From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Aug 18 2009 - 06:33:05 EDT
http://www.globalresearch.ca/site_images/blank1x1.gifhttp://www.globalresear
ch.ca/site_images/blank1x1.gifhttp://www.globalresearch.ca/site_images/blank
1x1.gif
Hillary Clinton seeks to strengthen US imperialism's position in Africa
by Ann Talbot
August 18, 2009
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 11-day tour of Africa took in seven
countries across the continent. Following on from President Obama's trip to
Ghana, her visit highlights his administration's intention to strengthen the
US position in Africa against the challenge of its rivals.
"It's where his blood comes from," she said, echoing Obama's words in Ghana
when he drew attention to his African ancestry. In what has become a mantra,
she ignored the effects of centuries of depredation and looting and blamed
Africa's present impoverished condition on the lack of "good governance."
She made no acknowledgement of the US role in establishing the corrupt
regimes that govern Africa today. Nor did she refer to the part that
US-based companies play in feeding the Swiss bank accounts of African
politicians and generals.
She condemned rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) and offered a token $17 million for its victims when she visited Goma
in the eastern DRC. But the situation women and girls face today is the
direct result of the decision of the US government to covertly back the
Ugandan and Rwandan invasion of the DRC in 1998, which entirely destabilized
this mineral rich region. It was a war which claimed some 5.4 million lives
and displaced millions more.
The leaders of Uganda and Rwanda were among those designated as African
Renaissance leaders by President Bill Clinton. Their proxies have been
responsible for carrying out the very atrocities which she condemned.
Similar atrocities have been carried out by the DRC Army, which is backed by
the United Nations and the US.
Washington continues to support regimes that commit atrocities against
civilians. In Kenya, Clinton met with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed
and pledged to provide more military aid and training to the Transitional
Federal Government (TFG). Hundred of thousands of civilians are currently in
refugee camps stretching along the road outside Mogadishu or in neighbouring
Kenya because the city has been shelled in the government's conflict with
the Islamic insurgents of al Shabaab.
This is currently the biggest humanitarian crisis in Africa. The response of
the Obama regime has been to step up support to the TFG and to pour more
weapons into the region. The objective of US foreign policy is to gain
control over the strategically vital Horn of Africa, around which run some
of the worlds' major sea routes.
What was not mentioned on Clinton's Africa trip was the new US military
command for Africa-Africom-established under the Bush administration.
Previously US military operations in Africa were divided between the Middle
East and the European commands. The decision to establish a separate African
command represented an intensification of US strategic interest in Africa.
Currently, Africom's headquarters are in Germany. The intention is to find a
base on the African continent, but the Bush administration could not
persuade any African country to offer facilities. No African regime felt it
could risk such a close association with the US military, after the invasion
of Iraq and Afghanistan. Clinton could not raise such a politically
sensitive issue publicly. In conjunction with her visit, however, Africom
was carrying out a programme of activities, including the visit of the
guided missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and
a seminar on "health and security" in Lusaka, Zambia.
A recent internal report from the State Department's Office of the Inspector
General highlighted the difference in funding for diplomatic activities in
Africa and those of Africom. "The military deals in resources that the State
Department can only dream about," the report said. One military information
support team was funded to the tune of $600,000 for a project in Somalia,
while a State Department team had only $30,000. The report concluded that
some of their responsibilities should be handed over to the military.
This militarization of US foreign policy in Africa reflects America's
inability to deal with the growing rivalry it faces by economic means alone.
China has just surpassed the US to become Africa's main trading partner.
America's trade with Africa was worth $104 billion in 2008, a 28 percent
increase, but China's trade with Africa was worth $107 billion, a tenfold
increase over the last decade.
In addition, President Medvedev of Russia recently visited Angola and
secured a number of lucrative contracts for Russian firms. What are often
referred to as the BRICSA countries-Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
Africa-which are the largest of the emerging economies- are increasingly
prepared to work together despite the rivalries between them.
In response, the US has shown that it can still use the power it wields
through international financial institutions, such as the IMF and the UN
Security Council, to bring African governments to heel. The Democratic
Republic of Congo recently signed a $9 billion deal under which China has
agreed to build a series of major infrastructural projects in return for
mineral concessions. But the IMF has warned that if the deal goes through,
it will have to review the debt relief the DRC was promised.
Clinton was particularly critical of the Kenyan government and threatened to
use the US position on the UN Security Council to refer leading Kenyan
politicians and businessmen to the International Criminal Court over
post-election violence that resulted in the deaths of 1,500 people. Her
remarks about Obama's ancestry were made in Kenya. She told university
students that the message she brought on aid was tough, but "also lovingly
presented."
In Nigeria, which unlike Kenya is one of the main African producers of oil,
her call for good governance was more modestly presented. And Liberia
received the most favourable treatment of all. It has been granted $1.2
billion in debt relief, unlike the DRC or Ivory Coast. Yet President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia has just admitted that she supported the regime
of Charles Taylor, who is currently on trial at The Hague for war crimes.
The corruption for which Liberia was noted under Taylor has continued under
Sirleaf. Members of her government are said to have benefited from the
Liberian flag of convenience shipping registry and from kickbacks offered by
India's Tata Steel and South Africa's Delta Mines Consolidated. She has
escaped censure because she has shown herself to be one of the most servile
supporters of Washington's policy in Africa. Since the US Marines invaded
Liberia in 2003 to overthrow the Taylor regime, the country has effectively
been an American colony.
Clinton's trip included discussion of the African Growth and Opportunities
Act (AGOA) with African businessmen. AGOA was supposed to open up the US
market to a range of Africa products. This has not happened to any
significant extent. However, there is a growing interest in African
agricultural land as a result of rising food prices and the potential demand
for bio-fuels. South Korea and Saudi Arabia have both bought large tracts.
It was in South Africa that Clinton stressed the potential benefits of AGOA,
since South Africa's trade is the most diverse. She hopes to use the
prospect of greater access to the American market to open up a rift between
South Africa and the other emerging economies. Clinton stressed that South
Africa "is uniquely positioned to advance its own economic trajectory and to
propel economic growth on the African continent as a whole," so long as the
Zuma government sticks to free market policies.
Despite the carrot she dangled for Zuma, the reality is that oil remains the
primary US trade concern. The US market is not about to rescue the South
African economy from the doldrums. Some 80 percent of America's trade with
Africa is accounted for by oil. The recent increase in the value of that
trade is largely due to the increase in the price of oil. Overall, US oil
imports from Africa have nearly doubled since 2002. In 2006, 22 percent of
all crude oil imports to the US came from Africa, more than from the Middle
East.
For this reason, Clinton was positively effusive when she came to Angola,
where the dos Santos regime holds the country in a firm grip. As Nigeria has
become more unstable, so the significance of Angola for US oil supplies has
increased. In June of this year it surpassed Nigeria as Africa's largest
petroleum producer. Angola now supplies more oil to China than Saudi Arabia
does.
Last year the economy of this former Cold War battleground grew by 27
percent, almost entirely as a result of oil. Oil exports make up more than
90 percent of the Angolan government's revenues. At 555,000 barrels a day,
Angola is currently the sixth-largest exporter of crude oil to the US,
providing seven percent of its energy imports. Some two thirds of the
Angolan population live on less than $2 a day.
Clinton's visit was an attempt to use an assumed popularity of Obama in
Africa to recover from the disastrous years of the Bush regime. But the
change in the occupant of the White House does not mean a change in policy
toward Africa. The domination of Africa remains a priority, and the Obama
administration is seeking to develop the political, economic and military
means to achieve its strategic goal.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----