More US soldiers not welcome in Africa, says Lekota

[Jalili]

More US soldiers not welcome in Africa, says Lekota

Wyndham Hartley
Parliamentary Editor
South African Business Day

CAPE TOWN — More armed US soldiers are not welcome in Africa, said Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota yesterday.

Any country that allowed itself to be a base for the US strategic command in
Africa (Africom) would have to live with the consequences, Lekota said.

Africom’s recent creation has been interpreted as the US suddenly recognising
the strategic importance of Africa to the US.

Last month it was reported that Lekota was not responding to US requests for him
to meet the first Africom commander, Gen Kip Ward.

Briefing the media yesterday, Lekota said the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) defence ministers had, at the summit in Lusaka this month,
decided that no member states would host Africom and more armed US soldiers.

He said this was also the “continental position� of the African Union.

However, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has evidently already offered
her country as a base for Africom.

Lekota said as far as he knew most African countries supported the view that the
Americans should keep their distance.

He said there might be a minority that felt Africom was welcome but, as was the
case in democracy, the will of the majority prevailed.

He warned strongly that any country that did not abide by the view that US
soldiers should not have an enlarged presence in Africa as part of Africom would
have to consider the consequences. These could amount to neighbouring African
countries refusing to co-operate with them.

“Africa has to avoid the presence of foreign forces on its soil, particularly
if any influx of soldiers might affect relations between sister African
countries,� Lekota said. The idea of a renewed US focus on Africa was not new,
he said.

“Nevertheless, the SADC has adopted the position that it would be better if
the US did it from a distance�, and did not cause instability in Africa.

R-Adm Robert Moeller of the US was reported last month as arguing that the goal
of the US with Africom was to help build the capacity of African organisations
such as the African Standby Force to promote peace and security and respond to
crises on the continent.

Simon Tisdale wrote in the London-based Guardian: “Africom marks the official
arrival of America’s ‘global war on terror’ on the African continent.�
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