U.S. President George W. Bush used visits to Benin and Tanzania at the weekend to call for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, to support a power-sharing deal in Kenya and to reiterate that the United States will help transport peacekeepers to Darfur.
While his trip to five African countries is concentrating on American aid and development initiatives, Bush and State Department officials have also faced questions from journalists about his administration's commitment to conflict resolution on the continent.
Speaking to the press in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, Bush said he had spoken to President Jakaya Kikwete, the incoming president of the African Union, about the situation in Zimbabwe ahead of elections scheduled for next month. His remarks were published in White House transcripts.
"There's no doubt," Bush said, "the people of Zimbabwe deserve a government that serves their interest, and recognizes their basic human rights, and holds free and fair elections."
Both in Benin and Tanzania, Bush discussed his dispatch of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Nairobi on Monday. She was going to support the mediation led by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Bush said, and would carry "a clear message that there be no violence and that there ought to be a power-sharing agreement."
In Dar es Salaam, he said he and Rice discussed with Kikwete "how best can we help the process, not what we should do to dictate to the process, but what can American do to help the process move along."
On Sudan, Bush said the U.S. had probably been the first country to describe what had happened in Darfur as genocide. He said the U.S. "will help facilitate" the movement of peacekeepers to Darfur.
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At a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on Friday, he said he had told current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that "we want to help you, but you must make sure we have a robust force ready to go."
Dealing with a major purpose of Bush's visit to Tanzania, the signing of a development package worth nearly U.S. $700 million, Bush and Kikwete exchanged favourable views of one another in frank public language.
Kikwete alluded to Bush's unpopularity over the Iraq War.
"Different people may have different views about you and your administration and your legacy," he said. "We in Tanzania, if we are to speak for ourselves and for Africa, we know for sure that you, Mr. President, and your administration, have been good friends of our country and... of Africa... Rest assured that you will be remembered for many generations to come..."
For his part, Bush spoke of why the U.S. was giving such heavy backing to Tanzania.
"I'll just put it bluntly," he said, according to the White House transcript. "America doesn't want to spend money on people who steal the money from the people. We like dealing with honest people and compassionate people."
