING MATERIAL]

INTRO: The African continent has had a long and varied relationship with the United States. While not traditionally a high priority for most presidents, Africa has figured prominently on the foreign policy agendas of both the Clinton and Bush presidencies. In this Dateline report, Sarah Williams looks at the Bush administration's Africa policy.

HOST: In recent years Africa has become a higher priority for American presidents. A continent scarred by poverty, disease and war, it also possesses immense natural resources such as oil and diamonds. And there are personal and political connections as well. African-Americans, an important voting bloc, comprise at least 12 percent of the population of the United States. And the West African country of Liberia, recently the scene of increased fighting between rebel troops and government forces, was founded by former American slaves in the 19th century.

In 1998, President Clinton became the first U-S president to visit sub-Saharan Africa in more than 20 years. This July, President Bush visited five African countries. In his January State of the Union address, Mr. Bush called on the U-S Congress to commit 15-billion dollars to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. This initiative followed other projects such as the Millennium Challenge Account, designed to assist qualified developing countries fight corruption and poverty, and the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a program that offers incentives for African countries to open their economies and build free markets.

Jendayi (Jend-eye) Frazer, a special assistant to the president and senior director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, says the Bush administration believes in a regionalized approach to the continent. She spoke recently at a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

TAPE: CUT 1, Frazer

"Let's treat West Africa as a unit. Let's look at Southern Africa as a unit, let's look at East Africa, Central Africa and the Horn of Africa. So, taking five sub-regions and trying to develop a policy approach to each one of those sub-regions."

HOST: Ms. Frazer says the Bush administration believes Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Ethiopia are the economic and political anchors for their respective regions, even though smaller countries are often the best performers.

TAPE Cut 2, Frazer Act

"We're saying in Africa that there are smaller countries that are actually doing the right things, they have the right policy framework in place and we should try self-consciously to direct some of our resources towards those countries, such as Ghana, Mali, Benin, in West Africa, Botswana, Mozambique in southern Africa, Tanzania and even Uganda in East Africa. So trying to find those smaller countries that are good economic performers, making good progress on democratic principles."

HOST: Ms. Frazer adds that the Bush administration has also identified HIV-AIDS, the rule of law and conflict resolution as its principal policy priorities.

TAPE: Cut 3, Frazer

"The key policy priorities that we must focus on are the obvious ones. H-I-V/AIDS, that's one of our three major policy priorities, what we call economic and political freedom, we tend in the White House to put the two together, in which the president often talks about as we open markets, as we open our societies to an exchange of goods, to an exchange of ideas, to an exchange of values, institutionalize the rule of law, then there's a synergy between political and economic freedom, free trade and democratization or political, I should call it the rule of law. Then, not necessarily human rights, but the rule of law, hopefully that will reflect on human rights. But we see the two going hand in hand, economic and political freedom. And then finally, conflict resolution."

HOST: The East Africa region has become more prominent because of its connection to the war on terrorism. Ms. Frazer says the bombings of the U-S Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 were terrible precursors to the eventual terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001. Mr. Bush devoted some of his time on his recent African visit to the issue of fighting terrorism.

TAPE: Cut 4, Frazer Act

"And then the president announced on his trip the "East Africa counter-terrorism initiative," because East Africa is the hot spot for al Qaida terrorist presence in sub-Saharan Africa. We've had the embassy bombings in Nairobi and in Dar (Es Salaam), and this is to try to build their capacity to prevent terrorist attacks."

HOST: However, Africa specialist, Pauline Baker, President of the Fund for Peace, says there is a downside to the new campaign against terrorism. She says, the renewed emphasis on security concerns echoes the Cold War when Africa was considered one more battlefield in the anti-Communist struggle.

TAPE: Cut 9 Baker Act

The danger of course is that if we change Africa's strategic priority based on a counter-terrorism view of the world, it means that we will view Africa solely again or exclusively in security terms. And not deal with the political and economic and social issues which relate to those security terms."

HOST: Nonetheless, Susan Rice, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under President Clinton, praised the Bush administration for placing Africa high on the U-S foreign policy agenda.

TAPE: Cut 5, Rice Act

"I think there were many in the Africa policy community who were very uncertain at the outset of the Bush administration, whether Africa would remain on the agenda, whether it would be a place that would garner as it had particularly in the latter half of the 1990's, an increasing amount of presidential attention and increasing resources, and increasing focus both in the executive branch and Congress. And in fact, it has. I think it's fair to say that Africa has remained a point of focus, a point of some attention whether you want to point to the president's decision to take a trip to Africa relatively early in his administration or the continued flow of visitors from Africa to the White House, the attention has not been dropped and I think important credit is due for that."

HOST: Ms. Rice also hailed the Bush administration's AIDS policy. About 42 million people around the world are living with H-I-V / AIDS, and about 30 million of those people are on the African continent. Mr. Bush's call for 15-billion dollars in funds to combat the disease in Africa and the Caribbean in the next five years, with three-billion dollars requested for next year is much needed, she said.

TAPE: Cut 6, Rice Act

"If in fact Congress fully appropriates the funds that have been promised for the HIV / AIDS initiative, and I'm talking about the emergency initiative, that is a hugely important initiative and a big step forward for the United States, and one that I think we all should be proud of. But there are some issues with respect to that. Clearly, in my opinion, it would be preferable if the United States were prepared to channel more of those resources through the global fund and like multi-lateral instruments. I think it would be better if we didn't have a requirement that 30 percent of the funds would be spent on abstinence-related programs, which is a bit unrealistic."

HOST: Africare Vice President Jeannine Scott also appeared on the panel, and like Susan Rice, gave high marks to the Bush administration for its commitment to fight AIDS on the continent. However, Ms. Scott lamented that Congress wants to cut back funding for the AIDS program to two-billion dollars.

TAPE: Cut 8 Scott Act

Although leveled as an emergency, the budget's mission calls for only two billion, and not the originally three billion anticipated. Moreover, no new funds have been provided this year. If HIV/AIDS is an emergency as implied by the initiative, resources made available should reflect that reality. Those charged with the task across the board, should fight to make the necessary funds available. The President has promised 10-billion in new money for his initiative, the pledge should not, however, lead to cuts for other programs, such as child survival, immunization, orphan or other health care protection and prevention programs."

HOST: Views on Liberia, where about 32-hundred West African peacekeeping troops are currently stationed, were also mixed. Several panelists criticized President Bush's policy toward the West African nation. Again, Susan Rice.

TAPE: Cut 7, Rice Act

"The biggest and most visible way in which expectations have not met reality or promises have been unfulfilled is in the case of Liberia. And we can argue about what the promises were. I think everybody who followed this issue closely had the impression before the president's trip, during the president's trip, up to and through his meeting with U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan after his trip, that the United States was prepared to support in a meaningful way militarily ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) efforts in Liberia. And it didn't happen. And we can spend some time dissecting why it didn't happen, but 150 (American) troops on the ground for 11 days and now sitting on their boats while Rome burns is not what was promised."

HOST: Pauline Baker of the Fund for Peace echoes Susan Rice's criticism of the Bush administration's approach to Liberia and opposes the overall policy of regionalization articulated by the National Security Council.

TAPE: Cut 10, Baker Act

We really don't have a strategy for Liberia or any resources to respond to Liberia. It doesn't fit into this framework. We don't have any real strategy in this framework for dealing with the Zimbabwes of Africa, and Zimbabwe is an important country, very, very important, and if Zimbabwe blows, it's going to pull down the whole sub-continent, if not be a setback for the whole continent as a whole. So while I understand the necessity to prioritize, in a continent like Africa, doing so has the risk of ignoring some of the most problematic states on the continent to which we should have a constant oversight and some sort of strategy.

HOST: When it comes to military situations, Ms. Baker says, the international community should be more sensitive to African interests.

TAPE: Cut 11, Baker Act

"We simply are not responsive to the Africans when they have a security need, that they need us to be strategic partners with. So, while we may shy away from the terms strategic partnership with Africa, if we're really going to fight terrorism on that continent, we're going to have to have some sort of partnerships in which there's more of a balance, and it's not just fighting terrorism in terms of al Qaida, it's also addressing the real security needs of African states, which means failing states.

HOST: Despite their differences, all of the speakers praised President Bush's decision to invite Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki for a state visit to the White House, perhaps as soon as October. Such an invitation is significant since President Bush has hosted only three state visits since he took office. It is a sign, they say, of the growing importance that Kenya in particular and Africa in general have acquired amid the many competing priorities on the US foreign policy agenda. For Dateline, I'm Sarah Williams in Washington.

MUSIC: East African