In this issue:

South Africa and Iraq Pursue Trade Relations

International Court Ruling Creates Nigeria/Cameroun Crisis

Mbeki Denounces 'Terrorist Campaign' as Nine Bombings Target Soweto

U.S. CENTCOM Sends Additional Forces to Horn of Africa

Mbeki and De Klerk Meeting

Nigerian Labour Congress Blocking Port Privatization

AIDS Inaction Called Another Tactic in Imperial War Plans

From the Vol.1 No.35 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published November 4, 2002
AFRICA NEWS DIGEST

South Africa and Iraq Pursue Trade Relations

South Africa's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad, the Mbeki government's point-man for the Middle East, visited Baghdad to open the South African stand at the Annual Baghdad International Trade Fair that began Nov. 1. More than 15 South African companies are also participating in the fair. Dr. Imtiaz Suleiman, the National Coordinator of the "Gift of the Givers' Foundation," will accompany Pahad to assess the humanitarian needs of Iraq in planning another consignment of medical and other supplies to Iraq in January.

While in Iraq, Pahad was to deliver a letter from South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to President Saddam Hussein, and hold bilateral meetings with members of the Iraqi government. There has been an increase in South African trade with Iraq over the last year (over Rand 400 million during the year May 31, 2001 to June 1, 2002). New contracts have been signed for the remainder of the year. The products to be exported to Iraq from South Africa include instant milk powder, cooking salt, steel bars, and industrial steel.

In departing for Iraq, Pahad said: "The South African government is still gravely concerned with the extent of the humanitarian crisis confronting the people of Iraq and is determined to contribute whatever it can to prevent an armed conflict which can only result in the further deterioration of the Iraqi infrastructure, distribution network, health services and general level of well-being of the people."

International Court Ruling Creates Nigeria/Cameroun Crisis

There is now a danger of war between Nigeria and Cameroun over the Bakassi Peninsula, following the Oct. 10 decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague in the Netherlands, that the Bakassi Peninsula belongs to Cameroun. The peninsula, which projects into the ocean from Cameroun at its border with Nigeria, is now believed to be rich in oil. Its population is overwhelmingly Nigerian (English-speaking) and it has Nigerian administrative institutions. The historical-legal case in favor of French-speaking Cameroun is not trivial.

A Nigerian government statement Oct. 23— following a Cabinet meeting— announced "that Nigeria would not comply with a court order to withdraw its military or officials," according to Reuters Oct. 24. An unnamed senior aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo explained that this simply meant that Nigeria would maintain the status quo while further diplomatic discussions are pursued, Reuters said. But Cameroun says it is not interested in negotiating with Nigeria, according to Nigeria's Weekly Trust Oct. 25.

Some observers commented that the reaction in Nigeria to the decision of the International Court appears to be roughly what one might expect from Americans if Hawaii were declared to be part of the Philippines.

Mbeki Denounces 'Terrorist Campaign' as Nine Bombings Target Soweto

In the wake of the explosion of nine bombs in South Africa's largest township, Soweto, during the night of Oct. 29, President Mbeki told reporters "these are criminal actions that seek to introduce a terrorist campaign in the country." He added that those responsible intend to "conduct a campaign of this type to destabilize the country and create a political climate that would enable them to take ... actions for the removal of the government and the installation of some other government."

The bombings are the most coordinated terrorist hit on South Africa since the government came to power in 1994, and occurred in a tight span of time beginning at about midnight. At that time, three explosions occurred at a bridge at New Canada railway station, causing extensive damage to the railway line in South Africa's biggest black township. At 12:20 a.m., a bomb ripped through a mosque in Dlamini, Soweto. At 3:15 a.m., there was an explosion at the Midway railway station. Another bomb blast has cut railway lines between Soweto and Johannesburg. Another bombing was averted by police, when at about 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, police followed tips about two "suspicious" white men near a filling station. Police there found a bomb wired to a clock which they managed to defuse. The same night, another bomb exploded at a Buddhist temple at Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria, but police are still investigating whether it is linked to the Soweto wave.

The government has widened the investigation to include suspects with military background and expertise, especially in explosives. News media are reporting suspicions that Afrikaner rightwingers are involved in the extensive bombings, but no concrete evidence has yet emerged.

However, concern about rightwing activations is reportedly rising, as reported in the Johannesburg Business Day, on Oct. 31 in an article called "There Is More to Right Wing Than Bluster." It reports on the meeting last month between former South African President Nelson Mandela and Pieter Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front (FF) group. The meeting was sparked by the arrest of a Limpopo doctor, Johan Pretorius, in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government. According to Business Day, tension between Mandela and Mulder was a detectable undercurrent at the meeting. Mulder described an alleged plan by the right wing to overthrow the government not as heinous but as "unrealistic," and claimed that he himself had been threatened by certain rightwing elements. "They say we are traitors," Mulder said.

However, it cannot be excluded that such a terrorist wave is an attempt to destabilize South Africa for having played a leading role in opposition to war designs against Iraq.

U.S. CENTCOM Sends Additional Forces to Horn of Africa

U.S. CENTCOM Commander Gen. Tommy Franks admitted sending 700-800 additional forces to Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, at a Pentagon press briefing on Oct. 29. EIW has been reporting an extensive buildup of U.S. military deployments in the Middle East, Persian Gulf, and East Africa as part of a pre-placement for war against Iraq. However, Franks says the Djibouti troops are just an extension of the "war on terrorism."

Franks said, "We said a long time ago, first off we're going to rout the terrorists out of Afghanistan and get rid of the Taliban. We also said that there were going to be some friendly nations and we're going to want to work with them in order to help them help themselves get over the terrorist problem. And we also said it may be necessary from time to time to coerce others to get rid of the terrorist problem." He said the U.S. had "security relationships or engagement opportunities" in countries such as Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Yemen. "And so, having that force there gives us the ability to increase our exercise work with all those nations."

Franks stressed that the troops in question were not based in Eritrea, despite speculation that the U.S. is eyeing the Red Sea port of Assab. "No, they're ... not based in Eritrea. Some are ashore and some are afloat. We have an afloat command and control capability that we move around, and so one may well see that afloat capability."

Mbeki and De Klerk Meeting

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and its former President, F.W. De Klerk, met Oct. 25-26 in what were described as constructive "nation-building" talks. Mbeki was accompanied by a quarter of his Cabinet ministers, while De Klerk brought a group of largely Afrikaner community leaders assembled under the aegis of his De Klerk Foundation.

Although it had been agreed that the talks were "essentially private," they dealt with nation-building, problem areas in relationships between different communities, and mobilizing South Africans to solve the challenges facing the country. The group assembled under the De Klerk Foundation included Barlowrand chairman Warren Clewlow, Stellenbosch University chancellor Elise Botha, educationist Clive Roos, Niel van Heerden of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Afrikanerbond chairman Francois Venter. There was a similar meeting last March.

Nigerian Labour Congress Blocking Port Privatization

We will not allow the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to be privatized, said Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president Adams Oshiomhole, in a message to the National Executive Council of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, meeting in Port Harcourt. He stated, "NLC will continue to support the actions of the leadership of the union, especially its fight against the evil plot to privatize the ports. If ever the ports will be privatized, [it will not be] under the present leadership of NLC. We will resist it with all it takes, including the last drop of our blood." His comments were reported in the Vanguard newspaper Oct. 31.

Oshiomhole continued, "The Managing Director of NPA has said it himself, that NPA does not receive any subvention from the government and has been sustaining itself, as well as generating billions of naira into the government purse yearly. It is that money the ports are generating that they are interested in."

AIDS Inaction Called Another Tactic in Imperial War Plans

A leading commentator for The East African of Nairobi, Kenya, says that inaction in the face of a "manageable" AIDS condition is deliberate. "Will the West Remain Aloof as HIV/AIDS Ravages Asia?" Dagi Kimani, health correspondent for the paper, asks in an Oct. 14 article.

Will the same considerations that dictated "Western policy in such diverse places as the Balkans, South Africa, Rwanda and the Middle East, be evident in the response to the growing HIV crisis in Asia, given its economic and security importance? And if they do, will the West's crumbling moral posturing be dealt a mortal blow?" Kimani is forthright that the advanced sector is quite willing "to sit back and let them [Africans] die like flies from HIV/AIDS," as the West was also willing to see a million people die in Rwanda.

The author says, "The answers to these questions are pertinent not only in the context of a medical crisis but because they could help put other past and future regional and global crises and challenges, including the impending showdown in Iraq, in their proper perspective." With respect to the AIDS epidemic, the author notes that "the West has watched impassively as millions of Africans have died from what is essentially now a manageable condition."

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