President Bush's Trip to Africa

Real Audio of Briefing

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Good afternoon to you. And I'm happy to answer any of your questions about the president's trip to Africa.

       As you know, he will be going to five countries July 7th through the 12th. And the purpose of this trip is really to extend his vision for Africa, which he very well laid out at the Corporate Council on Africa luncheon speech, basically, a vision in which he sees an Africa that is peaceful, prosperous, and an Africa that's living in freedom, is healthy and literate.

       That's the sort of general vision that the president has had for the continent. We are going to specifically talk to the heads of state in Senegal, in Nigeria, in Botswana, in Uganda and in South Africa. He will talk about, particularly, his many initiatives: the HIV/AIDS Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Mother-to-Child HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative, his Millennium Challenge Account, his Africa Education Initiative; and he will talk about the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, the SACU Free Trade Agreement. And so, a very deep and broad agenda for our Africa policy.

       The president sees his Africa policy as fitting within the broader national security strategy, particularly his vision post-9/11 to make the world both better and safer. And he sees Africa as central to that global agenda, and that will be a large component of his dialogue with the heads of state.

       He will visit various NGO organizations, various civic organizations in Africa so that he can also engage with the broader public in addition to the leadership of the countries.

       So with that, I will open up and take any questions that you may have.

       Q My name is Ben Bangoura. I represent both Guinea News and Radio Tam-Tam in Washington.

       There's a report that the White House is considering sending five -- from five to a thousand troops to Liberia to keep peace there. Can you confirm that information?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: No, I can't confirm that information. But what I can say is what the president said earlier today when he announced the new HIV/AIDS coordinator, Randall Tobias.

       Essentially, what he said during the press conference after is that he wants to work with the regional states, the regional leaders, in ECOWAS in particular, to try to find a solution to the crisis in Liberia; that he has also asked Secretary Powell to work with Kofi Annan to make sure that we're doing all that we can on the diplomatic front to see that the cease-fire holds between the LURD/MODEL and the government forces.

       He also said that Charles Taylor must leave the country in order to provide for a peaceful transition in Liberia. But at this point, I have no further information about the news story about specific numbers for any type of intervention force.

       Q Charlie Cobb with AllAfrica.com. An ECOWAS delegation came to the White House today, presumably to follow up on their request for 2,000 U.S. troops and their pledge to commit 3,000 of West African or -- troops if the United States would lead it. Is the president at all interested or committed to any piece of this proposal?

       Also, we understand that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld came to the White House with a proposal specifically for Liberia. Does this involve U.S. boots on the ground in Liberia?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: The president said this afternoon that we're looking at various options to support peace in Liberia. However, I can't confirm and I don't frankly know of any ECOWAS delegation that came to the White House today. And so clearly the responsible officials in the government are looking at various options, I mean, but there's no confirmation of any particular plans, any particular numbers, nor any particular proposal that has come to -- from ECOWAS to the White House.

       Q My name is Philip Tazi with the Cameroon Herald. The president made some pretty strong statements directed at Charles Taylor and also Robert Mugabe. How committed is the president to really make sure that both -- that Taylor leaves? I mean, is he prepared to use American force to get rid of Taylor? And what exactly does he intend to do to make sure that Mugabe becomes much more responsible?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: On the first question, as I said, the president is looking at various options, has asked Secretary Powell to work very closely with the U.N. to figure out how Charles Taylor can be encouraged to leave for the benefit of the Liberian people. As you know, Charles Taylor is indicted by the Sierra Leone special court, and that's the reason that the president has asked Secretary Powell to work closely with the U.N., because that court is a body of the U.N.

       Whether the plans, the options for actually, you know, pushing him out the door -- as I say, there are -- any number of things are being considered, but it's really in the diplomatic -- it's in the diplomatic process at this point. So there's nothing that I can tell you about a particular plan.

       On Zimbabwe, the president called on the leaders of the region to work to restore democracy to Zimbabwe. How that will happen -- clearly, he sees the SADC countries -- the Southern African Development Community countries as having a key role, as Zimbabwe's most immediate neighbors. We're looking for those leaders to try to facilitate some type of negotiation, some type of talks between ZANU PF and MDC that will get Zimbabwe out of the current crisis, the decline of its economy and the abuse of human rights and the lack of the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

       And so the president will look forward to his dialogue with President Mbeki and President Obasanjo, who you know are leading that diplomatic effort to try to bring a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis.

       Q This is James Politi from the Financial Times. When you say that we're instilling in a diplomatic process with regard to Liberia, that excludes that a decision has been reached, such as to commit troops, or any number of troops. Can you confirm that no decision has been reached by the administration on that yet?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: I can't confirm or deny that any decision has been reached. I haven't talked to my senior leadership. So I personally have no knowledge of any decision. All I know is what the president himself said this afternoon at about noon, which was that he's still considering all options.

       Q My name is Adu Asare, a reporter for Africanewscast.com. I would like to know what the message the president is carrying with respect to the dynamics in DRC. And I've always been intrigued as to the set of criteria used in selecting which countries presidents visit when they go to Africa.

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Sure. The president's message in the Congo is one of hope, but also a realistic understanding of how far and how much more effort is needed to build the peace process.

       We were quite pleased -- the president, in his speech at the Corporate Council, called on all parties to sign the final agreement to set up the government of national unity by June 30th. That occurred, and a government has been announced in the Congo now. And we think that that's an extremely hopeful sign.

       The president and his senior officials, Dr. Rice and Secretary Powell, have been engaged throughout to urge and encourage the Congolese parties, as well as the neighboring states, particularly Rwanda and Uganda, to try to be -- have a positive influence on peace in the Congo. He will carry that message to the continent.

       He will -- he looks forward to further discussions with President Mbeki, who you know has been sort of lead negotiator between these parties. He looks forward to his discussion with President Mbeki to find out what more the United States can do to help peace in the Congo.

       The decision for selecting the countries -- the president had several invitations. This is his first trip. We're hoping that it won't be his last trip. And essentially, we decided to go to two of the countries where we have very deep and very broad bilateral relations. That would be South Africa, which is our largest trade partner, and Nigeria, which is the country with the most -- biggest population in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as a key element in any type of African peacekeeping mission on the continent. Nigeria, particularly in West Africa, is sort of a major -- will have a major impact on that subregion.

       The other countries, he decided he really wanted to highlight the positive story that's there in Africa, to go to countries that really demonstrate his new vision for a compact for development. And as you know, that vision is one in which he talks about ruling justly, investing in people, and promoting economic freedom. And Senegal is one of West Africa's longest, most stable democracies, and the president, while he's in Senegal will have an opportunity to meet with regional heads of state from other democratic West Africa states to talk about how to extend and expand and deepen democracy across the continent.

       When he goes to Botswana, he will be going to one of Africa's strongest economies, one of its fastest-growing economies, and a country which has one of the highest credit ratings, so promoting investor confidence, which reflects the rule of law there, which reflects the stability there, and that reflects an environment that lacks corruption. And so the president is really going to highlight the economic freedom component of his New Compact for Development in Botswana.

       And in Uganda, we all know that President Museveni is the leader who's had the greatest success turning around the HIV/AIDS pandemic in his country. And the president's major initiative, the Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief, is based on Uganda's ABC model: Abstinence, Be Faithful, Use Condoms.

       And so the president looks forward to sort of highlighting the success of these countries in these key policy areas during his visit.

       Q Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File.

       Have these recent crisis that have occurred, like, in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire given any impetus to expanding the kind of military training partnerships that we've had with African nations to beef up their peacekeeping capability? And in that regard, is the successor to ACRI, ACOTA, is that still alive? We don't hear much about that anymore. Is it still in being, and is it going to be expanded, do you know, or --

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Yeah, thank you. I -- maybe it's I've been in too long, but the crisis in Liberia is not a recent crisis -- (chuckles) -- it's just at a critical moment. But we've been working on Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire from almost the very beginning of this administration. And it's really a subregional crisis -- it's the Mano River states. And clearly, Charles Taylor has been a source of much of the destabilization in Sierra Leone, in Guinea and, as it spread, to Cote d'Ivoire. And so, from the very outset, we've been working on this issue.

       You're quite right that our primary peacekeeping initiative for Africa is the ACOTA program. And we have -- that is a revamping -- again, at the outset of the administration, we looked at the Africa Crisis Response Initiative, which was the initiative we inherited from the Clinton administration, and we felt that we needed to beef it up in its substance and its training. And so, we created the ACOTA program. That program is still, I would say, under development. There is still more room for improvement of the initiative. And when President Bush goes to Africa, he will talk to the leaders in West Africa; he will talk to President Obasanjo and President Mbeki to think about ways in which we can more effectively assist the capacity of African countries to carry out peacekeeping missions, monitoring missions, peace-enforcement missions. And so, we do see our dialogue on this trip as critical to the evolution of our peacekeeping initiative.

       Q Joe Davidson with Focus Magazine. There's been a lot of attention given to the HIV/AIDS assistance, as well as the MCA account, but according to the Congressional Research Service, foreign aid generally to Africa is down by more than 6 percent, at the same time worldwide foreign aid is up more than 13 percent. The Commerce Department says that trade, U.S.-Africa trade fell by 15 percent in 2002, compared to 2001. So, if both trade and aid are down, what does this say about U.S. policies toward Africa?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: I think if the Commerce Department is saying that our -- that trade is down, that really very much reflects an assessment by the private sector, and that would be a cause of great concern, and frankly speaks to the need of policies that create stable environments, that create the rule of law, that, you know, reflect the president's desire for reform agenda based on the Millennium Challenge Account. He's trying to provide incentives, in fact, for African countries to reform so that they can attract further investment and further trade. But really, our commerce department basically reflects sort of private sector decisions and choices.

       As Secretary Powell said at the Corporate Council on Africa, capital is a coward, and so the environment in Africa must improve so that those trade relations can grow, and our private sector will feel that it's great destination.

       On the question of our development assistance declining, I need -- I would need to see those figures disaggregated, because I'm certain that our development assistance has actually gone up. That may reflect peace-keeping accounts. That may reflect global SIPA international peace-keeping accounts.

       And that's an assessment by the U.N.. And if a mission downsizes, then the money may be reduced. I simply don't know, but what -- you can't really make an assessment about our Africa policy based on a sort of aggregate number like that. You really need to disaggregate it and tell me exactly where, because on the aid side, I'm certain that USAID has increased its budget for Africa.

       Q My name is Dion Lambrecht (sp) from Media 24 in South Africa. There's a fair amount of tension ahead of President Bush's visit. I mean, the broad antiwar movement in South Africa is planning protests, and President Mbeki himself has differed from President Bush on quite a number of issues, including the war in Iraq. How do you see this impacting on the climate of the talks?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: I think the climate of the talks will be very productive. I think President Bush and President Mbeki have a very strong relationship and a very good relationship, based on an understanding of common interests and, quite frankly, a common understanding or a common vision for the future of Africa. President Mbeki's New Partnership for African Development, which -- he is one of the leading heads of state advocating for that, NEPAD -- very much parallels the president's vision in the Millennium Challenge Account. And so I don't foresee any tension in the dialogue between our respective heads of state.

       The fact that there will be sort of anti-trade, anti- globalization demonstrators in South Africa -- well, we have them here, too. That's what a democratic society does. We encourage, you know, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly. And so that is really no cause of concern at all. In fact, for us, it reflects the sort of maturity of the South African polity.

       MODERATOR: Mike?

       Q Mike McCarthy (sp) from the German Press Agency.

       For all of the sort of hype the administration has given to the AIDS account, the Millennium Challenge Account, it looks like Congress -- or what's floating around in Congress right now isn't quite meeting the president's request in terms of spending. I would like you to comment on that a little bit in terms of why Congress isn't doing that to the degree the president's putting pressure on Congress to meet his request. And how does this bode for the future of these programs if they're not getting the funding that they're being requested for in the first year?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Yes. Let me just say that I wouldn't call the president's commitment to HIV/AIDS or the administration's commitment to HIV/AIDS "hype." Even before the president announced these initiatives, if you looked at our bilateral AIDS spending on the global side, it's gone up. So even without -- if the Congress decides, and I doubt that it will, not to fund the president's emergency plan, our bilateral aid money has already gone up. So it's not really accurate to call it hype.

       Moreover, the president has committed funding -- in fact, the first contributor to the Global HIV/AIDS Fund. He launched and sort of jump-started that fund by giving the first contribution. That's money in the bank at the Global Fund.

       Now, the president has put tremendous political capital and tremendous energy into pressuring the Hill to, first, authorize the bill, and now, to actually appropriate the money. The same type of focus that you saw the president apply to the Congress on the eve of his G-8 trip I think you can expect and should know that is continuing to take place in terms of actually getting the money appropriated. So it's simply a matter of time, it's not really a matter -- at least on the administration side -- of will. And I'm confident that the members on the Hill also see this as a high priority and it's just a matter of them working through their legislative process to actually fund the bill that they've already authorized.

       Q Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service. Just a couple questions to clear up.

       Can you deny that the United States has provided aid to any of the rebel factions, either directly or indirectly, in Liberia? Also, could you clear up whether or not the administration did request a meeting of Nelson Mandela prior to his decision to go elsewhere? And why was a decision taken not to address the African Union meeting in Mozambique?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Sure, let me see if I can remember -- let's start with the last one. The decision not to address the Africa Union in Mozambique, there was really no decision to or to not address the Africa Union. I have explained country selection for the trip. That was always the country selection. As you know, Mozambique was never on the original schedule. And trying to go to Mozambique with so many heads of state would really, I think, overwhelm the capacity of the country to deal with our sort of large infrastructure, I should call it. (Chuckles). You know, so I think that really just -- one, there was no policy decision made, and then I think logistically, it would have been very difficult for us to have gone to Mozambique.

       Second question was -- yes -- there was no decision, again, on meeting with Mandela or not meeting with Mandela.

       There was -- there's just -- there was no policy decision on that issue at all.

       And the third -- the first question?

       Q Yeah, can you deny that the United States provided, either directly or indirectly, support to either of the rebel groups in Liberia?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: I can say that we've never provided any assistance to the LURD or to MODEL. We do have a training program, as many of you know, with the government of Guinea, and we've, you know, said to the government of Guinea many times that none of our assistance should go to the LURD. Obviously, we all know that the government of Guinea backs the LURD. But our training assistance was in the form of a JCET, and so it would be very difficult for them to transfer training to the LURD. It was training for the Guinean military itself.

       Q Can I just follow up on the Nelson Mandela -- sorry, Steve Cohenson (sp) with AFP. You say there was no policy decision to ask for a meeting with Mandela or not to ask for a meeting with Mandela. Does that mean there was no thought given to whether the president should ask to meet Mr. Mandela, and there was no even sounding whether Mr. Mandela would like to meet the president? Was it just kind of left that there was not -- you weren't even going to talk about it, or --

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Quite frankly, our agenda for South Africa is still evolving, and so it's a process of the country requesting meetings from us and us requesting meetings from them. And there was not discussion about a meeting with President Mandela, either from them or from us -- or from him or from, you know -- there was just no discussion.

       Q Sorry. If I could just to follow up on that, so -- sorry. So, should we take from that that the president wasn't interested in meeting Mr. Mandela?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: The president is going there to meet with the head of state, which is President Mbeki, you know. The president has met with -- has invited President -- the former President Mandela to the White House. They've had meetings and discussions before. But, you know, he's pretty much going to Africa -- he's going to meet with the heads of state there. He'll meet with the officials in their capacity as part of the heads of state, and then he's meeting with various civil society groups.

       Q (Name inaudible) -- with the Financial Times, Germany. Regarding Liberia, could you tell us, whatever U.S. engagement there might look like, could you explain to us the rationale for that? What, from a White House point of view, is at stake there? Is it humanitarian reasons, or does the White House see vital U.S. national interests there at stake?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Well, as I said before, the president's interest in Africa, as in other places in the world, derives from two sort of particularly post-9/11 -- two primary objectives. One is to make the world safer and the other is to make the world better. And a core principle of U.S. foreign policy has been the preservation of human dignity. The humanitarian crisis clearly calls for some type of response. But that's been true of Liberia all along, and we've been engaged, as I said.

       In addition, we're concerned that Liberia has been the source of regional destabilization. And as the president has clearly stated, where you have insecurity and instability and failed states, you're creating an environment in which terrorists can take root quite easily. And so we're concerned about any region of the world that becomes lawless. And Liberia certainly has the potential to move into that category.

       Q Thank you. In his speech at the CCA summit last week, President Bush spoke about regimes in Africa that are harboring and arming rebels to destabilize different governments. Just right now, you are acknowledging that the government of Guinea is supporting rebels' movement there against the other government in Liberia. Is that means that Guinea is part of those governments destabilizing others?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: The president's been very clear and we've been very clear that we've said to the government of Guinea many times that they should not be providing assistance to the LURD. I mean, that is absolutely, we believe -- we think all governments should stop providing assistance to rebels to attack the neighboring countries.

       Q Now they're doing that, would you consider any sort of sanction, any step? I mean, what do you do?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: We've been trying diplomatically -- we've said the Guinean government diplomatically that they shouldn't support the LURD. Clearly, Guinea's response is that Charles Taylor is destabilizing their country and so they need to sort of create a buffer between their country, and so they define this in terms of their national security interests. And we respond to them in terms of the humanitarian disaster and the fact that many civilians are the ones who are being killed in a crossfire.

       And so our policy has always been that the LURD should not be attacking, you know, the government, that all parties need to cease fire, put down their arms and sit down at a table and negotiate a peace. That's been our long-standing policy.

       Q Does the president intend to use this Africa trip to announce the establishment of a free trade zone, just as the one that has been proposed for Middle Eastern countries?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: The president is going to and has already announced a movement to establish a free trade agreement with the Southern Africa Customs Union countries, of which South Africa and Botswana are a part. But there has been no request on the part of any African heads of state that I know of for a free trade zone in Africa. These are really quite complicated negotiations, and there's simply -- we're not -- we're not going to announce it because there's never been any discussion about that. But there has been discussion about the FTA for the SACU countries.

       Q Charlie Cobb, All Africa. Perhaps the ugliest and most sustained violence on the continent has been taking place in Congo, in the DRC, particularly in Ituri and the Kivus. Much of the responsibility for the violence -- I know this is a bit of an oversimplification -- many analysts would say, can be tracked right back to Uganda and Museveni, particularly in terms of maybe a half a dozen militias that are particularly vicious.

       One, is the president satisfied with Uganda's actions at this point in the Congo, particular in the east? And since he is going to Uganda, is he going to be putting on the table specific requests of Museveni with regard to Ituri and the Kivus?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Yes. As you know, the president met with President Museveni just, I guess, what, earlier this month (sic), or -- and that issue was -- Congo has always been on the table in our conversations and our dialogue with President Museveni and with Uganda. It's been there since he first met with him at the U.N. General Assembly in 2001. And so, yes, that will most certainly be part of their bilateral dialogue in Uganda on the visit.

       President Bush has been very clear, very vocal to say that all neighboring countries need to exercise positive influence, you know, to get any rebel groups, any militia groups to sit down, to have a dialogue and to negotiate cease-fires and peace agreements. In particular in Ituri is the Ituri Pacification Commission, and we've supported it. We back it. And we hope that President Museveni, as well as President Kabila, and anyone else who has any influence on any of the various factions, will urge the parties to sit down and to talk, because all of this -- the fighting between these militias is just killing innocent civilians. And so it is always part of our dialogue.

       Q Can I follow up real quick? I mean, my question was, is the president satisfied right now with what -- I know he's spoken to Museveni, but is he satisfied with how Museveni has acted? And having had a few weeks now having passed since his conversation with Museveni here, when he meets him in Uganda, will he be putting specific requests on the table?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: The president's never satisfied when there's still civil war taking place. So I wouldn't say that he's satisfied with the developments in Ituri. We think that the developments have progressed, particularly since the multinational force, led by France, has gone into Ituri, and particularly into Bunia and has created a more secure environment, at least in that one town.

       But no, we're not satisfied. We're not satisfied with any of the parties, not just with Uganda, but with any of the parties, because the fighting continues. And so until the fighting ends and we have a unified Congo that's secure and that's peaceful, we will not be satisfied.

       Q Samir Nader, Radio Sawa. What impact -- if the president decided to send peacekeeping force to Liberia, what impact will this have on the visit as a whole?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: That's an interesting question. I don't imagine that it'll have a major impact on the visit. The president has a very positive agenda, a very progressive agenda. He is -- as I said, the administration has been involved quietly on the diplomatic side in the peace talks in Accra, and so I wouldn't imagine that -- I can't imagine what -- are you thinking of something in particular?

       Q Would this be a welcomed action by the countries that he will be visiting? I mean, will that be perceived positively or -- to be involved?

       SR. ADMIN. OFFICIAL: I think most of the countries in the region look for U.S. engagement. And certainly when the president takes his visit, whether we have made a decision to put troops in or not made a decision, it will be -- Liberia will be a subject for dialogue. I always has been. And so, I mean, I would imagine that the region would welcome any level of engagement of the United States, and is in fact -- they've been very positive about the team that we have in Accra that's working on the peace negotiations. And so, yes, I would think that they will continue to welcome our involvement.

       Q Burundi?

       MODERATOR: I'd like to thank our guest very much for spending so much time with us and giving us so many answers.