Analysis
Chris McGreal
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for a “partnership for Africa” in which the West provides money, expertise and economic opportunities, while Africa gets its house in order by ending conflicts and establishing accountable and decent government. For now, the partnership is largely one between Blair and President Thabo Mbeki, who provided the blueprint for the New African Initiative from which Blair is working.
Each has to get an array of nations aligned behind the project. Blair has had some success in bringing the G8 countries on board in principle, although the real test will be whether they are prepared to spend the cash and lift trade barriers. Mbeki has the more difficult task of pressing other African governments to get their shambolic houses in order. He has the important support of Nigeria, and the promise of the initiative has already prompted him to take a tougher stand on Zimbabwe.
Blair mentioned debt relief, over which the G8 has been stalling. There has been no wholesale writing-off of debts, despite the promises. Lifting trade barriers would provide another economic boost.
Some African officials argue that investment needs to be focused on infrastructure that is visible and makes a difference. New roads would reduce transport costs and travelling time, provide jobs and help the environment. Education and training are high on the African agenda.
Perhaps the most difficult test of Blair’s commitment will be his reaction to the next bout of wholesale bloodletting in Africa. A fortnight ago, he said the world would have a moral duty to act if Rwanda’s genocide were to happen today. The genocide for all its horror would have been relatively straightforward to contain if the West had been prepared to make the necessary political and military commitment.
A few thousand effective United Nations troops armed with a mandate to kill the killers could have contained the slaughter of Tutsis. Just such a robust approach has been behind the success of the British intervention in Sierra Leone, which has broken the back of the inhumane Revolutionary United Front as a military force with relatively little fighting.
If Blair is looking for other conflicts that the West has a “moral duty” to act on, he might begin with Burundi, where eight years of bloody and bitter strife that has left hundreds of thousands dead is as much about competition for limited resources as about ethnicity.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the war is winding down after hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of deaths. Political pressure on allies such as Rwanda and Uganda can help ensure that the foreign belligerents do not go back to war, even if they are reluctant to pull out of Congo.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Angola in the 26 years since independence, while Western firms have made a fortune out of the merry-go-round of pumping oil used to buy weapons. Perhaps that will be the greatest test a willingness to sacrifice British and Western financial interests where they conflict with the betterment of Africa.