Kirk Smith: Africa

Beware of Bush Bearing Gifts

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 15:09:23 GMT

07 Jul 03

Bush's commitment to provide additional funds lays down the gauntlet to European Union, and not before time. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is in dire need of money. But should we be thankful for Bush's lead on this issue? It's a debatable point. Behind the headlines - and qualified support from international NGOs for the new funds - lies a different story.

To start with, only $10 billion of Bush's pledged $15 billion is new. Second, as ActionAid has pointed out, there's no guarantee that this money will be spent over the next five years. The U.S. Congress has to sign off the funds each year, and recent history is littered with aid initiatives that slid into the sand. A recent joint report from U.S. think-tanks the Center for Global Development and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that as little as $45 million of Bush's money to fight AIDS will be spent in 2004.

There is also the question of whether the funds will be tied aid - a hallmark of U.S. official development assistance. Revealingly, the USA has said it will deliver only one third of pledged dollars through the Global Fund, with the remaining money coming as bilateral aid. The Global Fund was set up specifically to be free of the conditionality associated with tied aid and it champions the purchase of the cheaper generic drug treatments central to fighting HIV/AIDS in the least-developed countries.

The USA has in fact opened its taxpayers' chequebook to safeguard the patent rights of its powerful pharmaceutical lobby. The Bush plan states that 2 million sufferers of HIV/AIDS will be provided with drug treatments. This could be a bonanza for U.S. drug corporations whose AIDS drug sales in Africa account for just 0.2 per cent of turnover.

If other U.S. aid programmes are anything to go by, contracts to supply treatments will be offered to US pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, which reportedly rakes in profits of more than $1 million an hour. Yet overseas manufacturers of generic treatments can massively undercut the price of Western drugs. [OneWorld.net]

African Heads of State Gather in Maputo for AU Summit

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 14:59:30 GMT

by Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

10 Jul 03

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE. African heads of state and government have a busy few days ahead of them, as they meet for the second summit of the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique, from 10-12 July.

All week, the foreign ministerial Executive Council has been drawing up the agenda and recommendations that the African leaders will debate, endorse or reject during their 3-day summit.

With some devastating crises afflicting the continent, their citizens look to them for the leadership to end Africa's armed conflicts and address problems like drought and famine, as well as speed up development, promote democracy and strengthen regional integration and trade.

But there are already blots on the continental copybook.

One of the top items on the summit agenda is the creation of the Peace and Security Council, the organ envisaged to help resolve wars in Africa, through direct intervention.

Yet barely a dozen countries have ratified the protocol that will establish the Council, broadly based on the United Nations Security Council. Ratification by half of the AU's 53 member states is required to bring the Peace and Security Council into being. [allAfrica.com]

New Lords of Africa

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 14:05:21 GMT

by Saskia Sassen

09 Jul 03

Warlords. They have a bad name but not all they do is bad. Their basic premise is that a good gun is better than a good law. Then there is the horsetrading: you give me oil, I will get you aid for Aids treatment; horsetrading can work when bureaucrats fail. Some warlords are grubby, others are imperial: as in Liberia, the warlord can descend from the heavens and declare it's time for the old order to go. Then there is the domestic warlord: the cowboy or the caudillo, always riding something - a horse, a tank - to an unknown destination.

Although warlordism is not new, it has had to adjust to new settings, like international treaties and whatnot. And it has had to become far more complex and indirect in its horsetrading. Bush is becoming a warlord who can handle it all. Two cases come to mind. One is the current visit to Africa, where Bush wants access to oil and the installation of U.S. military bases and troops to make the region secure against terrorism. The second is the Bush administration's handling of the World Trade Organisation Doha declaration giving poor countries the right to override pharmaceutical patents in public health emergencies. [Guardian/UK]

Is Niger the Smoking Gun? Blair Under Fire as White House Rejects British Intelligence Claiming Iraq Tried to Buy Uranium

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 13:29:07 GMT

by Ben Russell and Andrew Buncombe

09 Jul 03

The White House has dealt a devastating blow to Tony Blair by rejecting as flawed British claims that Saddam Hussein attempted to buy uranium from Africa to restart his nuclear weapons programme.

The Bush administration was in full retreat yesterday with officials admitting that the allegation should not have been included in President George Bush's State of the Union address. The American admission represented the first serious split between London and Washington over the case against Saddam and exploded into a full-scale row in Westminster as Mr Blair told senior MPs that the Government was standing by its story.

Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour backbenchers demanded that Mr Blair release the intelligence behind the allegation to an independent inquiry. [Independent/UK]

Slow Ratification of Peace And Security Council

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 13:17:13 GMT

from Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique

04 Jul 03

The first day of the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo was marked by discussions in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Ambassadors) on implementing the AU protocol to set up an African Peace and Security Council.

Ana Nemba, Mozambique's permanent representative at the AU, told reporters that although 39 member states have signed the protocol only seven - Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda and South Africa - have ratified it. The Council cannot be established until there are 26 ratifications.

The Council is intended to seek solutions to conflicts, and to suggest conflict prevention measures. It is, in short, an African solution to an African problem - but there seems little chance that it will be set up at this summit. Nemba said that another five countries have expressed an interest in depositing the instruments of ratification during the summit. She would not say who they are, but from other sources, AIM understands that two of them are Angola and Lesotho. [allAfrica.com]

10 Shot Dead in Lagos Riots

Tue, 08 Jul 2003 01:04:15 GMT

07 Jul 03

LAGOS. At least 10 people were shot dead in Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos on Monday, as police battled angry mobs rioting in the streets to enforce a second week of a crippling strike against increased fuel prices, the President of the Nigeria Labor Congress, Adams Oshiomhole said...

'The information we have this morning is that the police killed over 10 people in Lagos this morning. It is very unfortunate. This bloodbath which the police is promoting is heightening tension in Lagos.'

The general strike to protest a 54 percent rise in fuel prices that was announced by President Olusegun Obasanjo?s government on June 20, entered the second week despite a split among union leaders about continuing the work stoppage.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the country?s biggest umbrella body with 29 affiliates, has vowed to continue with the strike, describing government concessions as insufficient. But the Trade Unions Congress (TUC), another grouping of senior staff unions, has opted out of the strike, saying it was pleased with the progress of negotiations with the government. [IRIN]

Obasanjo Offers and Taylor Accepts Exit to Nigeria, But Timing Remains Unclear

Mon, 07 Jul 2003 05:27:40 GMT

by Reed Kramer

06 Jul 03

MONROVIA, LIBERIA. Following a 90-minute meeting at Monrovia's International Airport Sunday afternoon, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Liberia's President Charles Taylor announced that an 'exit' for Taylor from Liberia has been agreed.

Appearing at a press conference telecast live by CNN, Obasanjo said 'Liberia needs a lifeline' to resolve its conflict and said the transition to a new government 'must be orderly and peaceful.' Taylor said he would accept the invitation from Obasanjo to go to Nigeria but refused to say when his departure might take place. Referring to what he said was a 'window of opportunity,' Taylor said his key concern was that the changeover contribute to peace and not make the situation worse.

President George Bush, who leaves on a five-nation trip to Africa Monday evening, has called on Taylor to step down, and Taylor has previously agreed but has said he wants to wait for a peacekeeping force to arrive. Bush is considering options for a U.S. role in the peacekeeping effort and has dispatched a military team to Monrovia to access the situation and increase security at the American embassy there. [allAfrica.com]

The Nimrud Gold on Display in Baghdad... For a Few Hours

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 18:17:51 GMT

by Joanna Mackle

03 Jul 03

BAGHDAD, IRAQ. On Thursday 3 July the Assyrian gallery in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, will be open to the public for a few hours and a small part of the gold treasure found in the tombs of the Assyrian queens at Nimrud will be on display. This treasure was evacuated to a vault of the Baghdad Central Bank for safekeeping during the recent war. The opening of this exhibition has provided the staff of the Iraq museum with an opportunity to tidy up the museum after the widespread damage caused by the thefts and looting which occurred during the war. However, this is only the beginning of what will be a very long process of conservation and reconstruction.

A British Museum curator Sarah Collins is now working in the Iraq Museum with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). As part of the international conservation programme the British Museum has invited Iraqi colleagues to London during the summer for training in new techniques and a team of conservators drawing together expertise from around the world will be sent to Baghdad in the autumn. [The Art Newspaper]

NUPENG Begins Shutdown of Oil Terminals - Police, Protesters Clash in Abuja

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 14:25:27 GMT

by Victor Ahiuma-Young and Wale Igbintade

03 Jul 03

LAGOS. The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), easily one of the most powerful trade unions in the country, commenced, yesterday, the withdrawal of its members from the oil export terminals, in continuation of the NLC-led strike against the recent fuel price hike.

The union declared yesterday that the withdrawal would be completed tomorrow should government fail to reach an agreement with labour. In effect, NUPENG would shut the oil export terminals and make oil exports difficult if not impossible for as long as the strike lasts. [Vanguard/Lagos via allAfrica.com]

Rwanda Sets Dates for First Polls Since Genocide

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 01:16:44 GMT

04 Jul 03

KIGALI. The Rwandan government has set dates for presidential and parliamentary elections in a move that marks an end to a nine-year transition to democracy after a 1994 genocide killed 800,000 people.

The central African country's government said late on Thursday the country's first presidential vote since the massacre would be held on August 25, with parliamentary elections following a month later on September 29. [Reuters via Financial Times]

Liberia: No Immunity for Taylor

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 07:41:45 GMT

03 Jul 03

If U.S. troops are sent to Liberia, they should not make any deals that involve a withdrawal of the indictment of President Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Human Rights Watch said today...

The Special Court for Sierra Leone recently indicted Taylor as one of those 'bearing the greatest responsibility' for war crimes (including murder and taking hostages); crimes against humanity (rape, murder, extermination, sexual slavery); and other serious violations of international humanitarian law (use of child soldiers) committed in Sierra Leone. The indictment charges that Taylor actively supported the rebel Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone's ten-year civil war.

The indictment was announced on June 4, 2003 while Taylor was in Ghana attending peace talks on the recently intensified Liberian conflict. News reports today suggest that the United States is considering sending peacekeepers to Liberia. [Human Rights Watch]

West Africa's Wars: A Region in Flames

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 06:47:42 GMT

03 Jul 03

ABIDJAN, FREETOWN AND MONROVIA. Taken as a whole, West Africa's crisis is one of the world's worst. The regional war has claimed perhaps half a million lives, and continues to blight millions more. This is why it is not only hysterical crowds outside the American embassy who are begging Mr Bush to send troops. France, Britain and the UN are demanding the same. [The Economist]