From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat May 09 2009 - 14:03:51 EDT
08 May 2009
Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Carson Takes Office
Carson optimistic about Africa's long-term future
By Charles W. Corey
Staff Writer
Washington - U.S. Ambassador Johnnie Carson was officially sworn in as
assistant secretary of state for African affairs May 7 - making him the
Obama administration's top official charged with directing U.S. policy
toward Africa.
Immediately following his swearing-in ceremony, Carson left for South
Africa to attend the May 9 inauguration of South African president-elect
Joseph Zuma. Carson is part of the official U.S. delegation, led by U.S.
Trade Representative Ron Kirk, attending the inaugural.
Carson is a career diplomat, former Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania
and a lifelong friend of Africa. He previously served as the U.S.
ambassador to Kenya (1999-2003), Zimbabwe (1995-1997) and Uganda
(1991-1994) and in diplomatic posts in Portugal, Botswana, Mozambique
and Nigeria.
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee April 29
prior to his confirmation by the full Senate, Carson told the lawmakers
that Africa is "enormously important" to the United States. He added
however, that while the continent has recorded advances in democracy and
governance, economic development and the resolution of violent
conflicts, more progress must be made, as "the greatest moments in
Africa's long history have not yet been written."
Carson said he remains optimistic about Africa's long-term future and
believes the continent has the capacity to overcome its past problems
and meet its current challenges.
During the past decade, he told the lawmakers, Africa has made advances
in three important areas: democracy and governance, economic
development, and conflict resolution.
On democracy and governance, Carson cited the recent elections in Ghana
and South Africa, saying those events "are not unique and represent a
positive aspect of Africa's unfolding democratic history. Africans
support democracy, and since the early 1990s, dozens of African
countries have embraced democratic rule."
On economic progress, Carson said African countries have made measurable
strides in liberalizing their economies, embracing free-market reforms
and adopting pro-business policies. Prior to the onset of the global
financial crisis, he said, Africa enjoyed nearly a decade of steady
economic growth.
And on conflict resolution, Carson said the number of violent conflicts
in Africa has declined in the past 10 years. "The bloody and often
barbaric civil wars that ripped apart Liberia and Sierra Leone in the
1990s have ended. The hot war that erupted along the Ethiopian-Eritrea
border has gone dormant, and the massive intervention that threatened to
cripple and divide the Congo has now faded away." African leaders, he
said, "recognize the negative impact violent conflicts can have on their
region and many of them have demonstrated a willingness to assume
greater responsibility for preventing and responding to conflicts."
Despite these "very meaningful achievements," he said, Africa still
faces serious challenges in all of these areas. "Africa's democratic
gains cannot be taken for granted. Democratic institutions across the
continent remain fragile and vulnerable to authoritarian leaders and
ambitious soldiers. In the past 12 months, African militaries have
intervened illegally in at least four different African countries."
Additionally, he said, "deeply flawed elections in a number of states
over the last several years, including in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe,
have caused deep concern at home and abroad."
Africa's strong decade-long economic performance is also in jeopardy
because of the current global financial crisis, he warned. "The steep
rise in fuel, food and fertilizer costs last summer and the wild swings
in commodity prices threaten to erode some of Africa's recent economic
gains and to throw Africa's poorest nations back into indebtedness and
deeper poverty," Carson said.
Although the overall level of violence and war in Africa has declined
sharply, "several complex and deeply rooted political conflicts persist
in Somalia, Sudan and the eastern Congo," he said. "Somalia's deep
decline has generated an epidemic of piracy, a massive influx of
refugees into Kenya and a growing concern about cross-border terrorism,"
he added.
Sudan, he said, "faces two major challenges in Darfur and in southern
Sudan," and challenges remain in the Great Lakes region of eastern
Congo, where several rebel groups continue to defy government authority
and terrorize the population.
Carson said the United States has "significant political, economic and
humanitarian interests in wanting to help Africa deal with its most
pressing challenges." Carson pledged to focus on four key areas:
strengthening Africa's democratic institutions and adherence to the rule
of law; working with African countries to prevent conflict and to build
local peacekeeping capacity; fostering sustained economic development
and growth; and partnering with Africa to combat threats like health
pandemics, climate change and narcotrafficking.
Additionally, Carson cited the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and
the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as being two "cornerstones
of the U.S. strategy to jump-start Africa's economic development and
encourage pro-growth policies."
MCA has signed compacts or grant agreements with 10 African countries
and AGOA has allowed 40 African nations to benefit from preferential
access to American markets, he said. "These two programs, as well as
others, have been very successful and very popular. But we - and others
in the industrialized world - must do more," he added.
Carson said he would like to see expansion of AGOA to allow high-value
agricultural and semi-processed exports from Africa. Carson also called
for a renewed and sustained emphasis on Africa's agricultural sector,
where more than 70 percent of Africans directly or indirectly derive
their income.
Fifteen percent of America's oil comes from Africa, he told the
lawmakers, and the continent supplies the majority of the liquefied
natural gas consumed in the eastern United States. "Africa's economic
potential is vast and its importance as a trading partner will continue
to grow," he said.
Carson's nomination was endorsed at the Senate hearing by two members of
the U.S. House of Representatives: Democratic Congressman Donald Payne,
chairman of a House subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, and
Republican Congressman Ed Royce, a former chairman of that subcommittee.
Payne praised Carson as a lifelong friend of Africa and as a man of
"patience, integrity and high principle." Royce called Carson a man who
has "all the makings of an excellent assistant secretary of state."
The full text of Carson's April 29 statement is available on
America.gov.
http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2009/May/20090429172534WCyero
C0.1746136.html?CP.rss=true
head shot of Amb. Carson with flag backdrop (Courtesy Amb. Carson)
<http://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/week_4/042909_032309-car
son_200.jpg>
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