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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published by the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) from 1995 to 2001 and by Africa Action from 2001 to 2003. APIC was merged into Africa Action in 2001. Please note that many outdated links in this archived document may not work.


Africa Action: Commentary and Letter

Africa Action: Commentary and Letter
Date distributed (ymd): 020910
Africa Action Document

Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for Africa at http://www.africaaction.org

+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++

Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+ +security/peace+ +US policy focus+ +gender/women+

SUMMARY CONTENTS:

This posting contains (1) a commentary by Salih Booker aired on National Public Radio on September 5, (2) a letter sent to Africa Action supporters on September 6, and (3) a commentary on The Lessons of September 11 shared with us by the Kenya Human Rights Commission. An audio version of the NPR commentary is available on the NPR web site (http://www.npr.org/archives).

+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

National Public Radio
Morning Edition, September 5, 2002

Commentary by Salih Booker, Executive Director, Africa Action

When I remember September 11th, I think of Africa.

I recently returned from Nairobi, Kenya where I once lived and frequently visit. I stopped at the memorial for the 279 Kenyans and 12 americans who were killed by the terrorist bombing of the U.S. embassy in 1998. More than 5,000 were injured.

At that time, official America displayed little empathy for the African dead and injured. No war on terrorism was declared. The ensuing investigation and trial received little attention in the U.S. media. The American public was denied the stories of suffering and heroism that generate compassion and a sense of common purpose. We failed to recognize the indivisible nature of human security then ... perhaps because it was Africa.

But after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington last year, Africans and African governments displayed so much compassion for Aericans. Services commemorating the dead were held across the continent. Financial donations were sent to the U.S. Within one month, Senegal hosted a summit of 30 African countries to discuss how to respond to international terrorism.

And for a moment it seemed that Americans too, in our tragic hour, had come to realize that our vulnerability was the same as that of others ... and that the fragile nature of life was universal. For a moment longer it seemed we were about to realize that the idea of "national security" was obsolete ... Because the greatest threats were global, requiring a shared global response. Threats like terrorism ... or AIDS ... or global warming ... or poverty.

We stood on the verge of discarding outdated thinking in favor of a new concept of "global human security" ... a view of the world preoccupied less with nations and more with the security of people, families, indeed humanity... an idea that structural violence - like poverty or patriarchy - was as dangerous as deliberate violent acts. But such an epiphany eluded us.

Lamentably, in the year since nine-eleven, we Americans have torn up treaties. We have largely ignored the greatest immediate threat to global human security - the AIDS pandemic. And our president would not even attend the Earth Summit on eradicating poverty and protecting the environment.

All of this is central to Africa's survival. It is why so many Africans had hoped the U.S. had changed as a consequence of that sad September. As I traveled around Africa this summer I heard friends say that the greatest international threat today is not a bearded band of medieval terrorists... but the policies of a very 21st century Washington.

Surely America's security is not enhanced if our actions threaten the security of the rest of the world.


Letter to Friends

September 6, 2002

Dear Friends,

I'm just back from nearly one month of travel in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. I'm exhausted and exhilarated. Uplifted by the dynamic people I met and by their work, but also saddened to know the policies of the United States only make their missions more difficult. Most of all I return determined that Africa Action will succeed here in the U.S. by mobilizing dozens, then hundreds and then thousands of people to demand that our government do what is required of it to support the efforts of Africans to create a better world.

In South Africa the HIV-positive leader of the Treatment Action Campaign, Zackie Achmat, is refusing to take anti-retroviral medicines until they are made available to all in South Africa regardless of economic status. His health was declining while I was in South Africa and he was unable to attend the International Conference on AIDS in Barcelona, Spain, but addressed it by video. Nkululeko Nkesi, the head of the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) spoke to me with passion and wisdom about the struggles to get government and international partners to understand that the failure to fight poverty will ensure that AIDS continues to spread even if access to treatment improves. He stressed that not only did people living with AIDS not have access to AIDS drugs but they were also often denied basic healthcare and treatment for opportunistic diseases. Many have lost their jobs because of their HIV status and struggle just to get food for themselves and their families.

Meanwhile the African Union was born with much fanfare during my time in South Africa replacing the Organization of African Unity and offering some hope that African governments are now committed to greater collective efforts to address the Continent's greatest challenges. But the marginalization of women so apparent at the gathering of nearly all 53 male heads of state and their entourages highlighted the most immediate problem that Africans must address if poverty is to be reduced, AIDS defeated, and sustainable development achieved: the liberation and empowerment of women throughout the Continent!!

In Kenya, long-time dictator Daniel arap Moi was finally preparing for his departure by early next year. But he is attempting to arrange his succession to protect his interests once he steps down. Most political aspirants sadly seek to make it a contest of ethnic identity and fail to offer a vision of a "new Kenya." But Kenyan human rights activists like Wambui Kimathi (Kenyan Human Rights Commission), and AIDS activists like Dorothy Onyango (Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya) and Asunta Wagura (Kenya Network of Women with AIDS) are working hard to focus more attention on economic and social rights, such as the right to health and to promote women's rights in a patriarchal society. I was outraged when one Kenyan government official referred to one of my contacts as a woman who had "confessed" to having HIV!

While in Nairobi, I visited the memorial park built at the site of the 1998 terrorist bombing of the U.S. Embassy that killed more than 200 Kenyans and 12 Americans. I was dismayed to learn that the U.S. Government had balked at funding construction of the park, which subsequently was financed by a private U.S. foundation. This memorial, now a small quiet space at the corner of an incredibly busy city intersection, reminds us of the indissoluble nature of human security, something the U.S. government has yet to acknowledge.

I arrived in Nigeria while hundreds of women were staging peaceful takeovers of oil platforms in the Niger delta "owned" by the huge Shell and Chevron corporations. The women were demanding a redistribution of the enormous profits that these companies drain from Nigeria and a clean up of the environment that they have polluted. A United Nations report came out when I was in Lagos that listed Nigeria's population (some 120 million people) among the poorest in the world, despite the country's vast oil wealth. Military rule ended officially following the elections in 1999, a change that Africa Action (under its predecessor organizations) was very active in supporting. Now Nigerians are using the political freedoms they've gained to pursue and protect their economic and social rights. Otive Igbuzor (Citizens' Forum for Constitutional Reform) and Chima Ubani (Civil Liberties Organization) both emphasized to me that the legacy of military rule includes a constitution imposed to maintain the essentials of repressive rule and to protect the former Generals' interests. They and other "rights" activists, such as Abiola Afolabi (Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre) and Ebenezer Durojaye (Center for the Right to Health) are laboring to ensure that rights such as health are not only enshrined in law but also supported in the national budget and protected by the work of government ministries. Mohammed Farouk (Nigeria AIDS Alliance) told me that Nigerians living with AIDS are combating an environment of fear and ignorance, but making progress in promoting a message of hope. Nigeria has now created a national body to fight AIDS with the full participation of people living with AIDS who aim to hold it accountable.

These are just some of the messages and insights people shared with me during my journey. But all of the more than 60 people that I met and had detailed discussions with expressed a keen interest in our work in the United States. Our campaign focusing on "Africa's Right to Health" was enthusiastically embraced by African activists who are looking not only for solidarity and support, but also for political and social forces in the U.S. with whom they share an analysis of the changes needed in the policies of the world's remaining superpower.

They emphasized the need for new U.S. policies on everything from access to affordable medicines (where the U.S. presently prioritizes pharmaceutical company interests), to environmental protection (where the "oiligarchy" in Washington enthusiastically backs the interests of big oil companies), to changing the policies of the World Bank and the IMF and getting those institutions to cancel Africa's illegitimate foreign debts (the U.S. generally has its way at these international financial institutions as it is the single largest shareholder).

I want you to know that Africa Action is working tirelessly to mobilize Americans who care about these issues in order to bring enough pressure to bear on policymakers to begin to achieve these objectives. Our partners and allies in Africa are counting on us to succeed!

There's a lot to do but with your support we've already had quite a few successes during the past year alone:

  • We've held organizational consultations with religious leaders on the East and West Coasts, and begun the work of targeting key communities around the country to press for major initiatives on African debt, funding for the Global Fund for AIDS and rebuilding primary health care in Africa
  • We've amplified the calls to cancel Africa's illegitimate foreign debts through newspaper commentaries across the country, through statements signed by hundreds of civic leaders, and through radio airwaves and the Internet
  • We've exposed the negative impact of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on healthcare in Africa through release of a major report on the subject, which we now use, along with others, to advance the boycott of World Bank bonds in cities around the country. (See "Hazardous to Health: The World Bank and IMF in Africa" on our website at http://www.africaaction.org/action/sap0204.htm).

The present times require an organization such as ours to continue mobilizing activists to press for change. Today, American relations with Africa are at the intersection of our shared concerns about the growing economic disparities in the world; about democratic participation in defining American foreign policies; and about the racial inequalities that are increasing between (and within) the wealthy Western world and impoverished Africa. But we must secure our institutional future so that we can continue to provide this vehicle for advocacy for the next generation of leaders to come. We need you to help us secure that future by making a contribution today! (for links to make contributions go to the web version of this letter at
http://www.africaaction.org/join.htm).

In 2003, we aim to celebrate our 50 years of struggle and recommit ourselves to continuing to fight the good fight, and to win! While we are planning major events in several cities on which we will give you more detail in subsequent mailings we are also encouraging our supporters to suggest ways in which we can celebrate with them in cities across the country. Please let us know if you have an idea. And please consider making a special contribution specifically to honor our 50th Anniversary by supporting our efforts today.

Sincerely,

Salih Booker

P.S. Many of you have been with us for more than a few of the fifty years we will be celebrating - see the special message for you from George Houser, Jennifer Davis, Imani Countess, and me at http://www.africaaction.org/dir0209.htm.


Kenyan Human Rights Commission
http://www.khrc.or.ke
[distributed by KHRC September 9, 2002]

War, Terrorism, and Human Rights:
The Lessons of September 11

Professor Makau Mutua, Chair, KHRC
Dr. Willy Mutunga, Executive Director, KHRC

On Wednesday, September 11, 2002, most of the world led by the United States will fittingly remember the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. While we at the Kenya Human Rights Commission join the international community in this sorrowful remembrance and mourn for the victims, their families, and loved ones we take this opportunity to call for the respect of the international rule of law, human rights, fairness, and an honest reflection by all states, especially the United States, in its war on terror.

We were horrified by the wanton destruction of life and property visited on New York City and Washington DC by last September's suicide attacks. We in east Africa are no strangers to the acute suffering and agony of such attacks. The August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-salaam killed hundreds and injured thousands. While we seek justice against the perpetrators of these horrible attacks, we must never waver in our resolve to respect the rights of suspects. We must never be vengeful or target entire communities or faiths in pursuit of justice. This, we believe, is a lesson that the Bush Administration has missed.

Since the attacks of last September, the United States has pursued domestic and foreign policies that imperil civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad. While the United States has a responsibility to protect its citizens and those who live within its borders, it must do so humanely and within the law. The promulgation of laws to establish military tribunals to try individuals designated as terrorists violate both American and international law, and set a terrible example to countries elsewhere. Policies and official pronouncements that target Muslims and ArabAmericans in the United States violate fundamental human rights. The passage of laws limiting the rights of suspects and their lawyers undermines the foundation of American democracy and invites dictatorships elsewhere to crush their dissenters. As the lone superpower, the United States has both a moral and legal obligation to set a better example.

We express deep reservations in the manner in which the United States has prosecuted its war against terror in Afghanistan. There have been far too many reports of needless civilian casualties. To our knowledge, no one has been held accountable for these killings. We think that such events only help to engender anti-American sentiments, and are therefore counter-productive. We think that the Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners held by the US at its base in Cuba should be accorded POW status and treated accordingly. We believe that such steps would indicate that the US was acting in good faith in its war against terror.

We do not think that there has been an honest, deep, and open debate and reflection in the United States about the motivations and implications of the September suicide attacks. Instead, the question, "why they hate us?," has been turned into a drumbeat for suppressing civil liberties and violating human rights abroad. We challenge the American human rights and civil rights movements to lead the nation in seeking answers to the attacks, and looking at US policies abroad as one possible arena for reform to alleviate the alienation and grievances that other cultures and countries hold against the United States. We do not believe that the September 11 attacks reveal a neat "good versus evil" dichotomy. Real dialogue between cultures, religions, the rich and the poor, and the North and the South is the only sure way to resolve the demons that unleashed September 11.

We add our modest voice to those opposed to a US military action against Iraq. Since the American-led Gulf War a decade ago, Iraq has been turned into a living hell. United Nations sanctions have crippled the country. Tens of thousands of children have perished of preventable diseases because of lack of medicine and medical equipment. It is the common people of Iraq, and not President Saddam Hussein and his cronies who have borne the brunt of the suffering wrought by sanctions. Any attempt to overthrow the Iraqi regime would lead to national disintegration, prolonged civil strife, and untold suffering by women, children, and the infirm. The warpath must be abandoned. Otherwise it will lead to more suffering and a coalescence of the belief that the United States is bent on the destruction of the Arab nation. Instead, we believe that US efforts ought to be focused on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine, stopping the killings on both sides, and establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, with security guarantees for Israel.

There was an outpouring of support for the American victims and families affected by the September 11 attacks. Even a Maasai village community in Kenya presented the Americans with cattle, as a token of its solidarity with the victims. It was a touching gesture. We feel that neither the Clinton, nor the Bush, administration has done enough to assist Kenyan victims and the families of the 1998 Nairobi embassy bombing. While the United States has rightly set up a fund for the victims and families affected by September 11, it should extend some of that caring to victims of the embassy bombing. This would go a long way in alleviating their pain and suffering. It would also show that Americans do not just care about their own victims, but all those others who, in effect, "have taken a bullet for Uncle Sam."

On this first anniversary of the September 11 attacks, we want to remember the victims and their families, but also to underscore the obligations of states, particularly the United States, to lead by showing respect for the international rule of law and human rights. We urge and call upon the Bush administration to pull back from its confrontation with Iraq. We believe that only a balanced, internationally inclusive approach, devoid of unilateralism, can alleviate the hatreds and violations that continue to characterize our world today. Otherwise, the law of the jungle will make losers of all of us.


This material is distributed by Africa Action (incorporating the Africa Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa). Africa Action's information services provide accessible information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and international policies toward Africa that advance economic, political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.

URL for this file: http://www.africafocus.org/docs02/sec0209.php