Albright Stresses That ‘Africa Matters’ Secretary Of State Sees ‘New Chapter’ For Nations Vowing To Build Democracy

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright acknowledged that the United States for more than three decades had viewed Africa as little more than a disaster-prone Cold War battlefield. She pledged Tuesday to open a “new chapter” in relations with countries on the continent that promise to build democracy and free-market economies.

Opening a week’s tour of trouble-spots that the Clinton administration has identified as candidates for its new partnership, Albright told a meeting sponsored by the Organization of African Unity that “Africa matters” to Washington and the world.

But she noted that, unlike previous high-level U.S. visitors, she brought no predetermined program and could not promise the sacks of aid money that once were the core of U.S. approaches to the Third World.

“It is time for the people of the United States to open a new chapter in our relations with the people of this continent,” said Albright, on her first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, only the second such tour by America’s senior diplomat in the post-Cold War period.

“Africa’s best new leaders,” she added, “have brought a new spirit of hope and accomplishment to their countries. … They are challenging the United States and the international community to get over the paternalism of the past, to stop thinking of its Africa policy as a none-too-successful rescue service, and to begin seizing the opportunities to work with Africans to transform their continent.”

In her speech, Albright did not name the chosen new African leaders. But her itinerary makes clear her priorities: Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

With the exception of South Africa, none of these nations is a fully functioning democracy. But U.S. officials insist that all these regimes are trying to enact political reform, and some, like Congo, Ethiopia and Uganda, have replaced truly appalling predecessors.

“For decades, Central Africa has been the scene of multiple conflicts fueled by the tragic legacy of colonialism, by destabilizing Cold War rivalries and by a recent history of international neglect,” Albright said. “Unlocking the Congo’s vast potential will be essential to any long-term strategy for peace and prosperity” in the region.

Although a senior State Department official said later that “the day of large government aid programs to Africa is over,” Albright said the administration hopes to provide $30 million to help reorganize the civil and military justice systems in the nations of Central Africa.

Albright’s speech to OAU ambassadors, officials and invited guests was interrupted by applause only once, when she chastised the international community for its timid response to the slaughter of as many as 500,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda by the since-overthrown radical Hutu regime. “We, the international community, should have been more active in the early stages of the atrocities in Rwanda in 1994, and called them what they were - genocide,” she said.

In 1994, as U.S. delegate to the United Nations, Albright opposed a Security Council resolution calling for international peacekeepers for Rwanda.

The United States and most other countries avoided using the term genocide, because, under an international convention, all nations must act if they conclude that there has been an attempt to wipe out members of a racial, ethnic or religious group. A senior official said Albright’s use of the word Tuesday was “a signal that we are not hesitant to identify those crimes for what they are” in the future.