In this issue:

South African Weapons Inspectors in Iraq

Bush Pushing for Security Council Votes by Africans

Chirac Calls for Temporary Halt in Agriculture Subsidies

France To Work With Africans on Zimbabwe Solution

Mbeki Tells Howard: Zimbabwe Sanctions Are Finished

Nigerian President in Singapore Seeking Investments

Stalemate and Threat of Renewed War in Ivory Coast

Gabon Journal Chides Bush For Pushing 'Cowboy' Justice

Destabilization of Gabon Underway?

German Musicians Perform Classical Concert in Sudan

From Volume 2, Issue Number 9 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Mar. 3, 2003
Africa News Digest

South African Weapons Inspectors in Iraq

A team of South African weapons experts now in Iraq, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, had a lengthy meeting with Iraqi Presidential adviser Gen. Amer al-Saadi and Gen. Hosam Mohamad Amin, head of the National Monitoring Directorate that liaises with the UN inspectors, AFP reported last week. On Iraqi television, Deputy Foreign Minister Pahad was quoted as saying, "The objective of our visit is to work seriously to stop war and spread peace."

The purpose of the visit is to advise the Iraqi government on how to destroy proscribed weapons and document what it has destroyed, drawing on South Africa's experience of voluntary nuclear, biological, and chemical disarmament 10 years ago.

Bush Pushing for Security Council Votes by Africans

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter Kansteiner was diverted from a visit to South Africa, to visit the capitals of Angola, Cameroon, and Guinea-Conakry as Colin Powell's special envoy in the matter of a second UN Security Council resolution on Iraq, and is getting telephone backup from President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

After Kansteiner's tour, Baroness Valerie Amos, a black face in the House of Lords who is the British Spokeswoman for International Development, harassed the three governments with a second round of visits.

Kansteiner was in Luanda, Angola, Feb. 20 and met with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The Angolan government press agency reports, "Asked if he got from dos Santos the Angolan position on Iraq, the American diplomat said that they discussed the possibility of future negotiations in New York." Kansteiner also met with the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

President dos Santos' telephones have been ringing off the hook on this issue over the past week. He has received calls from Presidents Bush and Chirac, Vice President Cheney, and Portuguese Prime Minister Durao Barroso.

Kansteiner left Luanda Feb. 21 and was to go to Cameroon and then Guinea-Conakry. There is no news—even of his arrival—from Cameroon, but a source close to the Guinean Presidency told AFP Feb. 22 that Guinea's President Lansana Conte did not give Kansteiner a definite answer on the UNSC vote.

From the Francophone Summit: Chirac Says Relations Between France and Africa Have Entered a New 'Equal Partnership'

"The new partnership extends from development issues, such as fighting AIDS and improving agriculture and education, to fighting terrorism and organized crime," French President Jacques Chirac said at the 22nd Franco-African Summit in Paris, adding that "France would encourage African development, but not dictate what to do," according to VOA News Feb. 21. "He reiterated his call for African governments to work harder at establishing real democracies and at respecting human rights," VOA News said.

Chirac has named a special representative to work on New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) issues before the next Group of Eight summit in June, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Feb. 21. SABC adds, "The ties with South Africa are visibly warming."

Chirac Calls for Temporary Halt in Agriculture Subsidies

Speaking at the Franco-African summit, French President Chirac called on developed countries to suspend subsidies for agricultural exports to African countries temporarily. He said that cheap imports were undercutting Africans' own markets. The London Financial Times on Feb. 21 said that this stance "appeared to mark an abrupt shift in the position of the French government, which has until now strenuously denied that export subsidies harmed farmers in poor countries.... France has led the opposition to reform of Europe's Common Agricultural Policy [CAP]."

Chirac called for suspension of subsidies until the Doha round of trade talks is completed. "However, he hedged his proposals by insisting they must cover food aid and export credits. The United States, the biggest user of such policies, is resisting European Union (EU) pressure in the Doha talks to curb them," the Financial Times says.

An unnamed British diplomat is quoted by the Financial Times as saying, "This is actually pretty sensational. It is entirely in line with what we are trying to do in the debate on the reform of the CAP."

The EU is the biggest exporter to Africa, but only about 3% of EU farm exports go to Africa.

Chirac also proposed at least 10 years of favorable trade terms for Africa, according to VOA News on Feb. 21. It is not clear whether the proposal is for all of Africa, or just the poorer countries.

France To Work With Africans on Zimbabwe Solution

French President Chirac has agreed with the Presidents of Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and South Africa to work on a political and economic solution in Zimbabwe, according to the SABC on Feb. 21. According to SABC, "Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, said President Chirac has agreed to work with South Africa and Nigeria in resolving democracy, rule of law, and land ownership issues in Zimbabwe. Mbeki said, 'I think it will be a positive thing, because indeed, he was insisting that if there is a problem, let's discuss it and let's find a solution. And if there are things that need to be done that might require resources in order to change the situation for the better, let's see what we can do.' And so, as I say, practically, he will be working with President Obasanjo, myself, and President Mugabe."

Mbeki Tells Howard: Zimbabwe Sanctions Are Finished

South African President Mbeki told Australian Prime Minister John Howard that Commonwealth sanctions against Zimbabwe are finished. Somehow, Mbeki arranged to reach Howard in a telephone booth in Hawaii, while Howard's plane was on a refuelling stop en route to Washington. The message: That Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had decided there was no point in the three of them meeting as scheduled in March (the three are the Commonwealth "troika" on Zimbabwe), since Mbeki and Obasanjo had already decided that Commonwealth sanctions against Zimbabwe must not be renewed. The sanctions will lapse in March.

The New Zealand Herald Feb. 11 captured Howard's pique: "Caught on the hop, he said yesterday he had not expected 'to discuss Zimbabwe in a telephone booth in Hawaii.'"

Now it appears they may have to meet anyway, because of the technicalities of their mandate from the Commonwealth. But it will be a formality. Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Kumalo said Jan. 24, "There is no need for sanctions against Zimbabwe. We are totally opposed to it. It is not even a last resort. There will be total chaos and a meltdown that will threaten the very Zimbabweans we are trying to help."

Nigerian President in Singapore Seeking Investments

Nigerian President Obashanjo was in Singapore last week, seeking large-scale investments. A Singapore firm is already building a $1-billion petrochemical complex in Nigeria, the Straits Times of Singapore reported on Feb. 22. Obasanjo, at an investment forum at the Shangri-La Hotel Feb. 21, urged Singaporeans to follow the example of Eurochem Technologies Corp., the Singapore corporation in the Tolaram Group which is building the petrochemical complex in the Lekki Free Trade Zone east of Lagos.

Obasanjo said his government was committed to "building a truly private-sector-led market economy." He travelled with a delegation of 82 ministers, state leaders, the chairman of the central bank, senior advisers, and others. He met Feb. 22 with President S.R. Nathan and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, who was to host a dinner in his honor.

Obasanjo told the forum, "Your property is as safe [in Nigeria] as in the Bank of England."

Stalemate and Threat of Renewed War in Ivory Coast

Despite statements indicating an Ivorian accord—by West African Presidents Gnasingbe Eyadema (Togo) Feb. 19, and Abdoulaye Wade (Senegal) Feb. 21, at the Franco-African summit—there is no such agreement at this time.

The rebels have gone back to saying they must have the defense and security portfolios, and that President Gbagbo must cede most of his powers to the Prime Minister—"otherwise, the resumption of the war will be inevitable, bloody, and catastrophic," rebel leader Guillaume Soro told reporters in Paris Feb. 24. But diplomacy continues.

President Gbagbo says the ceding of his powers to the Prime Minister would change the country's Presidential system to a parliamentary system.

Gabon Journal Chides Bush For Pushing 'Cowboy' Justice

Cowboy Bush thinks international law is the law of the Far West, says an editorial against an Iraq war, in the latest issue of the Gabonese fortnightly journal Nku'u. Gabon, although a part of Francophone Africa, is a major source of oil for the U.S. and has other important U.S. economic ties. It is scarcely known for anti-American journalism.

The editorial, reported by Agence France Presse Feb. 26, says there is nothing left to stop President George W. Bush "in his atavistic obsession to draw and fire faster than his shadow.... Only international law—which he otherwise confuses with the law of the Far West—is holding him back, but for how long?" The editorial says the real motive behind the U.S. drive to overthrow the Iraqi government is a quest for "espace vital" (Lebensraum, literally) for the sale of its goods and as a source of oil. "The disarmament of Iraq is nothing but a pretext, a smokescreen," the editorial says, adding that no country in the world has as big a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction as the U.S., "and no one gets excited about that."

Nku'u is not close to the government, but President Omar Bongo has affirmed Gabon's strong ties with France in the wake of the Franco-African summit and its declaration against an Iraq war. Bongo called for "a new type of partnership between France and Africa," echoing the language of President Chirac at the summit.

Destabilization of Gabon Underway?

An ostensibly radical party in Gabon has declared "peaceful" war on the government of President Omar Bongo, in what has all the earmarkings of a "Project Democracy" model destabilization. Gabon's Rassemblement National des Republicains (RNR) announced that it will form a "parallel government" between now and March 9, at a press conference Feb. 22 in Libreville, the Gabonese capital. RNR President Gerard Ella Nguema Mintoghe, aged 30, demanded that President Omar Bongo dissolve the Government, Parliament, and county and municipal councils.

He said that in the legislative elections in 2001 and local elections in 2002, abstention was so high, especially in the large towns, that those elected were elected by default. The parallel government will be responsible for organizing elections. Nguema said his party was "declaring war on those who have ruined Gabon," but in a "peaceful" manner. If the authorities take an unpopular measure, the parallel government will make its own decision, and we will see who is right, he said.

"There is nothing more dangerous than a people that does not vote. The silence of the Gabonese people is dangerous. When it gets fed up, it takes up arms and, being a republican, I do not agree with that," said RNR National Federal Secretary Pierre-Claver Ondong Minkoh.

This operation has all over it the clawprints of the Chickenhawk-linked IASPS and its African Oil Policy Initiative Group (AOPIG)—as also of IMF revolutionary Alassane Ouattara. The AOPIG policy paper of June 2002, "African Oil: A Priority for U.S. National Security and African Development," stated, "There is a need to reshape a new U.S. national security policy for sub-Saharan Africa facilitating economic and political development" (emphasis added), to be based on large petroleum revenues from "states such as Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo (Brazzaville)."

The RNR was founded by about 50 very young militants in 1999, the same year that Ouattara left the IMF and became president of the Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) in Ivory Coast (now intertwined with the MPCI rebels), a party with similar profile (and name) to the Gabonese RNR. Also in 1999, Ouattara founded the International Institute for Africa, with offices in Washington, Paris, and two African countries—Ivory Coast and Gabon. And, Ouattara has spent some time in Gabon since November 2002.

To secure oil from Africa, the Clash of Civilizations crowd needs a greater degree of political control, which only weak governments can provide. That is the end toward which Ivory Coast and Gabon are being driven.

German Musicians Perform Classical Concert in Sudan

For the first time in 25 years, German musicians performed a Classical concert in Sudan. The concert took place in front of the pyramids of Meroe on Feb. 7, with a program of works by Mozart and Beethoven. Under the direction of Hamburg conductor Klaus-Peter Modest, the 25 musicians played the overture to Mozart's "Magic Flute." The public was especially excited about Frederick the Great's Flute Concerto No. 3, performed with a soloist from the Kaumischen Oper Berlin. The concert, attended by 250 people, was a benefit to help restore the 2,000-year-old Meroe pyramids, largely in ruins. The music began at sundown, and reportedly, the musicians had to fight off sand, flies, and wind, which threatened to blow away the scores. Most of the musicians are members of the Hamburger Juristenorchester. Several ministers of the Sudanese government travelled from Khartoum to attend the concert.

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