Africa: U.S. To Seize Money Stolen From Africans-
The Monitor
July 27, 2010 - 16:56 - 

By Angelo Izama
 Munyonyo - The United States will not provide a safe haven for money stolen 
from Africa by its corrupt leaders, US President Barack Obama said yesterday.
Addressing at least 23 African leaders attending the African Union summit in 
Munyonyo, Obama's Secretary General Eric Holder said Washington would seize 
money stolen by corrupt leaders and hidden in America and the West.
Mr Holder is part of the American delegation to the Kampala summit led by Mr 
Johnnie Carson- America's top diplomat on Africa. In a wide ranging speech which 
touched on the terror attacks and America's help to Uganda in Somalia, Mr Holder 
delivered a stinger on the touchy issue of corruption.
The Kleptocracy recovery effort, he said, would target large-scale corruption 
perpetrated by foreign nationals.
"I have assembled a team of prosecutors [to deal exclusively with this]" he said 
adding that the US was also willing to support the development of African 
judiciaries to deal with the monster of corruption. International cooperation 
over money leaving national treasuries and entering tax havens and western 
banks- has long been a sticking issue.
The United Nations in 2005 pioneered the Convention Against Corruption - that 
sought to cast a wider net against criminality across borders. Many African 
leaders have long been accused of personal extravagance at the expense of their 
populations- whose excesses like that of former Congolese leader- Mobutu Sese 
Seko have become legend. Governments in Africa- including Uganda, which lose 
close to Shs500 billion million in corruption each year, have also been accused 
of cosmetic attempts at fighting the vice.
Money recovered.
For countries like Nigeria however, authorities worked with Switzerland to 
recover some money stolen by Gen. Sani Abacha. He was accused of stealing £3 
billion from government coffers. While the move is a good initiative, it will 
require a more global effort to solve the problem.
Yesterday Mr Holder, however, promised more support for the African Union force 
in Somalia saying America was bound "not only by friendship and partnership" but 
loss from the July 11 terrorist attacks in Kampala that also claimed the life of 
a US citizen.
At least 76 people were killed in the twin attacks at the Kyadondo Rugby grounds 
in Lugogo and the Ethiopian Village Bar and Restaurant in Kabalagala. Mr Holder 
said AU forces were making "heroic contributions" on the ground in Somalia and 
described attempts to justify the attacks as "unambiguously shameful".
 
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