Washington, DC — Apparently compassionate U.S. initiatives for Africa such as the promise of $15bn to help fight HIV/Aids are "at this moment, fictitious, because they remain unfunded" and President Bush's forthcoming Africa trip is "lacking in substance," says Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action.
"The President may be callously manipulating Africa's suffering to present a veneer of compassion and the American public is being misled," Booker said at a briefing Wednesday on Bush's five-nation tour of Africa scheduled to begin next week.
TransAfrica Forum President Bill Fletcher, the Co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus, Emira Woods, and Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Director of the U.S. Network for Global Justice's 50 Years is Enough, were also harshly critical of U.S. Africa policy.
"Although the Bush administration continues to promote trade as an engine of growth, U.S. policy continues to promote interests that are antithetical to Africa," said Booker. Furthermore, the U.S. "fails to provide its fair share" of foreign assistance and "the U.S. footprint in Africa is growing" while, at the same time, its "refusal to participate in multilateral peacekeeping efforts are undermining African peacemakers."
The U.S. HIV/Aids initiative announced by President Bush in his State of the Union address came under especially sharp critique. "This has turned out to be a cruel hoax," said Booker. "No new money has been made available this year and only $450m has been requested in the president's budget for 2004."
Booker noted that President Bush has just announced that former drug company executive Randall Tobias, the retired chairman and chief executive officer of the Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company, will head the new HIV/Aids program. It was more proof that the President's commitment was "with the big drug companies," said Booker.
The theme of Bush as primarily the representative of corporate interests resurfaced frequently. "The Bush administration is driven more by a cynical preoccupation with securing oil reserves than with matters of promoting genuine economic development," said TransAfrica's Fletcher.
And, said 50 Years is Enough Director, Njehu, although massive debt continues to crush development efforts on the continent, "the Bush administration is ignoring this urgent African priority."
Emira Woods addressed the current crisis in Liberia. Speaking of rumors that were moving though Washington as the briefing began that the U.S. might send troops to the West African nation, Woods - a Liberian - said: "It's not just the forces on the ground. What's needed is an understanding that this is a broader regional conflict and crisis that has to have a regional solution. U.S. involvement in a multilateral force is a part of it."
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Taking a slightly different stance, TransAfrica's Fletcher said: "Any international force has to be African, supported financially and logistically by the United States, but we are extremely skeptical of the notion of U.S. troops."
None of the four found much to applaud in President Bush's upcoming Africa trip. Booker however acknowledged that it did provide "a rare opportunity of focusing attention on Africa and promoting discussion and debate on U.S. policies and relations with Africa."
Asked what would lead them to consider the trip a success, Fletcher said, "if Bush went to Africa and said we will cease agricultural subsidies" that could change his mind. For Emira Woods, it was "no permanent nor semi-permanent bases in Africa. If he were to [announce] that I would be a happy person but I doubt that will happen."
