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Powell Tells Africa U.S. Supports Local Peacemaking
BAMAKO, May 23 (News Agencies) - Visiting Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed Wednesday the "deep interest" of the new U.S. administration in Africa, but highlighted the role of African regional bodies in peace-making and democracy.
Powell came out of talks with Mali's President Alpha Oumar Konare, on the first leg of a four-nation tour, saying he "was impressed by the passion of the president's presentation on regional efforts to resolve conflicts and to spread democracy."
"It's a problem for Africans, with the help of others, but fundamentally a problem for Africans and African leaders working together in regional organizations like ECOWAS [the Economic Community of West African States]," he added.
The U.S. official started in Mali because Konare currently chairs ECOWAS, which is confronted with a complex conflict arising from a decade of civil war in Sierra Leone, an insurgency since last September in neighboring Guinea, and fighting in Liberia.
Scheduled to travel to South Africa on Thursday, then Kenya and Uganda on Saturday and Sunday, Powell said he wished to convey Bush's "deep interest in Africa".
Sierra Leone and Guinea have accused Liberian President Charles Taylor of seeking to destabilize the entire region and backing Sierra Leonean rebels in exchange for diamonds. This accusation, also leveled in a U.N. report, has led to tough U.N. sanctions on Liberia.
"Charles Taylor shares a large portion of responsibility" for tension in the region, Powell told journalists in Bamako. "I hope the sanctions will encourage him to play a more positive role."
Mali's foreign minister, Mobibo Sidibe, expressed gratitude for "the support of the United States for ECOWAS efforts to resolve the conflicts in the region."
Powell, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Jamaica, was making his third overseas trip since taking office under President George W. Bush early this year.
"I am moved by the fact that I am the first African-American secretary of state to visit Africa," Powell said en route to Bamako. "There is an emotional connection, and I always feel it when I am in Africa," added Powell.
Washington's top diplomat is expected to focus on promoting democracy and trade while also discussing the global fight against AIDS and regional conflicts in Africa.
Referring to AIDS, Powell said he would be "a black man looking at a black problem."
In South Africa, Powell said he would discuss the political crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe with President Thabo Mbeki, while adding: "I'm not carrying in my pocket a list of additional sanctions" against Harare.
In Kenya, the U.S. secretary of state will have talks about Sudan, which he referred to as a "very troubled country", saying Bush would shortly appoint an "overall coordinator" to handle U.S. efforts to contribute to peace there.
In Uganda, Powell is expected to remind President Yoweri Museveni of his commitment to withdraw troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo as implementation continues of a 1999 peace accord.
Asked about Washington's reluctance to commit troops to peacekeeping operations in Africa since the humiliating failure of a U.S. intervention in Somalia in 1993, Powell said: "When we have the capability to help ... peacekeeping and peacemaking operations, we have something of an obligation to support that effort.
"But I don't really see any missions coming along where I can anticipate a need ... for U.S. combat troops."
The U.S. secretary of state is scheduled to leave Uganda on Monday and attend a NATO ministerial meeting in Budapest before returning to the United States.
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