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Bush, in Africa, Promises Aid but Offers No Troops for Liberia
July 9, 2003
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
DAKAR, Senegal, July 8 - President Bush opened his tour of
Africa today with a pledge to work more closely with
African nations to help them build a prosperous and
peaceful future. But he still would not commit to sending
American troops as part of a peacekeeping operation in
war-ravaged Liberia.
"We're in the process of determining what is necessary to
maintain the cease-fire and to allow for a peaceful
transfer of power," Mr. Bush said after consulting about
Liberia with President John Kufuor of Ghana, the leader of
the Economic Community of West African States, a regional
group. "I assured him we'll participate in the process,"
Mr. Bush said. "And we're now in the process of determining
what that means."
Mr. Bush repeated his demand that President Charles Taylor
of Liberia step aside to help resolve the conflict and pave
the way for new elections. He said the United Nations as
well as the West African governments would be involved in
the effort to end the long-running conflict, which has
killed thousands of people, displaced as many as one
million Liberians and threatened to destabilize neighboring
nations.
A senior administration official said later that Mr. Bush
would decide whether to send United States forces to
Liberia only after he receives a report from a Pentagon
team that arrived in Monrovia on Monday to assess the need
for assistance. Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman,
said it would be "some time" before the president received
the Pentagon team's report.
After a meeting with West African leaders and his host for
the day, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Mr. Bush rode
Mr. Wade's presidential yacht across Dakar harbor to Gorée
Island, the westernmost point in Africa and the point of
departure centuries ago for at least a million slaves sent
across the ocean.
"At this place, liberty and life were stolen and sold," the
president said, standing against the backdrop of a blue sky
and brightly painted buildings that belied the island's
dark history. "One of the largest migrations of history was
also one of the greatest crimes of history."
Mr. Bush did not apologize for the role of the United
States in slavery, but he condemned it in unflinching and
strikingly religious terms that seemed to be aimed as much
at an audience at home as to the small crowd that listened
to him under the blazing sun. "For 250 years the captives
endured an assault on their culture and their dignity," Mr.
Bush said. "The spirit of Africans in America did not
break. Yet the spirit of their captors was corrupted.
"Small men took on the powers and airs of tyrants and
masters," Mr. Bush continued. "Years of unpunished
brutality and bullying and rape produced a dullness and
hardness of conscience. Christian men and women became
blind to the clearest commands of their faith and added
hypocrisy to injustice. A republic founded on equality for
all became a prison for millions."
Mr. Bush's six-hour stay today in Senegal was the first
stop on a five-day trip that will also take him to South
Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. It is his first trip
as president to sub-Saharan Africa, and White House
officials said Mr. Bush intended to focus on promoting
democracy, fighting AIDS and increasing trade.
Mr. Bush has also injected himself into one of the
continent's many conflicts, the long-running civil strife
in Liberia, by calling repeatedly for the departure of Mr.
Taylor, who has pledged to leave but shown few signs of
actually doing so. Mr. Bush has also signaled that he would
like to see a change of government in Zimbabwe, which is
suffering under the increasingly autocratic rule of its
leader, President Robert Mugabe.
As a candidate, Mr. Bush evinced little interest in Africa
and suggested that he would be reluctant to commit American
troops here. He won less than 10 percent of the black vote,
and some of his policies, including his decision to go to
war with Iraq, have brought harsh criticism from some
African leaders, including Nelson Mandela.
But he has surprised many groups that advocate doing more
to help Africa by proposing large spending increases to
fight AIDS and promote antipoverty programs. In opening the
door to sending peacekeepers into Liberia, he is
considering putting American troops directly in harm's way
in Africa for the first time since 18 American soldiers
died in Somalia in 1993.
To some degree, Mr. Bush's interest in Africa has been
driven by national security considerations. Concerned that
many African nations could be breeding grounds or safe
harbors for Islamic terrorists, Mr. Bush has sought to
increase the American military presence in friendly nations
and address the poverty that can give rise to anti-American
feelings. With the United States accused by some nations of
having adopted a unilateral, militaristic approach to
foreign policy, Mr. Bush has sought to soften that
reputation.
He was accompanied here by two of the highest-ranking
African-Americans to serve in the United States government,
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice,
the national security adviser. Mr. Powell and Dr. Rice,
both of whom have pressed for more engagement with Africa,
were with Mr. Bush this morning on Gorée Island as he
toured the Slave House, which was built by the Dutch in
1776. As many as 200 men, women and children would be
crammed into the house's tiny cells at any time, shackled
around the arms and neck.
At the end of one corridor is a door that was marked "the
point of no return," through which the slaves would be
herded as they were loaded onto ships carrying them to the
Americas.
In his five days in Africa, Mr. Bush will have few
opportunities to see firsthand much of the poverty and
despair bred by centuries of oppression, war and disease.
The relatively brief duration of his trip and his decision
not to meet with more African leaders has also led many
advocates of increased help for Africa to question whether
Mr. Bush's visit is more than a photo opportunity.
They said Mr. Bush appeared less interested in aggressively
addressing Africa's needs than in putting a kinder face on
American foreign policy in the aftermath of the Iraq war
and in reminding voters at home of his self-description as
a "compassionate conservative."
In a letter sent to the White House, a group of advocacy
organizations that is often critical of the United States
for not doing more to help Africa said Mr. Bush's proposals
for increased spending on AIDS and antipoverty programs
were a start but not enough.
On Gorée Island, Mr. Bush said slavery had helped the
United States learn that it had a critical responsibility
to Africa and to the world.
"In the struggle of the centuries, America learned that
freedom is not the possession of one race," Mr. Bush said.
"With the power and the resources given to us, the United
States seeks to bring peace where there is conflict, hope
where there is suffering, and liberty where there is
tyranny."
U.N. Chief Names Envoy to Liberia
UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (AP) - Secretary General Kofi Annan
today appointed a senior American diplomat, Jacques Paul
Klein, as his top envoy to Liberia and dispatched United
Nations officials to Monrovia to promote a political
transition and a speedy return of evacuated aid workers.
In a letter to the Security Council, Mr. Annan appointed
Mr. Klein, who headed the United Nations mission in Bosnia
until Dec. 31, as his special representative to lead and
coordinate United Nations activities in Liberia.
Mr. Klein has also served as political adviser to the
commander in chief of the United States European Command in
Stuttgart, Germany, and as a senior adviser to the
secretary of the Air Force with the rank of deputy
assistant secretary of defense.
Mr. Annan also ordered Abou Moussa, the current United
Nations representative for Liberia, and the United Nations
resident coordinator, Marc de Bernis, who were recently
evacuated, "to return immediately to Monrovia and assist in
the preparations for the return to Liberia of United
Nations and associated personnel."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/09/international/africa/09PREX.html?ex=1058776668&ei=1&en=79a69e254d431bab
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