On the Peace Act, the Peace Act is a balanced piece of legislation. If you read it carefully, what it tries to do is encourage both sides to make an agreement to cease and desist in their fighting, and it holds out both carrots and sticks for that to happen. The President signed it. It is now part of our law and our legislation is in effect.
The good news is it enables time for diplomacy to act. And again, the news coming out of Machakos today bodes well for everyone concerned and our hope is, in fact, that this time next year, or this time in four, five, six months from now, we'll be discussing, you know, what are the reconstruction and rehabilitation appropriations and finances that this Government of the United States is eager and willing to put into a now peaceful Sudan. So that's where I hope it leads.
QUESTION: Can I follow up? If I just may get back to the first part of the question --
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Yes.
QUESTION: -- if you can get a little bit in details. Did the administration, in any way, succeed in dispelling or overcoming Egypt's reservations, Egypt's fears about that agreement and what it mean for the future of that region? Can you just get into details? Did the administration address these points with Egyptians and overcome their fears?
Thank you.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Yes. Indeed, we have. And we've had multiple conversations with the government in Cairo and they are very comfortable with where Machakos is headed, and I think after today we'll all even be that much more comfortable.
QUESTION: Hassan El Hassan from Rai-Amm Daily Newspaper in Sudan. About the other political parties in Sudan, is there any certain formula for how these major political parties will contribute in the other steps?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: That's an important question and it involves not only political parties, but civil society. And that leads into what provisions are going to be in the Machakos Agreement concerning civil society, civil liberties, human rights. And those are all issues that will be addressed. Remember, this peace process is initially between the two warring factions, in this case the SPLA/SPLM and the government, but there are other equity players, if you will, and those people and those parties and those institutions do need to be brought into this process.
So I think that is very much on the minds, and I believe both of the key parties recognize that. And that's the first step, that both the government and the SPLA recognize that they are not the only equity players in this; there are others and they need to get their agreement in place, and then we need to encourage and expand this dialogue and this conversation to include some of the other stakeholders.
QUESTION: Hi. Pierre Steyn, Media 24, South Africa. I don't think there'll be a lot of argument that economic development is one of the best ways to end conflict in Africa. NEPAD is the African plan to promote economic development. I would like to get your take on the way that NEPAD is going, especially in the light of some confusing signals coming out of Africa on the peer review mechanism, if democracy and human rights are going to be part of the peer review mechanism?
Thank you.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Thank you. In fact, I think that you can't have economic development if you have conflict. I mean, you've got to resolve that conflict first. The peer review mechanism coming out of NEPAD is very important. I mean, it is, in essence, what separates this initiative from past economic development strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa or for the African continent. And so I was very glad to hear when Wiseman Nkuhlu came yesterday -- or I'm sorry, on Friday -- and explained that the NEPAD Secretariat has been instructed by the NEPAD heads of state to, in fact, pursue a peer review mechanism both on the economic side as well as on the democracy, rule of law, governance side. And so that was very good news.
You know, if you start looking at what mechanisms the Secretariat of NEPAD are trying to put into place, and some of the criteria, if you will, that they are going to be looking at as they do these reviews, it looks very similar to our Millennium Challenge Account. And it's not exactly the same, but very close, and following the same basic philosophy and guidelines. So I was very encouraged by that meeting with Wiseman.
QUESTION: Adu-Asare, Africa Newscast. I have a question about Zimbabwe. In the pre-election mood, a senior US official gave the impression that the US was going to help Zimbabwe after the elections. Could you characterize US-Zimbabwe relations at this time?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: US-Zimbabwe relations are correct. We still have full diplomatic relations. They maintain an embassy in Washington and we maintain an embassy in Harare.
We have problems in the relationship. Just last week, a member of our embassy was detained, questioned, and his foreign service national driver was, in fact, injured, roughed up, beaten up. This is something that we cannot tolerate in the sense of diplomats being harassed. Property was taken from him. And we are demanding a full and complete explanation.
So it is not a particularly healthy relationship.
QUESTION: -- Washington File to Africa. Secretary Kansteiner, could you tell us a little bit -- another economic development question. Could you tell us a little bit about the importance of, later this week, the big oil and gas conference coming up in Houston, which I believe you're going to attend? How important is the future of Africa tied to this burgeoning oil development?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: I think oil and gas in Africa is one component, and only one component, of Africa's economic development. Sub-Saharan African development is complicated and it is a long-term issue that will be worked on by many folks for the next few years.
That said, I think oil and gas is one natural resource that Africa does have. And what we would like to see is Africa use those resources, and we are very interested in helping African governments use those resources and prioritize how they might build on a successful natural resource economy.
Oil and gas is not the only natural resource that Africa has. It's got many. But it is one, particularly in West Africa, where there is an opportunity and you see significant revenues being generated. And what we are looking for is an opportunity to assist in any way we can in prioritizing the expenditures of those revenues on a technical basis or any other.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. My name is Douglas Okwatch. I work for Standard Newspapers in Nairobi. Now, this year my country is facing a transition election, and as you may be well aware, Kenya has been a very stable country in the region. So we are just wondering whether the US has any concerns in a smooth transition in the December 27 election in Kenya.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Well, it is a very big election in your country and a very important election. I think anyone that studies Africa and knows Africa realizes how significant it is -- and it's a big one.
I think the Kenyan people know that, too -- at least that's the sense I get -- and I think they want it to go right. And we do, too. So we are assisting in the independent electoral commission, working with them, trying to get everything from voter registration to voter education. We want to see the process be a smooth one, not only on election day, which is very important, but also in these weeks leading up to election day. Of course, now we're down to the last few weeks, really. We're talking four or five weeks from now is election day, so time is getting close.
I was very, very pleased to see, over the weekend there were two almost competing rallies, both in Nairobi, both peaceful -- both peaceful. The two primary parties, the Rainbow Coalition and Kanu, held rallies that were in relative proximity to one another, and yet it all remained very civil and peaceful. And that is an extremely good sign and we applaud the Kenyans for beginning their very important election in such a proper manner.
QUESTION: Thomas Gorguissian, Al Wafd, Egypt. Mr. Secretary, my first question is in general, but I wish I would get a specific answer. It's not as specific about the continent itself. And as much as I guess from the question of my colleagues, there was usually different signals coming, or confusing signals, some people describe, from Washington to different countries on the continent.
What are your priorities regarding Africa? Is it stability, development, AIDS, civil societies, democracy -- or all this above? Or what is the priorities that you are going to work on it?
And my second question is regarding this war against -- or war on terrorism. In recent months, most of the time that there was alarm and, like, warning to the people to visit this and there are a lot of embassies were closed in the African countries especially, some of the African countries.
How do you see this war on terrorism and the cooperation of those systems or regimes in different African countries going to help, or not help as a matter of fact, the need for democratization in the civil societies in these countries?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Thank you. We have five priorities in the Bush Administration for Africa.
One is private sector development. Africa is not going to make it economically without the international private sector involvement. And that comes in trade and that's why we are pushing AGOA as hard as we are; and it comes in foreign direct investment, getting US capital to look at Africa in a serious sort of way; and it comes in portfolio investment. You know, what stock exchanges can the American investor invest in African-listed companies? So we're looking at all those types of private sector involvement. Those are key.
One of the things I'm perhaps most proud of so far in this administration is our sovereign debt credit rating scheme, where we have basically contracted with one of the credit ratings, in this case Fitch, to do sovereign debt credit ratings for African countries. We now have 15 African countries signed up to get their credit rating.
This is the first basic ticket that you have to have to play in the capital markets world game. You can't show up on Wall Street without a sovereign debt credit rating, and only four African countries had it until we started our program. We're very excited about that.
The second major area that we're looking at is democracy development, building those democratic institutions that will foster better economic development. An independent judicial system that actually upholds contracts and abides by rule of law and recognizes private property rights. Now, that's a very important independent judicial system and you've got build those kind of judiciaries in order to attract the foreign capital that is needed.
The third area that we are concerned with is HIV/AIDS. It is truly a pandemic that seems not to be slowing down and we have got to throw all of our brain power and emotional power into this and figure out how we can assist in slowing this disease down.
The fourth area is environment. The African continent is blessed with unique ecosystems. Conservation is the right thing to do, number one, but it's also the right thing to do because tourism is Africa's second largest hard currency earner, after oil and gas. Tourism is the big ticket, and the only reason you have tourism is because there are unique environmental systems that people want to come see, and so you've got to protect those.
And last, and the one that kind of overarches all of this, is what nominally what we cast this press briefing about, and that's conflict resolution. We've got to stop the wars. Africa will not develop if you have wars going, and we have got to assist in bringing some of those wars to closure.
So those are the priorities of where we are.
QUESTION: And the embassies question?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Oh, yes. I'm sorry. On closing of embassies, I was not sure about that. We have not closed any embassies since the war on terrorism began over a year ago and we've had excellent cooperation with the African governments. You know, we look at people flows, we look at money flows, financial flows. We're doing a lot of forensic accounting programs with central banks and commercial banks in Africa, particularly East Africa, and it's going very well. We are very, very pleased with how African governments have responded to being allies on our war on terrorism.
QUESTION: Critics may say is this cooperation may hinder or broke democratization and civil society process.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: I think just the opposite. I mean, you look at forensic accounting. What that basically is is opening up your central banking system to make sure that there is no terrorist money flowing through. Well, when you do that, you're opening up the entire system for multiple institutions and people to see, so you also see money laundering, drug trafficking. So it's kind of an exercise in transparency, which, of course, assists ultimately in democracy building.
QUESTION: Al Ayaam Newspaper from Sudan. With the current change of power in the Congress, do you expect any change in US policy toward Sudan that might tend towards more support for the SPLA?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: No, I don't believe so. I think that Congress has been consistently interested in Sudan and they have played a very important role on encouraging all sides to sue for peace and get it done at the peace table. So I think that will probably pretty much stay the same.
QUESTION: Charlie Cobb, allAfrica.com. I also have a Zimbabwe question. Your assistant, Mark Bellamy, made quite striking remarks a couple of weeks ago, if I can recall the quote, that the food situation in Zimbabwe would require intrusive and interventionist actions by the United States and there might be some challenges to sovereignty. That, as you might imagine, has set off much puzzlement in Africa and out of Africa about precisely what is meant by, really, a belligerent statement like that.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: What the international community is now facing is a situation in Zimbabwe where there are probably 6.5 million people at risk. That is far too great of a population in a country that should not have starvation.
So you have to ask the questions: Why is this happening? Why is this happening in Zimbabwe? And, of course, a lot of the answers rest in the fact that the political apparatus that is now in place in Zimbabwe is, in fact, denying food to certain segments and certain geographical locations.
So I think the international community, both the NGO community -- in fact, we've had discussions with the International Red Cross and with the neighbors -- we all need to look at how we can avoid a famine striking the region, including Zimbabwe.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Well, I think, you know, in the context of how is it done elsewhere, you know, you look at Southern Sudan and there are -- there are occasions when Operation Lifeline Sudan was constructed by the international community to look at ways -- now, the good news there is that Sudan now has completely opened up for humanitarian access in the entire country.
But we are concerned that the food crisis in Southern Africa and in Zimbabwe is one that is going to require some thoughtful, innovative ways to get food to people. And you look at the story in The Washington Post on Swaziland, for instance. You look at Malawi, you look at Zambia, you look at Zimbabwe. All of these countries are, in fact, experiencing weather patterns that would suggest drought and reduction of crops.
But each of these countries has a specific problem or set of problems that are unique, and so I think we have to be careful on how we look at exactly the ways that we respond to each of those. Malawi is not Mozambique, is not Zimbabwe. I mean, each one is going to have to be dealt with.
QUESTION: Bashir from Sudan. The good news from Machakos is not only good for southerners or northerners but for Africa as a whole because of Arab-Africa and North -- and African side. And my question to you is: I don't see any argument stronger to support full diplomatic presence of America. The coming six months are going to be, as you said, very crucial, and I think your presence, full embassy, is very important.
Thank you.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY KANSTEINER: Thank you for that. I appreciate that. Thank you all.
