Monday, October 18, 1999
        Albright's Africa Tour to Highlight U.S. Goals

Diplomacy: Weeklong visit will emphasize importance of free markets,
democracy. By NORMAN KEMPSTER, Times Staff Writer



WASHINGTON--After almost half a century in which U.S. policy treated
Africa as little more than a pawn on the Cold War chessboard, President
Clinton promised a new approach to the world's poorest continent,
stressing American assistance to promote democracy, free-market economic
principles and peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Seven years into his administration, there is little doubt that Clinton,
who paid a rare presidential visit to Africa last year, has raised the
profile of the continent as a focus of U.S. foreign policy.

But as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright this week makes her third
trip to Africa, the results are decidedly mixed.

University and think tank experts say the transition to free markets has
advanced remarkably in many African countries.

But, disappointingly, it has made very little impact on the continent's
chronic poverty.

And the continent is racked by wars raging without any hint of U.S.
intervention, mocking the Kosovo-developed "Clinton doctrine" of military
action to stop gross violations of human rights. At least four wars in
Africa appear to meet all the criteria Clinton outlined in explaining the
reasons for last spring's North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing of
Yugoslavia.

"There was great expectation that once the Cold War was over, we could
focus on Africa's own problems on their own merits," said Pauline H.
Baker, an Africa specialist who is president of the Fund for Peace, a
Washington think tank.

Instead, she said, "Africa has been dealt another cruel hand of rising
expectations because there was a lot of hoopla in this country about
putting Africa on the agenda, and then nothing happened. I see a lot of
talk and I see visits, but I don't see a  lot of action."

Clinton administration officials insist that there clearly has been
progress, especially in substituting market principles for Africa's
long and unhappy experiment with socialism. If the Senate approves a
House-passed trade bill eliminating tariffs on most goods from sub-
Saharan Africa and encouraging U.S. investment, they say, the results
could be even more dramatic.

The State Department's top Africa expert, Assistant Secretary of State
Susan E. Rice, said Albright's current visit is "intended to advance
our key policy goals in Africa." Those goals, she said, include
accelerating Africa's integration into the global economy, working with
Africans to prevent and resolve conflicts, and promoting democracy and
human rights.

In addition, Rice said, the administration wants to "work with Africans
to combat threats to our mutual security," such as crime, terrorism,
narcotics, weapons proliferation, AIDS and other diseases and
environmental degradation.

Officials said no signed agreements are expected, however. Albright
embarked Sunday on a weeklong trip to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali,
Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania. It is an unusually gritty itinerary,
covering countries that highlight many of the continent's troubles.

In Sierra Leone, for instance, combatants signed a peace agreement in
July to end an eight-year civil war that had sparked some of the worst
human rights violations on the planet. But the country is still
considered extremely dangerous, and the possibility of renewed warfare
remains high.

On her 1997 trip to Africa, Albright was careful to avoid Nigeria to
protest the undemocratic regime in the continent's most populous
country. Now, political conditions are far more open, and U.S. officials
say Albright wants to celebrate the changes and encourage further
liberalization in Nigeria, which has sufficient oil reserves to make it
a potential economic heavyweight.

On June 8, 1998, Gen. Sani Abacha, probably the most brutal and corrupt
of a succession of military dictators who had run Nigeria for more than
15 years, died of a heart attack.

His successors turned power over to an elected government this year. The
new president is Olusegun Obasanjo, a military ruler in the late 1970s
who now says he is committed to civilian rule.

Some human rights groups say the new government remains repressive,
although on a far smaller scale than the Abacha regime. But the
Clinton administration sees signs of progress.

"Obasanjo is doing and saying all the right things," said one
administration official. "We want to encourage him.

Nigeria has emerged from the era of dictatorship. It could very well be
a bellwether for the rest of Africa."

I. William Zartman, an Africa expert at Johns Hopkins University's School
of Advanced International Studies in Washington, agreed that Obasanjo is
probably "the only one that can start Nigeria on a path that it can be
proud of."

Zartman said Obasanjo is far more solid than the leaders of Uganda,
Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Congo, all of whom Albright and Clinton
once hailed as the new leadership of an increasingly democratic Africa.
All of those countries are now embroiled in war, and Albright left them
off this week's itinerary.

George Ayittey, a professor of economics at American University in
Washington, said the administration has placed too much emphasis on the
personality of African leaders.

"In Africa, the Abraham Lincoln wannabes are just robber barons who were
plundering the economy," said Ayittey, a native of Ghana. "A better
approach would be for the Clinton administration to shift from leaders
to institutions. The critical institutions are an independent central
bank, an independent  judiciary, an independent and free media, and
neutral and professional armed forces. The secretary of State can
visit Africa as many times as she wants, but the focus should be on
institution-building."

Ayittey said Mali is the only country on Albright's schedule that
fulfills all four criteria.

Although administration officials don't apologize for supporting
individual African leaders, they insist that their primary focus is
on building democratic institutions and promoting trade and investment.
In an era when Congress is cutting foreign aid to the bone, officials
say, U.S. and European private investment may be the only way to promote
economic development, not only in Africa but across the Third World.

Walter H. Kansteiner III, a White House expert on Africa during the Bush
administration, applauded efforts to promote trade and investment in
Africa. He said it is as much good business for U.S. corporations as it
is for African countries.

"Investment in Africa probably brings a better return than investment
in any other region of the world," Kansteiner said.

"Trade with Africa is still small but growing dramatically."

But Eve Sandberg, an Africa expert at Oberlin College in Ohio, questioned
the administration's approach.

"The emphasis has been on finding ways for U.S.. businesses to trade with
Africa," she said. "We have to find a way to make that a two-way street.
If they are serious about promoting reciprocal trade, then they have to
find a way to return to some of the core foreign aid programs--training,
scholarships, transfers of technology and support for large development
programs."



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