Africa
African peace support "surprised" Washington

afrol News, 16 February - Angola, Cameroon and Guinea demonstrated integrity and stood by the African Union's resolution opposing a war on Iraq in the UN Security Council. They virtually applauded French proposals as "a beacon of hope" and hailed a South African initiative to assist Iraq's disarmament. Washington was "surprised".

Angola was believed to have been bought into the US pro-war camp. Angolan diplomats instead joined the applause after France's passionate call for peace. "We were surprised" at Angola's statement, a senior US administration official had acknowledged, according to reports in the 'Washington Post'.

Before Friday's Security Council meeting, it was claimed that Angola had been won over for an expected US-British resolution text. Angola, which is a close ally of South Africa - the sub-Saharan African country that most clearly has condemned an Iraq war - has been under tremendous US pressure. Discussing Angola's stand, even US officials consequently emphasised the important economic relations between the two countries: Angola provides one sixth of the USA's total oil imports, making America its biggest investor. In January, the US announced that it would give an additional US$ 4.1 million emergency relief for Angola.

US President Bush last week had spoken by phone with Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola. According to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, the two presidents had discussed the Iraqi crisis and expressed "their shared view that Saddam Hussein must disarm and comply" fully with previous UN resolutions. These are however arguments also used by the anti-war block.

After the report by the UN's chief weapon inspector Hans Blix, the mood in the Security Council was set for giving the inspections more time. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin grasped the momentum with a speech that has already been termed a diplomatic masterpiece, reminding "this temple of the United Nations" that "war is always the sanction of failure."

In an unprecedented event in the Security Council, Mr Villepin was met with massive applause by fellow diplomats. A group of Cameroonian diplomats were even reported to being about to rise from their seats, but controlled their emotions in the last moment. Angolan diplomat Cesar Texeira Esteves admitted to the press he ha been among the applauders. "I was moved by what was said," he confessed.

The US and UK plan to propose a second resolution on Iraq after the debate were slowly crumbling as one Council member after the other called for more time for the inspectors. The speeches of Inspector Blix and Mr Villepin set the tone.

The first African country to give its opinion was Guinea, which the US believed to have brought over to its side through its diplomatic pressure. But also French and Russian diplomats had picked up the phone to Conakry, it turned out: Guinea's Madamdy Traoré told the Council he advocated "continued inspections, although not indefinitely."

Mr Traoré set the tone for diplomats from countries believed to be in support for a US-UK resolution that would have called for quick action against Iraq. It was obvious he and his colleagues set for "plan B", reacting to the positive report of Mr Blix, rather than "plan A" that would include a support to the US position if Mr Blix had repeated Iraq was not cooperating.

The Guinean diplomat said "progress has indeed been made since the last progress report in late January, but many issues are still pending." Those developments were acts of cooperation on the part of Iraq, and therefore the inspections should be continued. Mr Traoré however clearly criticised the permanent members of the Council for its failure to reach consensus, a view repeated by several non-permanent members.

The Guinean vote previously was believed to have been secured by American pressure. The French ex-colony has a proud tradition of claiming its independence towards Paris, but also has been more attached to Moscow than Washington throughout its history. But the country has become increasingly dependent on US economic and military aid. The IMF, which is thoroughly dominated by US capital, has become Guinea's major financial source and Guinean military are trained and equipped by the US.

Shortly after the Guinean diplomat, it was Cameroon's turn to present its views. Cameroonian Martin Belinga-Eboutou in advance was expected to be closer to the French than the US point of view. He also emphasised the "significant developments resulting from the wise and reasonable choice of the Iraqi authorities to begin, at last, to cooperate with inspectors." Pleading for more time for the inspectors, also Mr Belinga-Eboutou criticised "the cacophony and confusion" in the Council, which could lose its credibility.

Cameroon traditionally has been one of the most stable French allies on the African continent, and President Paul Biya has always been able to count on firm support from Paris. New oil reservoirs and a US-finances oil pipeline from Chad to the Cameroonian coast however have led to closer ties between Yaoundé and Washington/Houston, thus raising a US hope that Cameroon could ultimately be influenced.

US hopes of gaining any support from others that the UK and Spain were crushed as Angolan Ismael Abraao Gaspar Martins took the word, immediately after Cameroon. Mr Martins reminded the Council Angola had experienced three decades of war, which had inflicted much suffering and destruction. "Today's report [by Mr Blix] provides a beacon of hope that it might be possible to save the world from an imminent conflict," he said.

- So much for Bush's last-ditch telephone call to the Angolan president earlier in the week, commented the British 'Observer'. While Mr Bush's conversation with President José Eduardo dos Santos had been noted as a major US diplomatic initiative to achieve African support, it went largely unnoticed that President dos Santos also had been speaking to French President Jacques Chirac.

Insisting the Council spoke "with one voice," Mr Martins concluded "the use of force today would preclude that gathering of valuable information that could be retrieved from U-2 flights, scientists, and other sources that provided the necessary inputs to the intrusive inspections demanded by the Council. That process - an investment in peace - should be given sufficient time," he added.

Angola's representative also emphasised his pleasure with Iraq's decision to cooperate with South Africa in letting that country point the way towards disarmament. "African countries themselves have decided to free the continent of weapons of mass destruction, an example that could be followed in the Middle East," Mr Martins said.

The South African initiative to help disarming Iraq is hailed by several countries as one of the more constructive new initiative to implements the world's demand of ridding Iraq of its suspected weapons of mass destruction.

The initiative, spearheaded by South African President Thabo Mbeki, comprises of the group of experts that led South Africa's own programme to destroy its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction after the end of the apartheid regime. The work this group had done "has now resulted in the South African example of disarmament being recognised internationally as an example of best international practice," according to President Mbeki.

In his state of the nation speech on Friday, Mr Mbeki expressed his "appreciation to the government of Iraq for its positive response" to the South African suggestion to send the expert team, "as well as the recent decisions it has taken to allow the U2 and other aerial surveillance flights, to encourage its citizens to be interviewed at any location decided by the inspectors without any Iraqi officials present, and to adopt legislation prohibiting the production of weapons of mass destruction."

Mr Mbeki's words fell simultaneously with those of the African diplomats at the UN Security Council, and they were remarkably parallel. Differences in wording were mostly confined to the amount of pressure that should be put on Iraq.

At the end of the day, all African voices had kept well within the African Union's call for a peaceful solution to the Iraqi conflict, and Africa for once seemed more united than the European Union. Many African citizens could proudly note that integrity had prevailed and that neither Washington nor Paris had been able to buy their votes.

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