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Africa Policy E-Journalgiven the difficulty in maintaining up-to-date links in old files. However, we hope they may still provide leads for your research. USA: Questions for Candidates, 1 Date Distributed (ymd): 961016 Contains (1) Announcement, National Summit on Africa (2) Part 1 of Questions for Candidates *********************************************************** Staff Sought for National Summit On Africa Africare - October 15, 1996 Washington - Following is an announcement by C. Payne Lucas, president of Africare, on a new three-year initiative called the National Summit on Africa. The National Summit on Africa is a vehicle to raise the level of recognition Africa receives in the United States through a series of highly visible, well-publicized, and widely attended activities held across the country. The Summit's role will be to serve as a catalyst for, and facilitator of, discussion and debate about U.S. relations with Africa. The Summit will focus on five interrelated themes to organize discussions on the full range of US-Africa interests: Peace and Security; Democracy and Human Rights; Trade and Investment; Sustainable Development; and Education and Culture. The National Summit Secretariat is being established as an independent, tax-exempt organization to manage and administer the National Summit on Africa with a full-time staff of thirteen. I am delighted to report that MacArthur DeShazer, former director of African affairs at the White House (National Security Council) has agreed to become the executive director of the National Summit Secretariat. During the first few months, the Secretariat will reside at Africare House; but we have begun the process of creating an independent organization to manage and administer the Summit process and finding its offices. I will continue to work with the Summit as one of its National Co-Chairs. We are looking for talented, energetic staff for the Secretariat, who will be deeply committed to the Summit's goal and willing to give it their all for the next two-and- and-half-years. We also want the staff to reflect the diversity and inclusiveness that we promised would be the hallmark of this effort. The National Summit Secretariat is seeking applicants for these Washington-based positions [Research Associate, Field Organizer, Program Associate, Director for Media and Public Relations, and Africa Outreach Coordinator**]. Send cover letter, resume, availability, salary requirements, and references to: National Summit on Africa, 440 R Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001. Fax: (202) 387-1034. No Phone Calls Please. Closing Date: November 1, 1996 All applicants will receive consideration regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or political affiliation. ** Note: The announcements are available on the Web site of Africa News Service, under the heading U.S./Africa (http://www.africanews.org/usaf/summit1.html). If you do not have access to a Web browser, they may be retrieved using a web by e-mail server. Send the following message to agora@dna.affrc.go.jp send http://www.africanews.org/usaf/summit1.html Note: do not include a signature in your message. *********************************************************** Putting Africa on the Agenda: Questions for Candidates and Policymakers (from Washington Notes on Africa, Fall, 1996) Note: This two-part article is being distributed to e-mail addresses on the list with U.S. domains only. A short announcement is going to addresses with other domains. The full article is also available at: http://www.igc.org/apic/woa/quest96.html. A late September cartoon in the Cincinnati Inquirer showed Ross Perot stamping on his Western hat in anger at being excluded from the Presidential debates. A plaintive globe- headed figure labelled "Foreign Policy" looked on, empathetically remarking "I know how you feel ... I can't get in either." Africa, rarely edging onto the priority agenda of top foreign-policy makers, will find it even harder to make it onto the campaign trail. While marginalization of African concerns may be less dramatic in some European countries, the trend is not limited to the United States. Much of the Western world's policy establishment would prefer to forget the continent exists. Like it or not, however, policymakers in office in the coming years will have to decide how to respond to African crises and structural concerns. The issues may be neglected, but they will not go away. It is now widely acknowledged that the primary initiative for redressing Africa's marginalization must come from Africa-- from civil society as well as more responsive governments and regional institutions, from those living on the continent as well as those who have settled elsewhere for political or economic reasons. As a recent statement by African non- governmental organizations put it, "The international community lacks the moral and political will to constructively assist Africa with its dilemmas." The statement went on to conclude that "strong, accountable and responsible African institutions" must take the lead. On issue after issue, nevertheless, the "international community" is inextricably involved, whether in calls for United Nations support for peacekeeping, for reform of the international financial institutions which play a dominant role in the economy of most African countries, or in deciding on bilateral relations with repressive regimes opposed by pro- democracy forces. The US in turn, by default or by active engagement, has much to do with the "moral and political will" as well as the policy content of the international response. This text below consists of a summary checklist of many of the African issues which the next administration and the next Congress need to consider. Some--perhaps most--may only be the subject of inside-the-beltway debate by a handful of policy advocates and middle-level officials. Some may also force themselves on the agenda for serious attention by major policy players. That depends, in part, on CNN, The New York Times, and the media pack. But, even more, it depends on whether Africa's advocates here can make loud enough and coherent enough noises. Please use one or more of these questions, adapt them, or substitute your own. Raise them at campaign events and/or mail them to candidates' campaign headquarters in your congressional district. Include candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as for President. Concentrate on one or two related questions in any one message, and ask for a specific reply, not just a form letter. You may wish to include other background material, but keep it short. You may or may not get an answer, but you will let the candidates know that voters do care. Note: More detailed background on most of the policy issues below can be found on the Web in the document archive at http://www.igc.org/apic/index.shtml. The archive contains more than 150 documents from 1995 and 1996, from WOA, APIC, and other organizations, and is searchable by keyword. For suggestions on additional on-line resources, see "Africa on the Internet," also available on the same Web site. Security, Conflict Resolution and Humanitarian Assistance "Africa" is still widely perceived as a country, and not accurately understood as a highly diverse continent three times the size of the US containing more than fifty distinct countries. Most of the continent's countries are now at peace, whatever other problems they face. Having experienced among the most destructive conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s, countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda are all dealing with "post- conflict" rather than "conflict" issues. Others, such as Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Benin, and Tunisia, to name only a few from around the continent, have avoided post-colonial internal war, despite smaller-scale conflict and the cross-border impact of refugee flows from their neighbors. Nevertheless, full-scale conflict in too many countries and the absence of minimal security for citizens in many others endangers not only the continent's image but its future. Neither democracy nor development can advance if citizens are at the mercy of unrestrained gunmen. A newly emerging consensus, contrary to the Organization of African Unity's general assumption since the 1960s, maintains that internal conflicts are not just the concern of one country. Neighboring countries and indeed the continent at large are victimized by spillover effects. Genocidal violence is in theory--if not yet in practice--the concern of the entire human community. Yet the "international community" (both Africa-wide and world- wide) often lacks the capacity and the political will to respond. When governments and humanitarian NGOs do mobilize in response to a crisis, lines of accountability are often vague or ignored. One fundamental question is who takes responsibility to respond, and where the buck stops. In a crisis, neighboring countries are often the most intensely engaged. This can be an advantage but also a handicap in resolving conflicts. African regional and continental institutions have been taking a more active role in many crises, a trend which should be encouraged. But the scale of the military, organizational, and logistical resources needed means that the global community as well must take a hand. Few doubt that the United Nations and other agencies need to improve their efficiency, management capacity, and accountability. But unjustified and indiscriminate UN-bashing has become commonplace in US politics. The far-right attacks the institution as such. The Clinton administration has also used the institution as a scapegoat. "Reform" proposals have too often been designed simply to cut costs rather than to increase the UN s capacity to respond effectively to crises, such as the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and current threats of escalated genocidal violence in Burundi. Polls show that the general public takes a far more positive stance towards the United Nations than is reflected in the public political debate and the standard assumptions of policymakers. Indeed, some polls show that the UN is more widely trusted by US citizens to do the right thing than is the US Congress. A June, 1996 poll showed solid majorities willing to commit US troops to peacekeeping in Burundi, as long as other countries did their share. But such alternatives are excluded from the menu of options policymakers will take seriously. Currently, the largest UN peacekeeping contingent on the continent is in Angola, where the peace agreement signed in late 1994 is threatened by repeated delays. Angola faces a grave risk of a resurgence of war or an indefinite continuation of the current deadlock with two separate armies and little security for civilians. In Liberia, regional West Africa peacekeepers are the key force on the ground, but the chances of implementing the latest agreement depend on greater support from outside the region. The volatile Great Lakes region is still coping with the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and escalating ethnic violence both in Burundi and in neighboring eastern Zaire. While intense peace efforts are currently under way, everyone involved warns that their chances of success are very unpredictable, and the weekly death toll could easily rise from hundreds to thousands or tens of thousands. No peacekeeping operations are currently envisaged for war- torn Sudan or for Somalia, still without a national government. Among the critical issues are not only the international community s continued involvement in humanitarian relief, but also what actions can be taken to promote peace and respect for human rights. Questions: (1) Do you support full payment of US dues to the United Nations? Full US funding of its obligations for United Nations peacekeeping? If not, why not? (2) What level of financial and logistical assistance do you advocate for peacekeeping mechanisms and operations by the Organization of African Unity and African regional organizations? Increase? Decrease? About the same? Why? (3) How do you propose to help strengthen the voices of African civil society to participate in international debates about the future of peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance and in monitoring the record of "donor" governments, international agencies, and non-governmental organizations? (4) Angola: Should the UN peacekeeping operation in Angola be continued beyond February 1997, if full implementation of the 1994 Lusaka peace agreement is further delayed? If UNITA continues to refuse to implement the agreement's provisions on military and political integration into one national army and a government of national unity, what additional sanctions, by the US and the international community, do you support? (5) Liberia: What level of involvement and assistance from the US in the peace process in Liberia do you support? Increase? Decrease? About the same? Why? Do you support H.R. 4001, which proposes sanctions on countries violating the arms embargo against Liberian factions and investigation of war crimes by faction leaders? (6) Great Lakes (Burundi and Rwanda): What level of US involvement and assistance in possible international peacekeeping in Burundi would you support? Funds? Logistic support? Contributing troops to UN peacekeeping? What can the US do to help impose effective embargoes against arms flows that fuel the conflicts in the region? In particular, what actions would you support against the Mobutu regime in Zaire? How would you propose to increase US support for the International Tribunal on the Genocide in Rwanda? (7) Horn of Africa (Sudan and Somalia): What additional sanctions against the military regime in Sudan, or new diplomatic initiatives, do you propose to increase the chances for peace negotiations in Sudan's civil war, as well as advancement of democracy and human rights for all Sudanese? In the absence of a national Somali government, what measures do you propose to provide protection for humanitarian agencies and human rights advocates, both foreign and Somali, in that territory? (continued in part 2)
Documents previously distributed in the e-journal are
available on the Africa Action website: To be added to or dropped from the e-journal subscription list, write to e-journal@africaaction.org. For more information about reposted material, please contact directly the source mentioned in the posting.
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Africa Policy E-Journal
