Caring About Africa: Clinton’s Approach : Christopher makes clear the Administration’s interest

In a move that should encourage democracy throughout Africa, President Clinton recently recognized the government of Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

This embracing of Dos Santos is politically significant because in the 1980s he depended on Cuban and Soviet troops in a long civil war that was escalated by superpower rivalry. His Marxist leanings and communist support understandably prompted Washington to back Dos Santos’ archfoe, Jonas Savimbi, and his Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

The Cold War’s end halted the race between the Soviets and the Americans to buy the allegiance of Africans with weapons and other aid, but the contest left a legacy of arms in Angola and other once-strategic nations, such as Somalia.

An Angolan cease-fire was brokered two years ago by the United Nations, Washington, the Soviet Union and Portugal (former colonial ruler of the southwestern African nation). Dos Santos honored that agreement, which required a reduction of troops before a national election. Savimbi did not, and therefore has the military advantage in the ongoing civil war.

The two rivals faced off last September at the polls, and U.N. monitors and other international observers deemed the election fair. After Dos Santos won a plurality, Savimbi refused to participate in the runoff.

Since then, Dos Santos has backed away from the Marxist positions that made him anathema to Washington. He has embraced the multi-party system of government, the form of democracy now taking hold in Africa. By contrast, Savimbi has resumed warring, and his forces have laced the landscape with mines. As many as 50,000 Angolans have been killed since October in the renewed conflict.

Peace talks--brokered again by the United Nations, the United States, Russia and Portugal--collapsed a week ago, threatening the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Angola. With the fighting intensifying, a U.N. relief agency--in a scene reminiscent of Somalia--announced Tuesday that as many as 3 million Angolans are at risk of starvation.

President Clinton may help salvage Angola’s fledging democracy by recognizing Dos Santos as the legitimate president. That diplomatic step, which cost U.S. taxpayers nothing, will deprive Savimbi of international support in his bid to win with arms what he did not win with votes.

Clinton also used positive diplomatic influence when he met recently with South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an internationally respected anti-apartheid leader. In addition, the President is scheduled to meet with Namibian President Sam Nujoma next month. He’s the first African head of state Clinton has invited to the White House.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher made his first speech on Africa a week ago. In it he indicated that Clinton’s Africa policy would encourage democracy, human rights and economic reform. “Under the Clinton Administration, these global concerns will not be relegated to the footnotes of our foreign policy agenda,” Christopher said at the African-American Institute.

In light of his crowded foreign-policy agenda, dominated by Bosnia and the former Soviet Union, Clinton deserves credit for not forgetting the importance of encouraging democracy in Africa.