In this issue:

Bush Will Take Powell and Kansteiner to Africa

Resistance to Bush Administration and Neo-Cons in Africa

Bush Again Calls on Liberian President To Step Down

Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Cautious About U.S. Role

South Africa Challenges U.S. on Zimbabwe

Nigeria Shut Down by Strike Against Fuel Price Hike

From Volume 2, Issue Number 27 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published July 8, 2003
Africa News Digest

Bush Will Take Powell and Kansteiner to Africa

Colin Powell and Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter Kansteiner will accompany President Bush on his visit to five African countries July 7-12. Kansteiner is closely associated with the neo-conservative war party in the Administration. U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card will also accompany the President.

News24, a South African news source, claimed June 30 that "Powell is seen as a key player in scheduled discussions on Zimbabwe after voicing criticism of South Africa's approach to the crisis in that country," referring to his June 24 New York Times op-ed.

Bush will be in South Africa July 8 and 9. He will hold one-on-one talks with President Mbeki followed by a meeting that will include Powell, Kansteiner, Rice, Card and South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Resistance to Bush Administration and Neo-Cons in Africa

There is extensive resistance to the Bush Administration in Africa, on the eve of his visit there. A major issue thrown at President Bush—when he received African print journalists at the White House July 3—was, how does he propose to deal with the widespread loss of respect for the U.S. across Africa, engendered by the Iraq war?

Sentiment against the Bush Administration is particularly high in Nigeria, and in the first week in July, major press in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia also voiced negative views in their coverage of the Bush visit. There have been demos against the Bush visit in Nigeria and South Africa. Johannesburg's Business Day June 3 called Bush "a visitor with an agenda": "His hidden campaign is to promote privatization and deregulation." The July 3 Cape Times said that Washington's suspension of military aid to South Africa—because the government refused to give Americans immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court—simply "adds to the list of contentious issues between President Thabo Mbeki and the U.S. leader." South African political analyst Chris Landsberg reported that the most contentious issues would be Iraq and Zimbabwe.

It was "only President Yoweri Museveni and a few others who wrongly joined the pathetic 'coalition of the willing,' " Uganda's Monitor noted in a July 3 editorial. "When Bush arrives here next week we should emulate Mandela and give him the cold shoulder."

Zambia's daily, The Post, emphasized in a July 3 editorial that Bush should come because "He should experience at first hand the terrible social deficit suffered by the countries of Africa. Perhaps the U.S. President is incapable of making such a small leap of empathy...." The Post says "the neo-conservative circle associated with the Bush Administration marks a further, still more dangerous assertion of an unapologetic imperial ambition."

Bush Again Calls on Liberian President To Step Down

President Bush repeated his call for Liberian President Taylor to step down, when he met with African journalists July 3 in the White House. He said, "I am in the process of gathering the information necessary to make a rational decision as to how to enforce the ceasefire.... Mr. Taylor must go. A condition for any progress in Liberia is his removal, in removing himself. And that's the message Colin [Powell] has taken to the UN and to Kofi Annan.... [T]oday there is a meeting with ECOWAS and... we had a meeting there with our military thinkers to determine feasibility, to look at different options. And they have yet to report back to the White House."

Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters at the State Department July 3, "We believe stability will only come to the country with the departure of President Taylor. In some of the earlier negotiations that led to the [paper] ceasefire, he agreed that that would be an appropriate step to take, and we hope it's a step that he will take at the appropriate time. I think it is important for him to depart.... We'll be discussing [Liberia] among the national security team members today." Powell also said he would be in touch with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan "again today."

Pressure for U.S. intervention is coming not only from the UN, but also from Britain, France, and Africa.

Perhaps other steps are under consideration—to be taken in tandem with President Taylor stepping down and about 800 U.S. troops arriving—since it is necessary to prevent Taylor's warlord machine from being replaced by another, the so-called Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). LURD is already within the suburbs of Monrovia. Condoleezza Rice told reporters July 3 that "very sensitive discussions were going on," according to Reuters.

The stepping down of President Taylor was made much more difficult by the June 4 unsealing of an indictment against him by the Special Court of Sierra Leone, for crimes against humanity committed in Sierra Leone. The Special Court draws personnel from the International Court of Justice at The Hague and others from Sierra Leone. But the decision to unseal was made by its Chief Prosecutor, former U.S. Defense Department attorney David Crane.

On June 4, Taylor was in Ghana for peace talks hosted by Ghanaian President John Kufuor—talks that included the Presidents of Nigeria and South Africa and aimed at the voluntary departure of Taylor at the end of his term in January. But the Special Court demanded that the government of Ghana arrest Taylor. The government had little choice but to refuse. Taylor had since then refused asylum in Nigeria, believing that he was not safe anywhere, except in power in Liberia. However, according to the July 7 Washington Post, he has indeed agreed to step down.

Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Cautious About U.S. Role

Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Zimbabwe oppositional Movement for Democratic Change, has urged the Bush Administration to tread lightly in coming to his aid. Tsvangirai claims to be developing a plan for a peaceful transition of power in Zimbabwe, according to the New York Times June 28. A transition, that is, to forces more friendly to Anglo-American interests. The Times adds, "But Mr. Tsvangirai also said the U.S. should not overreach in southern Africa as it pressures President Robert Mugabe to step down. Rather, he said, 'There must be a balance in how outside pressure can be applied,' an apparent acknowledgment that Tsvangirai's party remains vulnerable to Mr. Mugabe's charge that it is simply a puppet of Britain and the U.S."

The Times story is based on a telephone interview. "These are very delicate issues," Tsvangirai said in the interview. Tsvangirai's warning follows Colin Powell's June 24 op-ed in the New York Times saying Mugabe has to go.

South Africa Challenges U.S. on Zimbabwe

The South African Foreign Ministry has challenged the U.S. to improve on African leaders' approach to Zimbabwe. Speaking at a press conference in Pretoria June 29, South African Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said, "The meeting with Bush will afford us an opportunity to brief the U.S. on what African leaders are doing to resolve the problem and what is being done to help Zimbabweans resolve their problems themselves." "I hope we can reach a common approach on Zimbabwe.... If there is another route, the Americans must put it on the table," Pahad said. Asked about Secretary of State Colin Powell's attack on the Mugabe government in his New York Times op-ed of June 24, Pahad replied, "I don't want to make a judgment on one interview (sic). There were many positive aspects to what the U.S. Secretary of State said."

South African President Thabo Mbeki, speaking to the press in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, July 1, was blunter. Asked specifically whether he would lean on Mugabe to hold elections to effect a transition of power, Mbeki replied, "That's their decision. The future of Zimbabwe needs to be decided by Zimbabweans."

Mbeki said, "It's incorrect really to be saying that we should stand outside the borders of Zimbabwe and decide what the Zimbabweans should do about their own country." He added that if South Africa and another country teamed up to decide policy for the United States, "Everybody would lock us up. They'd think we were crazy."

Recall that the Tony Blair government has attempted to bully the British Commonwealth organization to isolate Zimbabwe, and help overthrow Mugabe, but the nations of the Commonwealth successfully bucked London. The Bush Administration joined the British side, and took over the pressure and threats this spring, in tandem with British support for the Iraq war.

Nigeria Shut Down by Strike Against Fuel Price Hike

Nigeria was practically shut down beginning June 30, by the strike over President Obasanjo's 65% gasoline price hike by way of a drastic cut in subsidies. The strike is being spearheaded by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

Nigerian riot police stormed a major rally in Abuja June 30 and killed four protesters in a nearby village.

Addressing the protest from the roof of his car, NLC president Adams Oshiomhole said labor would not agree to a continued increase in prices of petroleum products in the country because the Obasanjo government had refused to make the country's refineries work. He claimed that a group of highly placed Nigerians were profiting from importation of the products into the country. He continued that "the government must make the refineries work so that Nigerians can have employment. We cannot use taxpayers' money to set up four refineries only to abandon them."

Police stormed another large labor rally in Abuja July 1, attacking workers with whips and rifle butts and beating up journalists from AP and Vanguard.

NLC vice president Onikoalese Irabor assessed the strike late on July 1: "The whole of Abuja is grounded. Most of the states are grounded. The airports are shut down. The sea ports are shut down. Oil workers are away from work. It is not only NLC that is on strike."

On July 2, to disperse protesters, Nigerian soldiers opened fire in Abuja's main market, injuring many.

A new round of negotiations between government and the NLC had began June 30. The main oil workers' union, PENGASSAN, raised the stakes July 1 by threatening a "total shutdown" of Nigeria's oil industry.

The spreading protests have cast a shadow over President Bush's upcoming visit to Abuja, Reuters notes.

All rights reserved © 2003 EIRNS