In this issue:

EIR Exposes Africa Destabilization, Oil Grab

Tantrum at 10 Downing Street: Malaysia Won't Isolate Mugabe

Road Linking Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe Is Begun

Mining Companies Provide Free HIV Drugs— To Squeeze More Out of Workers

From the Vol.1,No.23 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
AFRICA NEWS DIGEST

EIR Exposes Africa Destabilization, Oil Grab

There is "Raw Materials Looting Behind African 'Peace'," reports EIR's Uwe Friesecke. From the Sudan peace deal, to the negotiations in the Congo, to the "friendly," overtures to Nigeria, there is the Anglo-American agenda based on the Roman Empire looting model. Read this week's EIW InDepth, for a full analysis.

Tantrum at 10 Downing Street: Malaysia Won't Isolate Mugabe

Her British Majesty's government leaned on Malaysia— without success— to prevent Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe from attending the sixth annual Langkawi International Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Herald of Harare (Zimbabwe), on Aug. 2, cited sources attending the Dialogue who said: "The Malaysians were very clear. Apart from the fact that they are a sovereign country, they told Britain that Mugabe is a founding member of the Dialogue, and also, a Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM) fellow, and for that reason, has the right to participate."

The British government threw in everything but the kitchen sink to get its way. They threatened to stop financing the Dialogue through the CPTM framework. They forbade their own nationals in CPTM to attend (some Britons came anyway). They threatened to stop the CPTM from using "Commonwealth" in its name. Having failed with these threats, the Brits are now using a hostile media campaign to attempt to discredit the Dialogue.

But the media isn't what it used to be, either. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has just succeeded in his plan to create the Smart News Network International (SNNi), "to disseminate fair and balanced news from [Asia and Africa] to the rest of the world through interchange between their major media organizations," according to BUA News on July 29. (SNNi is accessible on the Internet.) Her Majesty's tantrum is pretty funny. But the Empire is still looking for the last laugh.

Road Linking Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe Is Begun

The President of Mauritania began construction of the first road to link sub-Saharan Africa with the Mediterranean, and Europe, reported Reuters wire service on July 29. Mauritanian President Maaouya ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, on July 29, laid the first stone of a modern, 295-mile road to run along the entire coast of the country, replacing the existing track laid over shifting sands. It will "join existing road networks in Morocco and Western Sahara with those of Senegal" and other West African countries, according to Reuters. The plan for such a road had long been buried somewhere in the agenda of the Organization of African Unity.

"Traders and travellers using the few existing routes across the Sahara run the gauntlet of armed bandits, shifting sand dunes and— if their vehicles break down— face a fight for survival in one of the least hospitable places on Earth," Reuters notes.

To achieve any transport efficiency, the roads to which the new segment will be linked will also require repair and upgrading.

The $70-million Mauritanian link is being paid for by the Mauritanian government with the help of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Islamic Development Bank. Morocco paid the $2 million required for the technical studies.

However, it should be noted that the United States, through trade representative Robert Zoellick, is pressing Morocco on the issue of free trade, and expects to obtain a U.S.-Moroccan free-trade agreement. Globalization and free trade are the main tools that Wall Street and London have used to stop vital infrastructure projects for decades.

Mining Companies Provide Free HIV Drugs— To Squeeze More Out of Workers

In a shocking example of the slave-labor practice of "getting blood out of a stone," Anglo American Corporation, the South African mining giant, based in London, has asked its operating companies to supply anti-retroviral drugs to employees without charge. The drugs will be used to ameliorate symptoms of infected workers— who are laboring in dangerous and grueling mining conditions, and living in prison-like dormitories without their families— so they can work longer.

Anglo American's corporate statement said, in part, "The operating companies expect to derive benefits from their HIV programs through extending the working lives of infected employees and containing future AIDS-related costs, including absenteeism, medical expenses, pension benefits, and the recruitment and training costs required to replace employees who become too ill to work."

While prolonging the life of those infected with HIV is both necessary, and moral, this is not what is being addressed in the Anglo American Corporation decision.

The maneuver represents pure self-interest on the part of Anglo American, given the tragic dimensions of the AIDS holocaust in Africa— of the 3 million HIV-AIDS deaths worldwide in 2001, 2.2 million were in Africa; 95% of all AIDS orphans in the world live in sub-Saharan Africa— and that this is the result of widespread poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. Ironically, when African leaders, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, and South African President Thabo Mbeki, insisted that poverty and IMF conditionalities are responsible for the pandemic of HIV-infection and AIDS throughout the continent, they came under severe attack from U.S., British, and other international press and organizations. (See EIW #21 for more on the AIDS picture in Africa.)

All rights reserved © 2002 EIRNS