Speeches

US Foreign Policy Towards Africa 2005

June 2, 2005

As the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Sierra Leone, my fundamental purpose for being in your country is to advance American foreign policy. I am very pleased, therefore, to be discussing this topic this evening.

I am particularly delighted to be speaking here at Fourah Bay College and here in the Mary Kingsley Auditorium, because this venerable institution has been an important part of my life. My very first night in Africa, on the 5th of July, 1968, was spent near here in one of the student hostels that some of you now use. They were in better condition and less crowded back then. That same week on this very stage I witnessed a memorable, mesmerizing performance by the Sierra Leone Dance Troupe under the direction of John Akar that was my introduction to Sierra Leonean culture. In 1969, I first met my wife Jill at an event for new Peace Corps Volunteers here at Fourah Bay. I also took my examination for admission to graduate school here in early 1970. Later, at Columbia University in New York City, I wrote a Master of Arts thesis on the history of Fourah Bay College.

The world has changed considerably since those days when the United States was preoccupied with the Cold War and the Vietnam War, and when Sierra Leone was experiencing the early years of independence and emerging from its first political crisis, the prolonged transition, including military intervention, from the Government of Albert Margai to that of Siaka Stevens.

Conditions deteriorated in Sierra Leone in subsequent years due to mismanagement and corruption until the country collapsed into the abyss of civil conflict. Sierra Leone has emerged from that tragedy, but the country has not fully recovered and remains a fragile state. The challenges that your country faces are enormous. Nevertheless, if the citizens of this country respect the lessons of the past and work together in common cause, I am optimistic that Sierra Leone can offer the young people of this country a better future. The United States is here to help, but we can only help with what you set in motion. The responsibility for Sierra Leone belongs to its Government and its citizens.

I sometimes compare Sierra Leone to a critically traumatized hospital patient in intensive care teetering between life and death. Massive international intervention, including significant American assistance, has provided life support. The international community now believes that the condition of Sierra Leone has improved sufficiently to be able to remove some of that life support by withdrawing UNAMSIL at the end of this year. The condition of Sierra Leone is still fragile, however, so the international community, including the United States, is willing to provide the treatment and therapy necessary for a full recovery provided that the patient responds positively.

Before I explain how this analogy translates in terms of relations between our two countries, however, allow me to step back, as I have been asked to do, to put bilateral relations into context by speaking more broadly about Africa and the United States. If you are Sierra Leonean, it is natural that Sierra Leone should be the center of your universe, the most important place on earth for you. For Americans, our country is likewise the center of our world, and we conduct our foreign affairs based on what is in our national interest.

We have defined our interest as a world that is more secure, democratic, and prosperous. We believe that those conditions can best be achieved through open societies and free market economies. To accomplish these goals in Africa, we have set six policy priorities, which I will describe briefly.

Our first policy priority is regional stability, and in that respect the United States is providing leadership in preventing and resolving conflicts in Africa and using our influence to mobilize multilateral peace efforts. For example, our current efforts in Sudan, the Great Lakes region, Liberia, and the Ethiopia/Eritrea border area reflect this multilateral approach. We also provide peacekeeping training to some African countries so that their soldiers will be qualified to contribute to conflict resolution as peacekeepers in African trouble spots.

Our second priority is democracy and human rights. Our efforts in this priority are concentrated on developing genuine democracy, achieving good governance, improving the rule of law, and strengthening civil society. We are focusing on twelve African countries, including Sierra Leone, by working with governments and non-governmental organizations to promote and strengthen civil societies, free and fair elections, independent media, human rights, the rule of law, and anti-corruption.

Our third priority is economic prosperity and security. The strategy for achieving this goal includes enhancing trade between the United States and Africa and increasing investment opportunities in Africa. The Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), for example, has opened the American market to more African products by eliminating tariffs. Another critical dimension of this priority is food security, particularly in countries like Ethiopia that have been hit hard by famine, but also in more fertile countries like Sierra Leone that are emerging from conflict.

Our fourth priority is counter-terrorism. We have a responsibility to protect Americans from terrorist threats in Africa and from Africa. The memory of the bombings of our embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam is still fresh. In providing that protection, we also expect that our efforts will strengthen African governments and regional organizations in their abilities to protect Africans, for example by impeding the flow of terrorism finances, improving border and airport security, and reforming judicial systems. Our highest priority is the Horn of Africa, but we are also implementing in West Africa the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative in which six countries, mainly in the Sahel, are participating. These activities not only seek to interdict terrorism, but also to address the root causes of terrorism by fostering development, education, and democratic institutions.

Our fifth priority is to counter the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Not only are these diseases transnational threats to the United States, they are threats to society, the economy, and security throughout Africa. HIV/AIDS has devastated the middle generation in many African countries, and must be brought under control by modifying behavior. The United States is also working with African countries to battle malaria, tuberculosis, polio, cholera, and other diseases by improving health delivery systems, assisting with prevention and vaccination, and providing safe drinking water.

Our sixth priority is conserving Africa’s natural resource base. Conflicts over resources and poor conservation practices have undermined peace, stability, and economic growth in many parts of Africa, and have increased the need for American humanitarian assistance. The United States is fostering sustainable use of natural resources and sub-regional cooperation in their use, for example through the Nile Basin Initiative for watershed management, the Congo Basin Forest initiative that is important for the world’s oxygen supply, and the UN Convention on Desertification that we are encouraging countries to implement.

How do these American policy priorities for Africa apply to Sierra Leone?

Coastal West Africa is a very unstable neighborhood as evidenced by the situations in Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, and, most recently, Togo. Sierra Leone can be a model for recovery in the sub-region, and therefore it is of paramount importance to the United States that the peace and security achieved thus far be consolidated and sustained. The United States of America has been the largest financial contributor to UNAMSIL, as we are to peacekeeping operations around the world, but soon we will be moving to a new phase of recovery without that life support.

Two other important elements for making Sierra Leone a model for regional stability are the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. We are encouraged by the promises that the TRC report and the Government’s White Paper on the TRC’s conclusions will soon be published, but from the American perspective, recommendations must be implemented to be meaningful. The United States has been the largest contributor to the Special Court, but justice will be incomplete if all of those indicted as having the greatest responsibility for Sierra Leone’s conflict are not brought to trial. For that reason, the United States insists that former Liberian President Charles Taylor must face justice. If Charles Taylor evades justice in Sierra Leone, that message of impunity will undermine West African stability in the years to come.

Stability in Sierra Leone also depends on good governance and respect for the rule of law. For too many decades, Sierra Leone has been a democracy in name, but not entirely in practice. If this patient is to be cured of the disease that led to the trauma, the medicine of reform must be taken seriously. Therefore, American foreign policy toward Sierra Leone strongly advocates strengthening democracy through respect for the will of the people, effective prevention and prosecution of corruption, genuine justice in the courts of law, a larger voice for parliament, and greater tolerance of the mass media as it becomes more professional.

The United States views the Sierra Leone Government’s policy of decentralization as positive, and has responded with a three-year USAID good governance project which will, among other activities, help to build the capacity of district and local councils in four districts and in Freetown. At this point, I want to confirm a point that the U.S. Government often makes about its aid programs. American aid is developed in coordination with the Government and the key stakeholders, including the involved local communities, but the money is almost always channeled through international and local NGO’s.

With respect to fighting corruption, the major activity of the U.S. Government in Sierra Leone is another USAID initiative, the Integrated Diamond Management and Policy project, which has created the Peace Diamond Alliance to help put Sierra Leone in conformity with the Kimberley Process, to return revenues for development to diamond producing communities, and to make the entire diamond sector more transparent.

Electoral reform is another major American concern because democracy by definition must be a government of the people. If the widespread fraud that has tainted past elections in Sierra Leone is not corrected, the assistance from my Government and other donors will undoubtedly be redirected to other countries that show greater determination to reform. The reputation of Sierra Leone for corruption is already proving to be a disincentive for countries considering contributions to the PRSP. The 2007 national election will be a critically important benchmark for proving to the world, through transparency and probity, that Sierra Leone is genuinely democratic.

The electoral reform that has begun with the appointment of the new Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission is refreshing, but must be fully implemented if elections in Sierra Leone are to be truly free and fair. Time is short, but the United States is fully committed to ensuring, to the extent that we can, that the preparation and conduct of the 2007 elections will meet international standards.

Speaking of elections, I want to make perfectly clear that the United States of America is appropriately neutral in the selection and election of candidates for public office in Sierra Leone. As Ambassador of the United States of America, I do not and will not endorse any political party or candidate. As you may have noticed in the newspapers, various politicians and journalists have alleged an American preference for their own purposes. Our concern is for the electoral process. The choice of who should lead is for Sierra Leoneans to make without outside interference.

Respect for human rights is a critical element in America’s relations with other countries. As I indicated in another recent speech, the Government of Sierra Leone is not a systematic violator of human rights. Human rights abuses do occur, as they do in any country, but insofar as we can ascertain, they occur mainly because of the incompetence, corruption, and maliciousness of individuals. There are also harmful traditional practices that violate international human rights standards. One simple way for Sierra Leone to improve its record would be to pass human rights legislation proposed by the Law Reform Commission.

While all human rights concern us, the United States gives particular attention to Trafficking-in-Persons. Sierra Leone has improved its performance, but as you will learn tomorrow when the annual Trafficking-in-Persons report is released, there is considerable room for more improvement. We usually think of trafficking as only involving unacceptable abuse of women and children for sexual purposes, but the exploitation of children as labor in diamond fields or as street vendors can also constitute trafficking. The United States will devote considerable resources to helping Sierra Leone improve its Trafficking-in-Persons performance in the coming year, but your country must take the lead by educating Sierra Leoneans about trafficking and by passing the pending Trafficking-in-Persons law as soon as possible.

Another key aspect of our support for democracy and human rights is our support for civil society, which is critical for advocating on behalf of the citizens of this country. All of our USAID projects contain elements that engage civil society organizations, and I also have an Ambassador’s Fund for Democracy and Human Rights which supports worthy projects proposed by Sierra Leonean NGO’s dedicated to these issues.

As I have stated before, democracy and prosperity are interdependent. If the quality of life for Sierra Leoneans is to improve, the economy must grow to create more jobs and better wages. This country needs a stronger public-private partnership, because it is the private business sector, not government, that has the potential to generate the jobs that will ease unemployment. The Institute of Directors recently launched by the President is an encouraging sign.

The United States has offered the benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, but as yet Sierra Leone businesses have been unable to take full advantage because of their own limitations such as production capacity and contracts with customers. Nevertheless, both Government and industry are striving to exploit AGOA, and a high level Sierra Leonean delegation will be going to the annual meeting of the Corporate Council on Africa in the United States this month to seek commercial opportunities. The $25 million dollar guarantee by the U.S. Government Overseas Private Investment Council for Sierra Rutile this past year was a vote of confidence in Sierra Leone, and we are beginning to see more American investments here, such as the recently launched cement block factory in Angola Town by Regimanuel Gray Limited of Texas.

Agriculture has been and must continue to be the backbone of the Sierra Leone economy. Reviving agriculture to generate employment and increase productivity in order to achieve food security is a priority of United States policy. At present we have two agricultural projects funded at $32 million by USAID that work directly with the farmers at the local level and support the Government’s “Operation Feed The Nation” in five districts in all three provinces. These are being implemented by two NGO consortiums led by Care International. We also have an Ambassador’s Self-Help Fund that supports deserving serving community projects throughout Sierra Leone. This past year all of the approved projects supported agricultural development.

Terrorism can affect Sierra Leone as well as the United States. While there have not been international terrorist incidents here since your war, some terrorism-related groups may be active. For that reason, we will be offering counter-terrorism training to those responsible for Sierra Leone’s national security. We will give later this year three in-shore patrol boats to the Sierra Leone navy to enforce maritime laws and protect your ocean border. We also have a few American soldiers serving with IMATT to train the Sierra Leone army in its mission to protect your land borders.

The United States was among the first to address HIV/AIDS in Sierra Leone. This disease has not yet had the devastating impact on Sierra Leone that it has had in many countries elsewhere in Africa, but it will unless we take steps to raise awareness and modify behavior. The United States Department of Defense has a significant program that has been educating the Sierra Leone Armed Forces about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, since they are one of the most “at risk” groups in the country. The billboards and music of Steady Bongo funded by this program have reached audiences far beyond the military. We also have a West African Ambassador’s HIV/AIDS Fund that has provided substantial quantities of condoms for private sector marketing to facilitate prevention. Another American contribution to public health is a new lassa fever laboratory that is being provided by USAID in Kenema.

Our foreign policy concern for natural resources in Africa extends to Sierra Leone as well. Next week, for example, we will have a team here from the U.S. Forest Service to work with the police, local leaders and civil society to protect forest areas around Freetown that are essential to watershed management. If illegal encroachment continues, there will not enough water for Freetown when the distribution system is restored. We have also developed a project with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the elephants in the Outamba-Kilimi National Park in the Northern Province. Our environmental work in the diamond sector includes support for restoring alluvial diamond pits to productive agricultural land, and our OPIC support for Sierra Rutile is contingent on the mining meeting recognized environmental standards.

This overview of American foreign policy and its application to Sierra Leone is illustrative of American involvement in your country. American relations overall with Sierra Leone are excellent and are constantly evolving. We have new programs in the pipeline such as a primary school scholarship program for 3,000 girls in five districts that will be launched this month. It is also important to recognize that in addition to bilateral aid, considerable American resources are delivered to your country through other mechanisms such as the UN agencies, the World Bank, foundations and private donations.

As I look ahead, there will be some adjustments in our bilateral aid based on a worldwide USAID initiative, the Fragile States Strategy, which includes Sierra Leone. Many countries are fragile states, and ultimately those that benefit most will be those that equitably support necessary political, social and economic reform. All donors look at both need and performance, and typically those who perform better will attract more donors. This is what I meant when in my little analogy about the traumatized patient needing to respond positively for the therapy to continue. Progress on issues such as corruption and electoral reform will greatly influence donor decisions on whether to increase or decrease aid to Sierra Leone, and will be a factor in attracting new donors to the PRSP. All donors, including the United States, have limited amounts of aid that they can afford, and competing demands from numerous needy countries for that finite assistance. In that respect, developing countries that are reliable partners of the United States in pursuit of shared values and objectives are more likely to benefit from American assistance.

I look forward to the day when Sierra Leone will cease to be a fragile state and will have made sufficient progress in democratization and development to qualify for another U.S. Government initiative, the Millennium Challenge Account, which is designed to give a boost to countries ready for economic take-off. Senegal, Ghana, and Benin are among the countries that qualified this year, and I hope Sierra Leone will make enough progress to qualify in the coming years.

That qualification point will be reached when Sierra Leone proves that it can be self-reliant, and meet the standards of good governance, social justice, and free market economics that we expect. As I said earlier, the United States can help, but ultimately it is up to the leaders and people of Sierra Leone to recognize that your future is in your own hands and to act accordingly. I understand that Sierra Leone has had to be donor-dependent in the aftermath of your destructive civil conflict, but I am concerned about what I perceive to be a growing culture of dependency. It is an attitude of expectation that donors will always provide, and that type of attitude does not lead to responsible self-reliance.

Before I close, I want to mention another important aspect of our relationship, and that is people-to-people relations. The connection between America and Sierra Leone goes back more than 250 years, before either of us was a country, due to the regrettable circumstances of the slave trade. Out of that tragic era emerged a segment of the American population, who came as slaves but survived and thrived to become an important part of the American mosaic. Last week a woman arrived in Freetown, Thomalind Martin Polite, who is the first American whose ancestry can be documented back to the day in 1756 when a girl, whose slave name was Priscilla, was forcefully put on a slave ship in Sierra Leone to be sent to what was then the New World. The events of “Priscilla’s Homecoming” this past week, especially the fascinating performance on this stage last night of Professor Raymond Desouza-George’s play “Under the Carpet” written for this occasion, have demonstrated how close the people of our two countries truly are.

There are three other elements of the bridge between our peoples that are priorities for my embassy. One is the preservation of Bunce Island because of its historic significance and its symbolism as a link between our countries. I want to make it more accessible to Sierra Leoneans, but first there is important archaeological work that must be done there. Second, I am working for the return of Peace Corps Volunteers to Sierra Leone, but up to now this has not been approved due to budgetary obstacles. Finally, the resumption of visa services to facilitate travel to the United States is a serious concern. I regret the expense and inconvenience that Sierra Leoneans undergo in order to apply for American visas in Conakry. Resuming visa services is far more complicated than you can imagine, but we are in the process of obtaining the equipment, personnel, and training necessary to be able to issue non-immigrant visas. I fully expect than we will resume visa services in Freetown next year after we move to the new American Embassy building, which itself is an American vote of confidence that peace and stability will prevail in Sierra Leone’s future.

At the outset of my speech I indicated my optimism about Sierra Leone’s future, but I am also realistic. The next few years are critically important for the longer-term direction of Sierra Leone. Students like yourselves are your country’s future. You face many challenges in your education, but you must look beyond the present to the contributions you can make to your country’s future through your families and communities, your university and organizations. You will have the opportunity to overcome the failures of past generations, and as you progress educationally and professionally please remember that it is you who can make a difference to your country.

We all want Sierra Leone to succeed. This is the foundation of relations between the United States of America and the Republic of Sierra Leone. We will help, but we look to you to make success a reality so that the people of Sierra Leone can have the better life that they deserve.