[Peace-discuss] Fwd: US/Africa: SHow Us the Money!

[Alfred Kagan]

FYI

>Comments: Authenticated sender is <apicmail at mail.africapolicy.org>
>From: "Africa Action" <e-journal at africaaction.org>
>Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 23:29:19 -0500
>Subject: US/Africa: SHow Us the Money!
>Reply-to: e-journal at africaaction.org
>Priority: normal
>X-RAVMilter-Version: 8.4.1(snapshot 20020919) (marduk.africapolicy.org)
>To: e-journal-list at africaaction.org
>X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.4 required=5.0
>	tests=BANG_MONEY,MSG_ID_ADDED_BY_MTA_3
>	version=2.54
>X-Spam-Level: *
>X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.54 (1.174.2.17-2003-05-11-exp)
>
>AFRICA ACTION
>Africa Policy E-Journal
>July 9, 2003 (030709)
>                    
>US/Africa: Show Us the Money!
>(Reposted from sources cited below)
>     
>According to a July 8 Reuters story from Goree Island after
>President Bush's brief visit there, local residents were outraged
>as they were removed from their homes and taken to a football
>stadium on the other side of the island until the presidential
>party had left.  "It's humiliating. The whole island was deserted,"
>one resident told the Reuters reporter, who noted that on the
>normally bustling island, the only people to be seen were U.S.
>officials and secret service agents.
>
>It remains to be seen whether the President will have any more
>opportunity to listen to non-official African voices on other stops,
>but civil society groups around the continent are speaking out with
>challenging questions. This posting contains (1) a joint letter from
>several continent-wide groups and South Africa's Congress of South
>African Trade Unions, (2) two short notes with comments from
>Ugandan activists, and (3) a letter from medical professionals
>focused on questions about the president's AIDS initiative.
>
>+++++++++++++++++end summary/introduction+++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>President George Walker Bush
>President, United States of America
>1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, D.C.
>
>July 7, 2003
>
>Dear President Bush:
>
>As your plane touches down in Dakar, Senegal, we welcome the
>opportunity of your visit to examine the US Africa relationship and
>to establish ties that are based on honesty, respect and a clear
>commitment to removing the structural obstacles that impede
>Africa's development. We would like to raise the following issues
>for your consideration. They are not new ones, but there is an
>opportunity, with your visit, to act decisively and change the
>image and relationship of your Administration with Africa.
>
>The proposed visit to five African countries has been scheduled to
>clash with the Second Heads of Summit meeting in Maputo,
>Mozambique. It is unclear how the Administration could be so out of
>step with African continental institutions by not seeking to attend
>this important meeting. As arranged, the trip will rather serve as
>a distraction to the African Union meeting.
>
>We notice that your planning team has omitted those countries like
>Tanzania and Kenya that have directly suffered from terrorist
>attacks against US interests and citizens. This is odd given the
>tremendous cost that these countries have borne and continue to
>bear as a result of their relationship with the US. Furthermore,
>the highly selective programme excludes civil society and the
>business communities who could have offered constructive and
>prepositional conversation around US foreign policy, aid and trade.
>As constructed, the agenda appears to offer little else than a
>series of photo opportunities starting with Goree Island and ending
>in a Ugandan AIDS clinic with shots of our Presidents in between.
>
>This trip may boost the Republican campaign image among the
>African-American community before elections. However, it does very
>little to boost confidence on the continent that this is a working
>visit that will afford time and space for Africans to share their
>aspirations and engage the Administration on the need for the US to
>change its policies and practices toward Africa.
>
>There is still time though should you choose to act on the
>substantive issues we raise below.
>
>* Delivery not spin on HIV/AIDS is needed:
>
>Two thirds of the 25 million people who have died are Africans. In
>Zimbabwe alone, more than 3000 people are dying each week from the
>disease. There is no doubt this is one of the gravest issues
>confronting the continent, yet the Global Health Fund is short on
>resources. While welcoming the public pledge of US$15 billion to a
>unilateral US Global AIDS programmes, we note your Administration's
>request for 2004 is a miserly $450 million. Mr. Bush, where is the
>$15 Billion that you have promised to fight AIDS in Africa and the
>Caribbean? Show us the money!
>
>The quality of US health programmes have suffered from the reliance
>on patented drugs and the restriction of health programmes that
>promote abstinence from sex rather than safe sex. We call on you to
>heed the demand of African leaders and women's organisations for a
>change in these policies and those promoting health cut backs. The
>demand for the right to import and manufacture generic drugs is a
>moral imperative. This trip would be an opportunity to express your
>support for Africans to access cheap generic drugs and to promote
>women's rights to control their own fertility.
>
>* Decrease uni-lateral militarisation, facilitate regional
>peace-keeping:
>
>Several African conflicts are leading to the deaths, displacement
>and impoverishment of millions of African women, men and children.
>African leaders have tried individually and collectively to respond
>to these conflicts despite the debilitating effects of structural
>adjustment policies (which the US supports) and debt servicing.
>
>The US needs to provide adequate logistical and financial support
>for peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace-building in Sudan, Liberia,
>Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi. It can do this
>through cooperation and collaboration with existing efforts such as
>the ECOWAS-sponsored peace conference in Liberia, the South
>African-led peace efforts in Burundi and the United Nations and
>French-led operations in the DRC.
>
>At the same time, civil society organizations in Africa would like
>to register their unequivocal opposition to the further
>militarisation of the continent by the proposed setting up of new
>military bases in Africa as well as the expansion of others, i.e.
>Djibouti. We are not unmindful of the past US military role in
>Africa.  In fact a number of Africa's civil wars are products of US
>military support, including Liberia, the DRC, and the recently
>ended Angolan war. The move to militarize the continent cannot be
>justified by US economic interests in our oil or in protecting
>Africa from terrorism.
>
>We call on the US to roll back the current plans to create "forward
>operating bases" on African soil and desist from promoting
>bi-lateral agreements that exempt both US and African citizens from
>prosecution under the International Criminal Court. With great
>power comes responsibility for one's actions. This should also
>apply to the US.
>
>* Why is Iraq's debt different from Africa's?:
>
>It has long been established that Africa's debt burden is a major
>obstacle to Africa's development objectives. The servicing of
>Africa's debt has made it extremely difficult, if not impossible,
>for the continent to invest in the productive sector, health and
>education.
>
>Mr. Bush, will you announce US support for the unconditional
>cancellation of Africa's debt while in Africa? If Iraqi's debt can
>be cancelled, then surely there is nothing to stop you from doing
>the same for Africa.
>
>* Dumping is not Fair Trade:
>
>In your pre-visit media briefings, you made reference to free trade
>and AGOA as a panacea for Africa's economic woes, yet your
>Administration practices protectionist policies, offers tremendous
>subsidies and is aggressively promoting patents on all living and
>non-living resources. Agriculture is Africa's competitive advantage
>and the only form of livelihood for 70% of its population. Africa's
>poverty is the direct consequence of the inability to export
>agricultural commodities at fair prices and to access US
>technologies.
>
>We call on you to announce a moratorium on subsidies to US farmers,
>desist from championing risky GM products and to take measures that
>will enhance market access for Africa's agricultural products.
>
>* Democracy is a principle, not a matter of expediency:
>
>African people across the continent are establishing and holding
>accountable democratic governments. In these cases, US support like
>elsewhere in the world is welcome. The practice of externally
>induced "regime change" as we have seen in the recent past is not
>welcome. Africans reserve the right to elect and/or recall their
>leaders through democratic processes. We view with deep concern,
>the pressure that is placed on African Governments to adopt laws
>that contravene national constitutions and to act in a manner that
>strips their citizens or residents of their fundamental freedoms
>and access to the rule of law such as the recent case of four
>Moslems in Malawi suspected of being linked to Al Qaeda. This
>divides Africa along racial and religious lines.
>
>We would have liked an opportunity to express these thoughts more
>directly and hear your responses. However we note with concern that
>the space for civil society in the US to comment on and/or critique
>your administration policies has shrunk considerably. We are not
>surprised that civil society in Africa as well did not feature in
>your itinerary.
>
>We deeply share the pain and suffering of Americans resulting from
>September 11 events and the sense of urgency to bring this
>insecurity to an end. However, we think that US-Africa relations
>cannot not be driven by the US War Against Terrorism or US
>interests in Africa as an emerging market or as supplier of 15% of
>US oil.
>
>We make these appeals because we believe there are obligations that
>come with being the world's only super power. Furthermore, the
>people of the US and Africa have a history that is intertwined.
>Crimes against African humanity were conducted during slavery and
>during the cold war.   In that sense the US has an ethical burden
>to act in ways that exude justice, human rights and a genuine
>respect for democracy. We ask not for charity, we seek justice. We
>look to your trip to to act decisively and change the image and
>relationship of your Administration with Africa.
>
>Yours truly:
>
>Helen Wangusa
>Coordinator, African Women Empowerment Network (AWEPON), Uganda
>
>Patrick Craven
>Congress of South African Trade Unions,
>South Africa
>
>Muthoni Wanyeki
>Executive Director
>African Women Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Kenya
>
>Oduor Ong'wen
>Director, Econews Africa, Kenya
>
>Ezra Mbogori
>Executive Director, Mwelekeo wa NGO (MWENGO), Zimbabwe
>
>c.c. Hon. Colin Powell, Secretary of State,
>Hon. Andrew Natsios, Administrator, USAID.
>
>Endorsed by:
>
>Emira Woods
>Co-Director, Foreign Policy in Focus/Institute for Policy Studies,
>US
>
>Salih Booker
>Executive Director, AfricaAction, US
>
>Bill Fletcher
>President, Transafrica, US
>
>Leon Spencer
>Executive Director, Washington Office on Africa, US
>
>Njoki Njoroge Njehu
>Director, 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic
>Justice, US
>
>Kumi Naidoo,
>Secretary General,
>CIVICUS Citizens World Alliance, South Africa
>
>************************************************************
>
>Tuesday, July 8th, 2003 - The Monitor - Kampala, Uganda
>
>Activist dares Bush on AIDS
>
>By Carolyne Nakazibwe
>
>Renowned HIV/AIDS activist, Ms. Milly Katana, has challenged
>President George W. Bush, who is visiting Africa, to leave behind
>a signed cheque of $3 billion to fight the pandemic worldwide.
>
>Katana, from the Health Rights Action Group - Uganda, asked Bush to
>fulfil the many promises to US government has made.
>
>She said in an email to The Monitor on Friday from Yaounde
>(Cameroon), that President Yoweri Museveni needs $63 million (Shs
>125.4 billion) per year to treat persons living with HIV and to
>stop preventable deaths.
>
>"Therefore, if President Museveni got a cheque, or a firm
>promissory note of $315 million, he would be able to disable the
>[HIV] that is just ready to grow into another [AIDS] epidemic in a
>country that is celebrated for having conquered AIDS," Katana said.
>
>She said that during his stop-over at Entebbe on Friday, Bush
>should be clear about the $3 billion needed to fight AIDS worldwide
>in 2004 and the need to inject more money into the Global Find to
>Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
>
>Bush will meet with President Museveni during his four hour visit
>to Uganda this Friday, as part of his first official tour of
>Africa.
>
>According to the State Department Website, AIDS is top on Bush's
>agenda in Uganda.
>
>**********************************************************
>
>The Uganda Coalition for Access To Essential Medicines
>
>NEWS RELEASE
>
>contact: Rosette Mutambi / heps at utlonline.co.ug
>+ 256 41 270 970 / mobile +256 77 484 075
>Rob Mealey <rmealey at SMCVT.EDU>
>
>8th July 2003
>
>Coalition on Affordable Medicines to Question Bush
>
>The Uganda Coalition for Access To Essential Medicines invites
>members of the press and other interested parties to join us in the
>Green Room at the National Theatre from 10am to 11am on Thursday
>July 10th 2003. Members of the Coalition will be gathered to raise
>some questions relating US President George W. Bush's plans to
>spend US$15 billion fighting HIV/AIDS.
>
>President Bush, who will be in Uganda for four hours on Friday, has
>put Uganda forward as the African exemplar in the fight against
>HIV/AIDS. As far as prevention work is concerned, we agree Uganda
>is a leading example. However President Bush, in his State of the
>Union Address this January spoke of doctors turning away patients
>because they had no medicines or money to purchase them. He spoke
>of people dying because they could afford the most basic of
>prophylactic medicines. He was speaking not about prevention there
>but about access to essential medicines. In Uganda only 10% of
>people needing lifesaving Anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS can
>access them. We hope he is not going to take this an example to
>follow and we want to know more about how his plans will address
>this situation.
>
>The speakers will include:
>
>Rosette Mutambi - Coordinator of Uganda Access Coalition Dr.
>Florence Mahoro - International Forum of People Living with
>HIV/AIDS Arthur Mpeirwe - Legal Counsel for the Uganda Access
>Coalition Dr. Lydia Mungherera - Coordinator of the Kampala
>District Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS and Chair of
>the AIDS Treatment and Empowerment Initiative
>
>The Uganda Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines is a group
>of civil society organizations and individuals that have come
>together to advocate for increased access to essential medicines.
>The Coalition wishes to raise some serious concerns and questions
>about the HIV/AIDS policies of US President George W. Bush as he
>comes to visit our country.
>
>VENUE: Green Room, National Theatre, Kampala TIME: 10am - 11am
>
>[ENDS]
>
>************************************************************
>
>Physicians for Human Rights
>http://www.phrusa.org  -  http://www.healthactionaids.org
>
>Media Contacts: Barbara Ayotte
>Tel: 617 695- 0041 ext. 210 (617) 549-0152 mobile
>Email: bayotte at phrusa.org
>
>July 7, 2003
>
>As President Bush travels to Africa, leading African health
>professionals are urging him to take specific steps to combat the
>global HIV/AIDS pandemic.  Joined by 63 American colleagues, 31
>African doctors and nurses practicing medicine in the age of AIDS
>in 13 countries, in a letter to the President, shared their
>essential concerns including critical medicines, safe health care,
>earning a decent living and protecting human rights.  They suggest
>ways in which the United States can help support them in their
>efforts to address monumental needs created by the AIDS crisis.
>
>The letter was coordinated by the Health Action AIDS a project of
>Physicians for Human Rights. The health professionals work in
>Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, South Africa, Senegal, Rwanda,
>Malawi, Kenya, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, and
>Zimbabwe. (See http://www.phrusa.org and
>  http://www.healthactionaids.org for full text of letter and
>signatories).
>
>"The President needs to step into AIDS-stricken communities, talk
>to parents and children, and visit home-based care services to see
>firsthand the devastating toll AIDS is taking on wide swaths of the
>continent,"  said Dr. Leana Uys, Chair of South African Nurses in
>AIDS Care. "Only then will he understand the true meaning of what
>he said earlier this year, 'never has history offered the
>opportunity to do so much for so many.'"
>
>The letter underscores the importance of Congress appropriating $3
>billion for HIV/AIDS for fiscal year 2004 (including support for
>the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria) and the
>need for the Administration to live up to its commitment of
>treating 2 million people by 2006 and preventing 7 million new
>infections.  It is signed by leading American AIDS experts such as
>Allan Rosenfield, MD, of the Mailman School of Public Health,
>Columbia University; Karen Ivantic-Doucette, MSN, RN, ACRN, of
>Marquette University College of Nursing and a member of the
>Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS; Joia S. Mukherjee, MD,
>MPH, Medical Director of Partners In Health and Director of HIV
>Equity Initiative, Zanmi Lasante; Paul A. Volberding, MD, Professor
>and Vice-Chair of Medicine, UCSF and Co-Director USCF-GIVI Center
>for AIDS Research; and Eric Goosby, MD, CEO, Pangaea Global AIDS
>Foundation. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, MD, also signed
>the letter.
>
>In addition to calling for the Bush initiative to fund essential
>medicines including anti-retroviral drugs, the letter calls on the
>President to help address the needs of the AIDS crisis by:
>
>- Training  doctors and nurses and other health workers how to
>properly administer and monitor AIDS medication
>
>- Providing logistical management  support to ensure that
>facilities are adequately stocked with supplies, health care
>workers adhere to proper practices and resources are allocated
>properly
>
>- Promoting safe health care, including injection safety and
>universal precautions for health care workers so that they can
>protect themselves. Basic supplies like gloves and single-use
>syringes, better training, and proper ways to dispose of used
>syringes and needles will go a long way on this front.
>
>- Providing support so that health care workers can practice
>medicine to the best of their abilities. For instance, doctors need
>to earn a decent living so that they can concentrate on their
>patients rather than on the survival of their families.  In
>addition, medical workers need to have access to adequate
>facilities where clean water and electricity are in constant
>supply.
>
>- Eliciting local, on-the-ground, input in determining how the $15
>billion Bush initiative will be spent.
>
>- Basing the U.S. HIV/AIDS initiative on proven best practices,
>which is particularly relevant for those in society who are least
>popular and most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, including street children,
>sex workers, homosexuals and injecting drug users.
>
>- Supporting the strengthening of legal systems so that judicial
>system prosecute rape, sex trafficking, and child prostitution and
>protect those living with HIV/AIDS from discrimination. Protecting
>the human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS particularly those
>who are most vulnerable.
>
>The medical leaders ask President Bush to "see people with HIV/AIDS
>as we see them.  We hope that you will see the whole person, a
>person whose needs extend far beyond the narrow scope of
>anti-retroviral medications and HIV prevention messages, a person
>who also needs adequate nutrition and clean water, health and
>education, hope for the future."
>
>+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
>
>Date distributed (ymd): 030709
>Region: Continent-Wide
>Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+
>  +security/peace+ +US policy focus+
>
>************************************************************
>The Africa Action E-Journal is a free information service
>provided by Africa Action, including both original
>commentary and reposted documents. Africa Action provides this
>information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and
>international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
>political and social justice and the full spectrum of
>human rights.
>                              
>Documents previously distributed in the e-journal are
>available on the Africa Action website:
>http://www.africaaction.org
>For additional background on this e-journal go to:
>http://www.africaaction.org/e-journal.htm
>To support Africa Action with your contribution go to:
>http://www.africaaction.org/join.htm
>
>To be added to or dropped from the e-journal subscription list,
>write to e-journal at africaaction.org. For more information about
>reposted material, please contact directly the source mentioned
>in the posting.
>
>Africa Action
>1634 Eye St. NW, #810, Washington, DC 20006.
>Phone: 202-546-7961. Fax: 202-546-1545.
>E-mail: africaaction at igc.org.
>************************************************************


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu