Washington, DC — In a wide-ranging address on U.S. policy toward Africa, Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged to continue building strong partnerships with African nations and vowed that the United States "will not rest" until the killing of civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan is brought to an end and peace and security is established.
Speaking to a group of U.S. and African diplomats and policy experts at a July 8 conference on Africa in Washington, Powell said the United States will maintain pressure on Sudan to rein in armed militias known as the Jingaweit, which have terrorized and killed scores of civilians in Darfur.
"We will continue to make sure that we are not just left with promises, but we are left with actual action and performance on the ground," Powell said.
The international community may take "further measures" against Sudan if the situation in Darfur does not soon improve, he added. The United States has drafted a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Sudan to fulfill its promises to end the violence in Darfur and give aid workers better access to the region.
"The resolution urges the warring parties to conclude a political agreement without delay," Powell said.
Some 1.2 million people have fled their homes due to the violence in Darfur, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has predicted that more than 300,000 could die by the end of 2004 from malnutrition and disease.
Powell said that he has received promises from Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to work toward peace in Darfur. But he warned that those promises are not sufficient reason for the United States to normalize relations with Sudan.
"President Bush, the United States Congress, Secretary General-Annan [U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan] and the international community want more than promises; we want to see dramatic improvements on the ground right now," Powell said.
"And despite the promises that have been made, we have yet to see these dramatic improvements. Only actions, not words, can win the race against death in Darfur," he added.
The secretary's remarks came during the unveiling of a major report on U.S. policy toward Africa. The report, "Rising U.S. Stakes in Africa," was commissioned by Congress and prepared by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based research institute. It calls in part for the United States to put a greater emphasis on counterterrorism initiatives and crisis diplomacy in Africa, in addition to continuing its leadership on HIV/AIDS and economic development.
"Africa has assumed a new, strategic place in U.S. foreign policy and in the definition of vital U.S. national interests," the authors of the report noted. "This shift moves the United States away from the past habit of treating Africa as a humanitarian afterthought and begins to reverse a decade-long decline in the United States' presence and engagement in Africa."
In his address, Powell discussed several of the Bush administration's most important initiatives in Africa, including the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade incentives program that has led to a dramatic increase in exports from Africa to the United States. In 2003, total AGOA exports to the United States increased by 55 percent to $14 billion, the secretary said.
"We want to help African nations reach the point that their citizens are not just able to scrape by at subsistence levels, but are able to succeed. We're looking not just for aid, but for trade to create conditions in these countries so that people will want to go and invest in [them]," he said.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The destruction being caused by HIV/AIDS in Africa is also a top priority for the U.S., Powell said. The United States has already committed $865 million to combat HIV/AIDS in 15 nations hardest-hit by the disease, 12 of which are in Africa.
In all of its initiatives toward Africa, the secretary noted, the U.S. will continue to strengthen its relationships with African allies to help bring stability to the continent.
"[W]e want to help Africans across the continent have access to decent schools and medical facilities, to safe drinking water, to good roads and railways, to electricity, and above all, access to the Internet," he said. "We want to see Africa's great natural wealth in oil and diamonds and lumber invested in its citizens, not used to fuel endless conflict."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
