AFRICA NEWS DIGEST
Qaddafi: Is NEPAD Western Trick To Recolonize Africa?
Speaking at a welcoming ceremony for visiting President Thabo Mbeki in Tripoli over the June 15-16 weekend, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi voiced his skepticism about Western intentions with respect to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the recovery plan being led by Mbeki and Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Qaddafi said: "It is quite difficult for an African man to believe that he will be treated on an equal footing by the colonizers and racists.... I don't believe they have changed their racist mentality. We fought them courageously although there was no balance between their weapons and ours. Yet they are still trying to colonize us. If there are common benefits, we are ready. There is no problem. But we will not be tricked easily. Africa is a giant which has woken up and broken its shackles. The time has passed for creating stooges." Qaddafi did pledge his support for the launch of the African Union, under Mbeki's chairmanship, in Durban in July.
After Qaddafi's address, Mbeki attempted to counter the accusation that NEPAD was a product of the West. "It is important to define for ourselves what we want for the African continent.... That is why we talk about the New Partnership for Africa's Development. We do not want the old partnership of a rider and a horse."
South Africa's June 16 Sunday Times wrote: "Mbeki's visit this week was critical to secure Qaddafi's support, as Libya is one of few African countries that can sponsor major projects on the continent." The report claims that Libya has recently made large contributions to Chad, Sudan, and Madagascar, as well as Zimbabwe.
HIV-AIDS Infection Rate Could Reach 60 Million in Five Years
In a gruesome confirmation of Lyndon LaRouche's early 1970s forecast of global disease pandemics, the National Intelligence Council estimates that if trends continue, the HIV infection rate in Africa will double to 60 million in five years, according to the Boston Globe June 16. LaRouche forecast then, that the continuation of IMF/World Bank-style looting policies would create the conditions for the spread of old diseases, and the creation of new ones, that would threaten the continued existence of the human race.
The estimate by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), a division of the Central Intelligence Agency, highlights the countries of Nigeria and Ethiopia, which are now believed to have at least 10% of their population infected with HIV. This is similar to the history of the epidemic in South Africa in about 1993. South Africa now has an HIV infection rate of 20%, and Botswana, 43%. Nigeria and Ethiopia have now reached a critical point at which the epidemic will take off at geometric rates of increase, doubling in the next five years.
The report also warns of sharp increases in infections in India and China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official of the NIC said the epidemic is entering a "stage of substantial increases in size and scope." The NIC estimate is taken seriously by health officials worldwide, as their 1992 study, which estimated the spread of the epidemic, was the only one that came close to predicting its scope in Africa in the late 1990s, outside of the studies done by EIR in the late 1980s.
In the United States itself, death rates from AIDS are rising, as patients who had been kept alive by AIDS "cocktails" have become drug-resistant. The percentage of new cases resistant to the AIDS drugs, including AZT, usually used as the first course of treatment, is also increasing.
Two UN agencies released a report in early June, warning that 13 million lives are at risk this year in southern Africa from the combination of hunger, AIDS, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases.
U.S. Congressional Subcommittee Eyes Angola Oil
The U.S. Congressional Subcommittee on Africa held hearings June 10-14, on securing Angolan oil for the United States, working from the National Intelligence Council's Global Trends 2015 (issued December 2001), Vice President Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy Report, and a report of the African Oil Policy Initiative Group's (AOPIG) entitled, "African Oil: A Priority for U.S. National Security and African Development."
AOPIG is a consortium of policy makers and oil companies; the Jerusalem-based think tank that also operates in Washington, the Institute for Advanced Strategic & Political Studies (IASPS), run by Robert Loewenberg, Angelo Codevilla, William R. Van Cleave, and Alvin Rabushka, et al., is involved.
Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif) has issued a statement calling for the application to Angola of the model just established in obtaining oil from Chad through the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project. There, "The government of Chad has agreed to earmark a large percentage of [its oil] revenue to spending on education, health, and infrastructure. Aggressive outside auditing of the oil books is planned." The World Bank is also involved. It looks as if the U.S. State Department, the oil companies, and the World Bank will effectively control Chad's economy.
Royce adds, "There appears to be a chance now to counter the Angolan government's pilfering of oil revenues, which has gone on for years."
The Royce Subcommittee also held hearings on Africa as a potential major oil producer in 2000.
UNCTAD Blames IMF, World Bank for Growing African Poverty
A new report by the UN Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), reveals that poverty is on the increase in 34 sub-Saharan countries. The UN agency blames this squarely on IMF and World Bank policies. The number of people living below the poverty line increased to a staggering 800 million this year in those countries. The UNCTAD report, released June 18, said the IMF and World Bank were responsible for the poor flow of aid and lack of debt relief to the majority of the countries, "thus increasing poverty levels." The report says poverty in those countries had doubled as a result.
Executive Director of the African Economic Growth Research Consortium, Delphin Rwegasira, quoted by the Kenyan daily East African Standard June 19, insisted that poverty reduction guidelines cannot be donor-oriented.
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