U.S. Lawmaker Says Africans Will Find True Friend in President Bush

Rep. Royce comments on Bush's July 7-12 trip, denounces Charles Taylor

Washington -- On the eve of the President's first trip to Africa, Chairman of the House Africa Subcommittee Ed Royce (Republican of California) says Bush may be an unknown quantity to many people on the continent. But, said Royce, they will soon learn Bush is a man who says what he means and will follow through on the assistance programs he has proposed for Africa.

President Bush leaves Washington the evening of July 7 for a five-day visit to Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. In Abuja, Nigeria, he will deliver the keynote address to thousands of African-Americans attending the biennial Leon Sullivan Summit.

When asked what he would say to Africans about the man coming to visit their continent, Royce, who has headed up the Africa subcommittee for more than five years, said, "I would remind them that this is a President who has announced an unprecedented program to help them combat HIV/AIDS."

Royce added, "He is a President who has designed a program to strengthen developing economies through the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA); a President who has endorsed more trade with Africa, which will means tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs for the continent; a man who is attempting to reverse environmental degradation in Africa through the Congo Basin Partnership."

At the same time, "While Bush is of the view that Africans should expect much from the United States, he believes we should expect them to make a commitment to democracy and human rights in return," Royce emphasized.

Even though Bush has met with more than 20 African heads of state during his first two-and-a-half years in office, his first trip to the continent is significant because "they will be able to tell him how they intend to invest the political commitment that lends value to U.S. assistance efforts," added the lawmaker.

Touching on delays in Congress to fully support and fund the multi-billion dollar African assistance programs Bush has requested, Royce said, "I and others from both political parties have supported the funding for the HIV/AIDS [$15,000 million] initiative and the money for the Congo Basin Initiative that will end unsustainable logging. And of course the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which President Clinton originally signed into law [in 2000] and which President Bush has now embraced."

After taking close to five years to pass the original AGOA, Bush signed an amended Act, called AGOA II, last summer, which extended the range of products that are allowed duty- and quota-free entry into the U.S. market from African nations making serious attempts to reform their economies.

Royce said, "We have one follow-up to AGOA.... We're now working with the House Ways and Means Committee, looking at a third draft and it's proceeding along."

Certainly a major challenge for Congress as well as the Bush Administration is to partner with Africans to end conflict on the continent, Royce said. Especially in West Africa "where [Liberian President] Charles Taylor is the individual whose insurgencies in Guinea and Sierra Leone and now Cote d'Ivoire are responsible for the maiming and killing" of countless people.

In the days leading up to his trip, President Bush called for Taylor to step down and indicated he is studying whether U.S. troops will participate in a peacekeeping effort.

For Royce, "The focal point right now in terms of achieving stability in West Africa should be bringing Liberian President Charles Taylor to justice." Asked about U.S. intervention, Royce said, "I think the United States should back what should be predominantly an African peacekeeping operation with equipment, logistical and technical aid and some key personnel" from the U.S. military.

"Very importantly, part of that peacekeeping mandate should be to bring Charles Taylor, who is now an indicted war criminal, to justice," he said. "There are serious negative security consequences to letting him continue spreading terror throughout the region."

Royce said, "It's not just Liberia that's imperiled but all of West Africa. If things continue to deteriorate and Charles Taylor is allowed to do what he has done in the region, countries like Ghana and Nigeria also have a lot to lose and it is why they should participate in any kind of peacekeeping operation."

The means are there, Royce said, pointing to the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), a U.S. military training partnership with a number of African nations meant to increase their peacekeeping skills, and now a successor program called the African Contingency Operations Training Assistance (ACOTA) program geared to more robust peace-enforcement training.