[NYTr] USA's Suspect Activity in Africa

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Mali's Foreign Minister began an official visit to Havana on Monday,
Sep 10, 2007.  The Cubans must be getting an earful. -NYTr]

Foreign Minister of Mali Begins Official Visit to Cuba - 9/10/07
https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070910/068164.html


Workers World - Sep 13, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/africa-0913

Operations now in Mali

U.S. military interventions arouse African suspicions

By G. Dunkel

U.S. troops are currently engaged in military exercises in northern
Mali in Africa. Called Operation Flintlock, the exercise involves
troops from the former colonialist powers Britain, France and the
Netherlands, as well as from Mali, Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina
Faso, Chad, Senegal, Tunisia and Nigeria. The U.S. military ran the
first Operation Flintlock in 2005 in northern Mali.

Mali, which is among the 10 poorest countries in the world, is Africa’s
third largest gold producer, after South Africa and Ghana. Mali’s gold
mining is dominated by Canadian, European and South African firms.
Northern Mali, which shares a long border with southern Algeria, may
contain vast pools of oil.

Operation Flintlock, scheduled to end Sept. 8, reinforces the U.S. goal
of setting up a new African Command (AFRICOM) somewhere inside Africa.
This goal defies the position taken by many African countries,
including South Africa.

After the meeting of the defense and security ministers of the Southern
African Defense Community (SADC) at the end of August, South African
Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota briefed the press.

Questioned regarding AFRICOM, Lekota said: “The SADC Summit did adopt
the position that it is better if the United States were involved with
Africa from a distance rather than be present on the continent. That
creates a sense of uncertainty. ... The SADC defense and security
ministers took a decision that sister countries of the region should
not agree to host AFRICOM and in particular, armed forces, since this
would have a negative effect. That recommendation was presented to the
Heads of State and this is a SADC position.”

Regarding AFRICOM and the African Union, Lekota said: “My understanding
is that this is a continental position. We have no quarrel with AFRICOM
as such, but the issue of its location in Africa is of concern. The
continent has said that it would not like to see new forces in Africa.”

The SADC’s members include Angola, South Africa, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and nine other smaller
countries in the region.

Africa’s vast resources and labor have enriched and developed
capitalism in Europe and North America for centuries, while leaving
most Africans impoverished. Thus it should be no surprise that African
media are also expressing suspicions about the U.S. goals with AFRICOM.

In the Kenyan newspaper The Standard, a July 8 article analyzed U.S.
motives: “Last week, Tanzania announced that it had hit commercially
viable oil deposits along its coast. This comes just over one year
after Uganda struck its own black gold in the west. And suddenly rumors
of Americans calling on the region are rife.”

The article notes that the U.S.’s traditional sources of oil in Latin
America and the Middle East are “tightening grip on their resources.
Which is why East Africa is believed to be the next oil frontier the
West appears determined to hold onto.” The article emphasizes not only
that Africa can supply the U.S. with oil but that its economy is
growing so fast, with the increasing price of oil, that Africa will
become an important market.

In the midst of Operation Flintlock, a revolt among the Tuareg, a
nomadic ethnic group living in northern Mali and Niger, and southern
Algeria, suddenly flared up after a peace agreement had been reached in
July. La Tribune, an Algerian newspaper published in Algiers, asked in
an editorial published on its website Aug. 29 if this revolt was going
to be an “alibi for the U.S. to militarily install itself in the
region.” 

Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww at workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net