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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 Please note that many outdated links in this archived document may not work.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: Bush Snubs Africa Again

Africa Action: Bush Snubs Africa Again
Date distributed (ymd): 021223
Africa Action Document

This special posting contains a press release by Africa Action responding to President Bush's cancellation of his planned January trip to Africa, as well as a copy of a letter to President by members of the Congressional Black Caucus, calling for a greatly expanded U.S. initiative to fight AIDS.

AFRICA ACTION

Press Release
December 23, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Africa Action 202-546-7961
Salih Booker 202-244-6310

BUSH SNUBS AFRICA ONCE AGAIN

War on AIDS subordinated to war on Iraq

Monday, December 23 (Washington, DC) - Africa Action's Executive Director, Salih Booker, called the Bush Administration's decision to postpone a long-planned trip to Africa, "wholly unjustified and insensitive to those dying on the frontlines in the War on AIDS, a war more just and important than any war on Iraq, and one which George Bush refuses to acknowledge."

Over the weekend the White House announced that it was cancelling the January 10-17 trip which would have been Bush's first official visit to Africa as President. Citing unnamed "domestic and international considerations", the White House said the trip would be delayed to later in 2003. Bush was expected to visit Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Mauritius. Just last week, while trying to distance itself from racist remarks by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, the White House cited the Africa trip as evidence of Bush's and the Republicans' sensitivities to African American concerns.

Africa Action's Booker said that, "Once again Africa is not a priority for this White House and the Republican rulers on Capitol Hill." "They think they've addressed enough Black issues with the replacement of Lott and they callously dump Africa again. The Bush Administration is disinterested in Africa aside from oil imports and the use of African territory in Washington's war on terrorism. The U.S. government continues shamelessly to limit funding for AIDS programs in Africa and supports the pharmaceutical companies' efforts to enforce patent laws against poor countries seeking access to affordable medicines," he added.

Since its inauguration two years ago, the Bush Administration's foreign policy priorities have been at odds with those of African nations. Washington virtually boycotted the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001 and the low level delegation that did attend eventually walked out. This year, Secretary Colin Powell was booed at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg for representing unilateralist policies considered antithetical to African interests in multilateral cooperation on global issues. Massive U.S. subsidies for agribusiness have severely impacted African farmers and agricultural development. And the U.S. interest in promoting trade agreements for American companies obscures Africa's efforts to throw off the yoke of illegitimate external debts. Most importantly, Washington has failed to support African and international efforts to defeat the AIDS pandemic, whose epicenter is the continent. The White House statement on the postponement of Bush's Africa trip doesn't even make mention of AIDS.

Africa Action's director said that, "The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the worst human catastrophe in recorded history and is by far the greatest global threat of our time. Over 3 million people died of AIDS this year worldwide, 80 percent of them in Africa. We ask - as people asked years ago about the Holocaust - 'how can the U.S. government know and fail to act?' The answer appears to be racism. The U.S. just doesn't value African lives."

Booker noted that the Congressional Black Caucus wrote to President Bush last week demanding a new U.S. initiative to fight AIDS that would include greatly expanded funding for treatment, care and prevention; support for affordable medicines; programs for AIDS orphans; and debt cancellation. "Bush responded to the Black Caucus' commendable effort to change U.S. policy by cancelling his Africa trip altogether in order to remove this subject from the debate over racism in the U.S. government."

The focus now will be on the Bush Administration's budget request for FY2004. Any figure less than $2.5 billion for AIDS will be strongly opposed as inadequate by AIDS activists and the Congressional Black Caucus.

Africa Action, established in 1953, is the oldest US-based advocacy organization on African affairs.

Africa Action
1634 Eye Street NW Suite 810
Washington, DC 20006
http://www.africaaction.org


Letter from Congressional Black Caucus

December 18, 2002

President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush,

As members of the Congressional Black Caucus, we are writing to draw your attention to the growing spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the developing world. It would be impossible to overstate the devastation caused to date by the global AIDS pandemic, or the urgency of the need for a greater response from the United States and the global community. With 42 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS - 29.4 million of them in Sub-Saharan Africa -- 14 million children already orphaned by the disease, and 70 million more people expected to die by 2020, we must do more now. We must respond on an appropriate scale to address the greatest plague in recorded history.

The United States, as the world's wealthiest nation, must take greater action by contributing its fair share, and in doing so we can help galvanize the global response that we so desperately need. As you prepare to travel to Africa in January, and as you prepare your budget for fiscal year 2004, you have a remarkable opportunity to demonstrate United States leadership against AIDS at a moment when the world will be watching. We urge you to launch a major new US initiative to fight AIDS, as well as tuberculosis and malaria. TB is the leading killer of people with HIV, claiming 2 million lives each year despite the existence of an effective and inexpensive cure, while malaria kills nearly one million people each year, most of them young children in Africa.

An expanded US Initiative to fight AIDS must:

  • Provide at least $2.5 billion for implementation of global AIDS programs in 2004, as well as additional funds to combat TB and malaria. At least 50% of this should go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
  • Prioritize treatment, as well as prevention and care, for those affected--including an expanded mother-to-child transmission initiative that would detect and treat entire families, and including funding and personnel as needed to implement the WHO call to treat three million people with HIV by 2005
  • Promote developing country access to sustainable supplies of affordable medicines for AIDS and other diseases such as opportunistic infections in accordance with the Doha Ministerial Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health and oppose any attempts to limit the scope of the Declaration
  • Expand programs for children orphaned by AIDS
  • Seek debt cancellation for impoverished countries, so they can invest in poverty reduction and AIDS programs.

Most importantly, a US initiative should consist of new monies and policies that complement existing US-supported programs and are additional to the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). The MCA, however, also must help meet the Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of these diseases.

We cannot win the war against AIDS without greater financial resources and a clear plan of action for the United States. Programs around the world are ready to scale up prevention, treatment, and care to save lives now, and to develop the systems needed to save tens of millions more in the future. Each day we delay in mounting a comprehensive - and compassionate - response to the global AIDS and TB pandemics, the cost in human, social, and economic terms grows. You will have our strong support and the support of the American people for a bold new initiative to save families and communities affected by the AIDS crisis, to extend the parent-child relationship, and to secure the future of young people.

Sincerely,

Barbara Lee, M.C.
Maxine Waters, M.C.
Donna Christian-Christensen, M.C.
Danny K. Davis, M.C.
Edolphus Towns, M.C.
Robert Scott, M.C.
Charles Rangel, M.C.
Elijah Cummings, M.C.
Julia Carson, M.C.
William "Lacy" Clay, Jr., M.C.
Juanita Millender-McDonald, M.C.
Stephanie Tubbs Jones, M.C.
Eddie Bernice Johnson, M.C.
Sheila Jackson-Lee, M.C.
Bobby Rush, M.C.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, M.C.
Carolyn Kilpatrick, M.C.
Donald Payne, M.C.
Diane E. Watson, M.C.
Sanford Bishop, M.C.
Gregory Meeks, M.C.
Bennie Thompson, M.C.
Major Owens, M.C.
Melvin Watt, M.C.
Harold Ford, Jr., M.C.
Corrine Brown, M.C.
John Conyers, M.C.
Chaka Fattah, M.C.
Alcee Hastings, M.C.
Jesse Jackson, Jr., M.C.
James Clyburn, M.C.


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/pres0212.php