White House Africa Conference Upsets Black Leaders : Foreign policy: Effort is criticized for poor planning and inept political etiquette.

A White House conference on Africa that was supposed to showcase the Clinton Administration’s concern for the continent’s social, political and economic problems has instead alienated the entire Congressional Black Caucus and the most prominent pro-Africa group in the United States.

The two-day session, which starts Sunday but was formally announced only Wednesday, has been marred by poor planning, botched diplomacy and inept politics, according to invitees who are boycotting the event.

Randall Robinson, the outspoken director of TransAfrica, turned down an invitation to lead a discussion group at the conference because of President Clinton’s “egregiously bad faith” in dealing with black Haitian refugees.

“For as he treats blacks from one place, so must he necessarily feel about blacks from another,” Robinson wrote in a letter to the conference organizer, Donald Steinberg, the senior National Security Council officer for Africa.

The 40-member Congressional Black Caucus will not participate in the conference because of disputes over the Administration’s Africa policies and because many members felt slighted because they did not receive formal invitations.

“This is the strangest White House conference I’ve ever seen. There was no formal consultation with the caucus,” said Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.), who chairs the caucus’s foreign policy task force. “It’s kind of noble that they’ve decided to think about a conference on Africa, but the manner in which it’s been planned and executed leaves me concerned about how much of a commitment there really is for Africa.”

One aide to a black congressman dismissed the conference as “a public relations event, that’s what it is. We don’t expect anyone from the caucus to be there.”

The flap has exacerbated already testy relations between Clinton and the African American community. While black lawmakers said their boycott of the conference is based on objections to the Administration’s Africa policy and breaches of political etiquette, the tension between blacks and the White House has roots in other disputes with Clinton over personnel, welfare reform and anti-crime measures.

White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers apologized for the changing guest list and agenda. She blamed the confusion on fast-moving events in Africa.

“We regret any problems that have been caused by the late invitations or the changing invitations,” she said. “I think the agenda for the conference has developed quickly as issues facing Africa have changed--shifted somewhat over the course of the last few weeks. Certainly . . . this will include a broad variety of people. I think that the list of attendees grew as word of the conference spread and people wanted to participate.”

The Administration’s Africa policy took another punch on Thursday in a Human Rights Watch report, which said Clinton’s “shameful response to Rwanda suggests that human rights in Africa do not become a priority even when abuses amount to genocide.”

A senior Administration official said about 150 prominent Africa specialists would attend the conference, including academics, religious leaders, business executives, labor organizers and human rights officials.