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'Hotspots' off the Bush safari
07/07/2003 10:45 - (SA)
Washington - The places where President George W Bush is not going on his sprint through Africa this week may say as much about US-Africa policy as those he has included on his itinerary.
Bush will go to Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria after leaving Washington late on Monday.
But, unlike many world leaders and celebrities who visit South Africa, he will not pay a courtesy call on revered statesman Nelson Mandela, an outspoken critic of his war on Iraq.
Bush will also avoid the summit of the African Union, which draws the continent's leaders to Maputo, Mozambique, between July 10-12 - at the same time he will be on the continent.
Kenya does not merit a stop, after a series of attacks blamed on al-Qaeda that represent a stiff challenge to Bush's anti-terror war, and which have rendered a visit by the US leader too much of a security risk.
Former South African president Mandela has apparently contrived to be out of the country while Bush is in Pretoria this week, observers say, because he wants to temper controversy over his desire to avoid Bush.
Mandela once called Bush, who prizes personal connections he has made with other world statesmen, a leader who "cannot think properly" and last month praised a Bush bete-noire, French President Jacques Chirac, for opposing the Iraq war.
'Mandela speaks his mind freely'
Africa activists have pounced on the lack of a meeting with Mandela, accusing Bush of insincerity before he embarks on his Africa trip on Monday.
"It should have been an honour for George Bush to have an audience with Nelson Mandela," said Salih Booker of the Africa Action pressure group.
"He didn't even request an appointment and, after 28 years in prison, Nelson Mandela is a free man and he speaks his mind freely and that in fact is why the White House did not want to meet him."
White House officials deny that Bush decided not to meet Mandela because of his personal criticisms.
"There was no discussion about a meeting with President Mandela either from them or from us or from him," said a senior Bush aide on condition of anonymity.
Bush will similarly avoid the summit of the African Union, taking place this week in Mozambique.
"Isn't it ironic that of all the places on the Bush agenda, Bush is not going to the one meeting that is bringing together all of Africa's heads of state," said Emira Woods of the Foreign Policy in Focus think-tank.
Kenya considered too risky
"He has chosen instead to pull key leaders away from this Africa-focused summit and direct their attention to more narrowly focused US interests."
The senior Bush administration official again denied there had been a decision to deliberately avoid an address to the African Union.
"Trying to go to Mozambique with so many heads of state would really, I think, overwhelm the capacity of the country to deal with our sort of large infrastructure, I should call it."
Bush will also avoid Kenya, which would have been a logical destination for his first presidential visit to Africa.
Although the White House does not comment on security issues, Kenya appears to have been considered too risky, after a string of attacks blamed on al-Qaeda.
A 1998 car bomb attack blamed on Osama bin Laden's network destroyed the US embassy in Nairobi, killing 213 people, 12 of them Americans.
Only a short time in some countries
Another car-bomb attack, against an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa last November, killed 18 people, while a ground-to-air missile at the same time narrowly missed a charter jet carrying Israeli tourists.
Squabbles about where the president should have gone are the stuff of every presidential trip.
This one, which the White House has said will focus on African success stories, will also draw fire as Bush is spending little time in each country that is on his schedule - about half a day in Senegal and a few hours in Botswana and Uganda, for instance.
But Walter Kansteiner, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, says any presidential time is important.
"Of course, if we had more time in the president's calendar we could do a lot more stops, but this is the reality of life in the 21st century in the White House.
"So we have got our six or six-and-a-half days, and we are going to make the best of it," he said.
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